A lesson in the art of persuasion for Mr. James Sefcak.  (“Radical conservatives want an oligarchy,” Yuma Sun, January 4, 2014)

Every generalization needs to be supported by appropriate evidence: facts, quotes, examples or anecdotes.  So when you accuse us “radical conservatives” of calling liberals “bad” people, or “stupid,” or “uneducated” or “traitors” you must give evidence.  There is none.  We don’t think you stupid or bad people or uneducated or traitors.  Quite to the contrary.  I think you’re very smart.  I simply disagree with your politics. 

               Your letter does, however, illustrate quite clearly the propensity of those of your ilk to resort to character assignation, ad hominem attacks, name calling.  According to your letter we are “crazy,” “screaming… loonies,”  “liars.”  Give me an example of a lie, James.

               Oh, I have one.  You accuse the GOP of making “changes to the voting laws that restrict the voting rights of the poor.”  The only ones who passed laws restricting voting rights of the poor were Democrats. Republicans battled racist Democrats for 100 years. Even JFK and LBJ voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.  Johnson jumped ship in 1965 in order to garner the Black vote when he recognized the battle was lost, and even then he couldn’t talk many of his fellow Democrats to support his position. 

               Perhaps you didn’t lie, Mr. Sefcak. Perhaps you “misspoke” as Hillary Clinton did when she told the story about how she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire. Here is a better example of a lie:  “The Bosnia mayhem was a spontaneous reaction to a vilifying YouTube video.”  .

               And just to clarify: An oligarchy is a small group of people who together govern a nation or control an organization, often for their own purposes.  That’s what we have in Washington DC.  What we radical conservatives want is to restrict the power of the oligarchy. 

               I hope that helps.