Mar 4, 2020 2 min read

Stout op-ed off base

This is in response to Gary Stout’s op-ed, “The Danger is Behind the Curtain” (Feb. 2), linking Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Attorney General William Barr to an “ideological vision well beyond loyalty to one man (Donald Trump) – i.e. a Christian conservative coalition, based on the legal, social, and religious right wing fringes of both Catholic and Protestant evangelical thought.”

First of all, the op-ed proceeds with very disparaging remarks about each man, implying that even the slightest hint of any of their beliefs becoming a path of government will lead us down a road of doom and despair, limiting any potential for positive growth and reasonable governance. I would suggest that given the choice, many of us would contend that there are more sound, sensible, and positive positions that they have than a majority of the congressional leaders today!

If one takes religion out of Stout’s analysis (if that bothers one so much), how morally and fundamentally negative are those men’s positions? Stout, without embracing at least some of these basic tenets of life, where do you think we are going?

I also note that while Stout profusely piles on his opinion of the catastrophic consequences of their philosophies, he shrewdly doesn’t counter with any philosophies or names of even one current politician that he touts as being “hands above” superior.

Note: He left out Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims, who also share many of the same beliefs …

Jerry Falso

Washington