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Where’s the Kind Conservative?

When conservatives call for civil discourse, they needn’t look farther than their own backyards (“Dressing Down the Primitives,” by John Anderson, March 13). As vitriolic as left-wing pundits can get, their discourse is a Valentine when compared to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly. (It’s hard to imagine Al Franken yelling “Shut up! Shut up!” at someone he disagrees with.)

It’s very well to speak of unity being good for the country, but some of us find it hard to come together with “Nyaah-nyaah, we won and you lost, 51% of the country is against you, the loony left is out of touch with the mainstream.” Is that what conservative writer Mark Helprin means when he says, “See: You try to be nice to liberals and then they turn around and spit in your face”?

The right rationalizes such rudeness by citing unkind remarks it has received from ideological opponents, like a child who says, “He started it!” The people who exhort Democrats to “get over” the last two presidential elections are still making Clinton cracks and Chappaquiddick jokes. Helprin seems awfully sensitive about the bad reviews one of his books received. What does he think of “Fahrenheit 9/11” being dismissed as a pack of lies by people who proudly admit they never saw the movie?

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Kevin Dawson

Long Pond, Pa.

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Gosh, seems to me a case of the pot calling the kettle black. A devoted conservative calling anyone who doesn’t agree with him a primitive liberal? Is he unwilling to take a position outside the conservative GOP, even when he knows that its policies are mistaken? Or would that be joining the primitive liberals? Does he believe it is possible to form an opinion contrary to his and still be worthy of even a shred of respect?

Thomas W. McCarthy

Chino Hills

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