Be careful what you call communist

As an avid reader of the Opinion Page, it is not my normal expectation to read statements of potential historical significance by contributors to Fence Post.

On Nov. 25, however, we readers may have been treated to a monumental historical revelation by Mr. Lonigro of St. Charles. In the last paragraph of his Nov. 25 letter, he makes the following curious assertion, “The term ‘progressive’ is newspeak for communist.”

It is, therefore, consistent, given the tortured logic employed by Mr. Lonigro, to conclude that President Theodore Roosevelt was a communist. After all, he ran as candidate for President in 1912 as a member of the Progressive Party (Perhaps a stalking horse for the communists?). It could be that Mr. Lonigro genuinely believes that Teddy Roosevelt was a communist. However, I would prefer to attribute his statement to fuzzy, bombastic hyperbole, rather than a genuinely held belief that Teddy Roosevelt was a communist.

Fuzzy, bombastic hyperbole you say? Well, that is just how Mr. Lonigro’s letter opens. As a 72-year-old citizen, I am very grateful that my father’s generation in the 1960s “rammed down” our throats the great socialist health care program we know as Medicare. And let us not forget how our grandfathers “rammed down” our throats the great socialist safety net we know as Social Security.

Mr. Lonigro, these were progressive reforms that conservatives of the 1930s, and again in the 1960s, fulminated and railed against as socialist, and in many cases, as communist. I am a self-employed, small business capitalist that just happens to be a card carrying progressive — and darn proud to be one.

Nate Spain

Carpentersville