Mr. Auster’s contention that if American conservatives had protested against the depredations of the liberal culture in the same fashion as they have against the Reagan movie, things could have been different, is a point well taken. I hadn’t seen Mr. Auster’s 2000 column on Richard Cohen advising liberals to stop backing Gore and let Bush win. Things have turned out as Mr Cohen wanted, haven’t they?

A few more observations, if I may.
1. This movie WILL be on Showtime, with all the objectionable parts included. It will be run over and over on cable.
2. It will be on the leading shelf of every video store in the country for sale or rent. Many people may actually be more likely to watch it due to this controversy.
3. Conservatives tend to go back to sleep after a (partial) success such as this.
4. Has anyone ever realized that conservatives could finance movies and TV programs more to their liking? A long-time frustration of mine is how conservatives fail utterly in doing this.

“Things have turned out as Mr Cohen wanted, haven’t they?”

I was prophetic! :-)

If Gore had succeeded in stealing the election, there would have been a full-scale conservative revolution in this country. Instead, Bush won, and moved the Republican party even further in a liberal direction—vastly expanding federal interference in education, subscribing to racial preferences, silencing criticism of immigration, and so on.

It seems that even when conservatives win (Bush’s Constitutional election), they lose.

Mr. Auster’s argument above is one reason conservatives should seriously consider praying for a Bush defeat in 2004. If it was late in the day in 2000, it is much later now, thanks in large measure to Bush. If Republican faithlessness cannot cure conservatives of their reflexive habit of casting anti-Democrat votes for the GOP, maybe a convincing demonstration of Republican impotence will. HRS

I would like to ask Arie Raymond a question. What justification was there for ever considering Bush’s victory in 2000 a victory for conservatives? Bush is not a conservative, but a country club type, who, insofar as he can distingush the public interest from his own, thinks that he has served it by giving big business what he thinks it thinks it wants. What is conservative about that?

To respond to Mr. Levine, the 2000 election was a victory for Constitutional government, in which conservatives presumably believe. Partly due to conservative pressure as elucidated above, Gore was prevented from stealing the election. The downside is that Bush was elected president, with all the setbacks to conservatives implied therein. That is why I said, when conservatives win, they loose. Conservatives preserved the integrity of the system, but in so doing, elected George Bush.