A reader remonstrates:
With respect to you, Ramesh Ponnuru is right. You truly believe in civil liberty. You take an educated approach to the Constitution, not a strained view that would lump off the 14th amendment. You oppose Christianism. You either lack the partisanship or the gullibility to swallow what the Bush administration continually sells.
In today’s political landscape, that makes you a liberal. Did you think that just because you support capitalism and oppose wacky elements of the left, from Foucault to Fidel supporters, that therefore you were a conservative? No, sorry, that really has nothing to do with the practical divides today.
I’m for balanced budgets, low taxes, cuts in entitlements, welfare reform, more military manpower, privately run healthcare, free speech, religious liberty, a stronger commitment to Iraq, and gun rights. I’m against affirmative action, federally-funded abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, protectionism, hate crime laws, the Medicare prescription drug program, pork barrel spending, torture, an untrammeled executive, and censoring anyone anywhere to appease Islamist extremists. And, according to Ponnuru, no "serious" conservative regards me as a conservative any more. What does that tell you?
The Dish 