Cal Thomas on American Morals

Every time I read Column Right my suspicion that most right-wing Republicans have a screw loose seems to be confirmed, but I nearly choked on my Cheerios on Feb. 3. Cal Thomas says “12 years of Ronald Reagan and George Bush should have made us morally better,” if the virtuousness of the leader influenced the followers. His reasoning judges the current allegations against Bill Clinton’s personal life--adultery between consenting adults--as heinous, while the allegations against the Reagan and Bush administrations--deceptions involving the lives of hundreds of people (i.e. Iran-Contra and CIA drug involvement)--are somehow ignored.

I, for one, am glad that the ethics of the Reagan-Bush years did not rub off on too many people.

BARBARA ALFORS

Santa Monica

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Thomas has stated the unimaginable: That many (most?) in these United States are adrift in a sea of amorality. Assuming the polls to be correct (a large assumption), the twin evils of “what’s in it for me” and the false belief that it is acceptable for public and private lives to be incongruent have become the dominant ideology.

The link between the breakdown of moral standards and resolve and the destruction of a society is well-documented. To think that we are immune is the height of arrogance.

DAVID REBER

Whittier

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Thomas may be morally outraged, but he is biblically illiterate. Nathan’s gripe with King David lies in the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, not in an adulterous act.

Adultery in the Old Testament is a gender-specific crime--that which a married woman is guilty of when she has sexual relations with a man other than her husband. Modern moral standards and other biblical prohibitions may have been compromised by Clinton’s purported sexual activity, but unlike King David, he has not violated any of the Ten Commandments.

JOE HELFER

Topanga