To the Editor:
I take exception to “Jon Stewart, Patron Saint of Liberal Smugness” (Sunday Review, Aug. 9), in which Gerard Alexander bemoans what he sees as Mr. Stewart’s contribution to “our polarized public discourse” and, more generally, liberals’ failure to respect conservatives.
When conservatives abandon their plan to prevent women from having an abortion; when they relinquish their refusal to expand Medicaid because of their contempt for the poor; when they desist in their efforts to deport millions of illegal immigrants because of their bigotry toward Latinos; when they grow the mere semblance of a social conscience and reverse their slashing of funds for food stamps and nutrition programs for poor single mothers and their children, and instead substitute a tax on billionaires and the closing of a single tax loophole; and when they suspend their actions to decrease minority voting, depriving millions of a right that is most elemental in a democracy—then I will respect them.
Indignation should not be conflated with smugness.
ROBERT STRAUSS
New York
Note from KBJ: Who wants to take this man apart? I don't have time.
