Scott Cawelti

Monday, March 25, 2013 

Over the years I’ve received probably a dozen or so letters from the same Courier reader who hates my column, seems to hate me, or at least everything I stand for.  She/He (I do believe it’s a “she,” but you can decide for yourself) calls Democrats “Democraps” and cites God as her authority for her “common sense.”  

Until this most recent letter received last week, I didn’t even open them after the first couple, since they were angry screeds that repeated her certainties, and attacked me in ways that I dismissed as basically deranged. 

 Her anonymity means that I couldn’t do much about responding.  If she had identified herself, would reply, cordially at first and with questions. But her anonymity made that impossible. 

Thanks to Facebook and my web site, I now have an opportunity to shine a public light on her letters, and to remind readers that people like this do exist, and woe be to all of us if they decide to act out their anger. 

The letter did come to my home address via the U.S. postal service, so she knows where I live, and wishes me dead in the letter, in so many words.   Kind of disconcerting, actually.   

 She includes my column on the left side of the page, uses a magic marker to circle and number passages she wants to comment upon, then uses the right side of the page to offer her comments. 

 The letters all basically rail about abortion, “democraps” and why taxpayers are getting a raw deal.  Republicans can do no wrong, and she hates professors for being “over-educated.”   She also despises welfare cheats, and would reinstate capital punishment for—well, see the end of her letter.  

 Her reveals a cruel, mean, incoherent, angry person, full of certainty about her own cause and opinions, and full of fury and venom toward everyone outside her very small zone of approval.  If  she’s like this in reality, I feel nothing but sympathy for those who must live and deal with this level of meanness.  If she’s living a hypocritical life, which is very possible, she might be a nice next-door neighbor.  

Here is most of her letter, transcribed as it arrived sometime last week.  I attempted to reproduce her underlining and capital letters to give the flavor of her emphasis.

***********************************************************

ENVELOPE: 

God Bless America!

We need something !

WORLD PROBLEM? 

The whole world’s too far from God; but, God has NOT moved.

We have.  What was wrong, (of God) is now O.K. 

 P. 1Mr. Cawelti,

            Sorry I have no computer; ONLY Christianity & common sense. I’ll T-R-Y to be neat and legible.

            I have NOT taken your ASS to the woodshed in a while.   This one today was the straw that broke the camel’s back,

            IF you need a book to tell you WHY we need Christians and common sense—I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!!!

            All that is extinct is the morals & values & common sense of the democraps.

(EVEN THE “RATS” KNOW BETTER THAN TO KILL THEIR UNBORN BABIES.)

            Do you remember your “PRO CHOICE TO KILL lesson?  Too bad your mother was not pro-choice to kill—we’d not have you to try to lead us of satan’s ways.

            Sorry, Scott. . . Christians do NOT kill the unborn babies. 

            They solve the problem. TEACH morals & values, and SEX IS MARRIED LOVE and not a kid’s toy.  [Name of young woman who was kidnapped and murdered]  (& others) on

p. 2:

computer hunting sexy old men at 10-11-12-13 years old.  WHERE are the parents? Problem is NOT kids.  (It’s parents)

Young gals get a taste of sex and go wild.  Men have car, money, experience, etc. & adventure.  [parents of murdered girl] divorced and BOTH collected B-I-G $$ for her death.  She was & never would have  been anything, but a WHORE. 

            Thank God, she’s G-O-N-E.  Competition is good.

            Competition is needed, B-U-T APATHY is killing America.  We must pay attention.

            Vote the BAD ones out. 

            harkin, barley, gronstahl, & murphy. and many more.  Danielson is trash, only mouthy trash.

            Republicans act like adults!! Where’s your brain?  Return to mainstream?  Like demos? never.  If we had more Grassleys, Dixes, Thunes, Ryans, etc. we’d NOT have a 16 Trillion $$$ debt.

            Scott, do you realize how much ONE trillion $$$ is? 

            It is one million one dollars on a pile, and ONE million of those piles.

p. 3: 

            One million.  (Got yours made?) $$ is a lots of $$$ & MOST people go all through life, and do not amass one million $$$; or even come close to ½ of ¼ or 1/10.

            But, as I say:

            Can you take it with you?  Have you ever seen a U-haul behind a hearse?  Nope.

p.s. Not even smart, clever, over-educated professors have that TRICKY one figured out. 

            Leave the LIES to the demos whenever Obama, the muslim out to destroy and bankrupt America opens his mouth—LIES, LIES, LIES & all wind.  The man (insult to men) knows nothing & has led nothing.

            IF we are extremists when Christian & use common sense. . .so be it.  God expects it. 

            For demos; anything goes.

            6 values?  Yes.  Care, justice, liberty, loyalty, authority & sanctity. AND “TRUTH”.  Bengazi LIES.  Guns from Mexico? MORE LIES.

            demos have NONE. Obama is killing the middle class, so all are welfare trash, & want his monthly check, free health insurance, Human Services bill is 1.69 Billion $$ (up 30.8 Mili $$)

p. 4: 

            Yikes.  WHO is left to pay the bill so he (the BIG SHOT because he cares can hand it out?

            Oh, what a line of SHIT! [referring to a paragraph in the column]

            If demos care, hand out own $$$, not MY tax dollars.  tax $$$ are only to run the government!! Sorry.

            JUSTICE?  Do you call that justice when unborns are killed by mother & doctor? Don’t doctors take a Hippocratic oath to save every possible life?  Justice for all?  Constitution guarantees LIFE, liberty & pursuit of happiness to ALL NOT? 

 [the rest are specific comments on each of the last few sentences in the columns, and ends with a separate attached note, which makes a reference to the Evansdale girls who were murdered last summer, saying:]

 The very best memorial to the girls would be reinstate capital punishment for all:

(1)  killers

(2)  drug dealers

(3)  car jackers

(4)  terrorists

 Demos in senate control [Iowa Senate] sad and sick mess in Des Moines. 

. . . only ones punished are taxpayers new prison (TAJ MAHAL & all free for life in Fort Madison.)  Man, do we owe them a fancy living free! 

 MAD TAXPAYER

Here's my Courier column published Sunday, St. Patrick's Day.  Haidt's book is an extention and followup of his most excellent Happiness Hypothesis, which I read awhile back and commented upon too.  Haidt combines his academic research with a personal perspective that makes difficult material accessible.  I recommend both books highly--The Happiness Hypothesis (2006)  and The Righteous Mind (2012) 
3-17-13

Until I read Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” (2012) last week, I was convinced that the current Republican Party needs to go dodo.   Extinct.  And good riddance.

Haidt’s new book turned me around.  He’s a psychologist who studies morality, and has traveled the world examining why people believe and behave as they do.

He writes clearly and convincingly that no complex society can function well with just one mindset—only liberals or only conservatives.  We must have both.

 I can’t recommend  “The Righteous Mind” highly enough, especially these days when we’re mired in a swamp of animosity, each side wishing the other would disappear.    

Haidt asserts that full power for one political party would be a worse catastrophe than extinction of a rival party. I’m now convinced of this, even more so if/when Republicans begin acting like an adult, responsible group.  That is, when they return to their mainstream.   

Too many Republicans and their media mouthpieces behave these days like spoiled children who won’t play unless they get their way. Worse, they make stuff up to bolster their case, behaving like fools or liars.  

Not all, but a persistent few—and they know who they are.  And they seem to be in charge.  Woe be to Republicans who disagree with them.     

Still, there’s hope.  If the GOP rejects its extremist factions and recognizes that they do in fact risk oblivion, they may yet rebound.  We should all hope that they do. 

Here’s why.  

According to Haidt, one’s outlook on what’s wrong and right grows out of six foundation values:  care, justice, liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity.  We know actions and ideas are wrong when they create indifference to suffering, foster injustices, remove freedoms, betray one’s friends or family, violate legitimate authority, and undermine the sanctity of a beloved or worshipped icon or institution.   

Liberals are especially sensitive to caring and justice values, while conservatives lean toward the liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity foundations.   

Haidt believes that each party helps balance any movement that would overemphasize one set of values over another.   Too much caring leads to overprotectiveness, a nanny state where people are made and kept dependent on Big Government.   Too little caring leads to for-profits running everything, and to hell with social and environmental responsibility.

 Too much emphasis on justice leads to constant bickering over what’s fair to everyone all the time, stopping a culture in its tracks, but too little leads to tyranny.

None of us wants to live in either a Big Brother or Tough Luck country.  Balance between liberal and conservative worldviews makes the most sense, and always has.  Haidt quotes John Stuart Mill, writing in 1859: “A party of order or stability, and a party of progress and reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.” 

No starry-eyed idealist, Haidt recognizes that rancor reigns nowadays, not to mention an inability to solve basic political problems such as the debt. 

Several solutions to this dilemma emerge from his book, but one seems quite possible:  politicians need to hang out with their rivals much more.  This is no trivial matter.  You can’t carp and belittle people when you know their families, share their grief, empathize with their struggles.  

Obama’s lunches with Republicans might be a step in that direction, as would politicians living in Washington instead of returning on weekends to their home bubbles where everyone agrees.   

 All leaving and no socializing make for a dull and contentious congress.

As Haidt puts it, “If you can have at least one friendly interaction with a member of the “other” group, you’ll find it far easier to listen to what they’re saying, and maybe even see a controversial issue in a new light.”  

Haidt’s “Righteous Mind” offers powerful insights from both research and experience.  He favors giving each side credit and credence for seeking the long-run good of us all. 

What a refreshing idea.   What an important book.