Conservatives live up to 'country first'

As a conservative American who instinctively puts country first, I must agree with Obama voter Nancy Helms who, in a recent Fence Post (Nov. 20), implored McCain voters not to vent their bitterness over the presidential election, but to work together for the common good. This is sound advice.

I only wish more liberals would've heeded it during the last eight years.

Republican voters' behavior is consistently a good indication of how much more we are committed to the institution of democracy than our counterparts. Before the election, there were no threats by prominent conservatives to move to Canada in the wake of an Obama victory. After Obama won, there were no cries of voter fraud, demands for a recount, or conspiracy theories of McCain voters being road blocked by police on the way to the polls.

Instead of blaming sinister Democrat underhandedness for our loss, we examined our own candidates, platforms, and strategies to see what went wrong. In fact, the only violence this election came from the only significant vote the liberals lost, California's Proposition 8, in which the citizens voted to reinstate the traditional definition of marriage. The liberals lost, so they took to the streets and rioted. It's that simple. They respect the will of the people only if it exactly mirrors their own. In the same Fence Post, Obama voter Mark Stastny wrote that "fear and intimidation" ruled the last eight years. Is Stastny aware of the Prop 8 riots? There are plenty of liberals who consider "fear and intimidation" to be legitimate tactics in a constitutional democracy. The real test will come the next time a Republican president and/or congress is elected. Then we will see which liberals put country first, and which ones degenerate into violence and conspiracy theories.

Christopher Skeet

Chicago