Dershowitz on Pat Buchanan

Kudos to The Times and to columnists Alan Dershowitz (Column Left) and Charles Krauthammer (Column Right, Nov. 24) for their very poignant articles on Pat Buchanan. It’s truly a shame that the conservative point of view has to be represented by the mouthings of such political opportunists as Buchanan and David Duke.

I realize that every political pundit has warned us that the key to any statewide or national election is always economics. But it’s still hard to take, to see so much of Louisiana and the nation fall for the demagoguery of the likes of Duke, and now Buchanan.

It seems to me that suffering economic hardship is preferable to selling our souls to the lowest aspects of our human nature.

Buchanan certainly doesn’t represent any of the many Catholics I know, who are sensitive, humane Bible-believing Christians. Duke claims to be a “born again” Christian, yet he doesn’t represent any of the many highly loving Christians that I’ve come in contact with.

Some day the economic situation will get better; it always has as it proceeds in its cyclic fashion. But, what do we do about the destruction caused in ourselves and our nation by hatred and bigotry, and the resulting conflicts and divisions?

IRVING E. FRIEDMAN, Laguna Niguel