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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Horror at the Republican Convention
Message-ID: <200@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Aug-84 08:39:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxl.200
Posted: Mon Aug 27 08:39:49 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Aug-84 00:08:51 EDT
References: <592@pyuxv.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Whippany, N.J.
Lines: 39

Yes, the myopia, delusion and intolerance demonstrated at the
Republican Convention scared me and made me think of Germany
in the 30's.  The situation is obviously different but the
blind fanaticism is the same.  The war-fervor and intense
chauvinism which the Republican Convention expressed worries
me greatly.  Do these people realize the next major war will
probably be the LAST major war?  Do they realize that there are
other lifestyles in America than those of born-again Christians?
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" seemed tame
when Barry Goldwater repeated the invocation to a possible nuclear
war before this crowd.  The Republican platform reflects this
extremism in many ways-the total lack of any support for women's
rights--for decades the Republican party has supported the Equal
Rights Amendment.  Is there any concern for the Environment?
The Platform denounces the UN for its antisemitism, anti-Americanism
etc. and announces that the US will leave the UN with Israel withou
a second's hesitation.  These people (like many Americans unfortunately)
never stop to think, why is it that so may countries and people in
the world don't like America or the American government?  Is it
simply because of Communist infiltration?  Or is it because of support
for apartheid in South Africa, for Augusto Pinochet as dictator of Chile
(who announced recently that relations had never been better between he
and the US than under the Reagan administration), for repressive regimes
around the world, so long as American companies can make their profits?
The Reagan administration has already pulled out of UNESCO--they would like
nothing better than to carry out the longtime far right policy of pulling
out of the UN entirely.  Why be bothered with what the rest of the world
thinks? We're America, we can tell them all how to live!
"Population increase is natural and good for the economy"--this is the
latest shortsighted credo being pronounced by the far right and the
Reagan administration.  Perhaps we may be able to keep the billions
brought into Earth by the population explosion alive or existing--
but do we want to live like ants? What kind of life will it be with
billions more people on this planet?
I hope and pray that the American people have more sense than to vote
for this type of extremism.
Tim Sevener
whuxl!orb
Bell Labs, Whippany