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Oct. 31, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Your usual sharp readers will note the date of this letter. Yes, it is Halloween and time for the Great Pumpkin. However, I stopped believing in Linus and his pumpkin after I left my government job in Washington.
But I still get spooked. I’m the gullible type. Maybe you are, too. We watch all those ads for president and think they are true. So it is not unreasonable to assume that not only will the sky fall on Nov. 6, but that a fine 223-year-old local newspaper will cease publication.
Nonetheless, I’m an optimist, so let’s continue in case neither the Republican nor the Democratic doomsday scenarios come to pass. No dictator will live in the White House and you won’t need a loan to go to the grocery store. And our friend James Madison has no reason to roll over in his grave. But mostly, this libertarian is relieved that Congress will not expire the only law I care about. Abolishing the Law of Gravity could be worse than climate change.
There’s another happy note I wish to sound. Today’s conventional wisdom claims that we are a hopelessly divided nation, that our politics have never been nastier. That’s because so few of us know American history. If we did, today’s clashes are child’s plays. I’m sure you remember Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s and all the blood that was later spilled in the 1860s. If not, ask a VMI cadet about the Battle of New Market. More blood, less compromise.
And you still say those were the good old days? Try another presidential election, say 1800. That’s when a Mr. Burr and a Mr. Hamilton had a few political differences which became personal. Sure, they were finally settled. Mr. Hamilton lost. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
