We now live in a country where you are not allowed to hold opinions contrary to the liberal left and also hold public office. There are various groups of self proclaimed victims banding together to oppose John Ashcroft in his bid to become the Attorney General, simply because he doesn't subscribe to their "anything goes" system of beliefs. It isn't merely disagreement with their beliefs that these people are using to oppose Senator Ashcroft. They find it expedient to assail his character by labeling him a racist.

Now there was probably a time when labeling someone a racist would have made a difference. But today, the word racist has come to mean anyone who disagrees with a liberal on any issue. It has become an empty insult. If you think the States and not the Federal government should run the schools, you are a racist. If you think merit should determine who gets the job, you are a racist, if you find fault with the logic or positions of anyone who is not white, male and straight, you are a racist. It is a meaningless term and we should move on.

The "People for the American Way" (a kooky organization of leftist extremists) have determined that John Ashcroft is unfit to be Attorney General because he agrees with roughly half of the country and is pro-life. They also claim he is a racist because he opposed 2 minority judges out of 28 for appointment to the federal bench. They rounded up the usual suspects, such objective groups as the Sierra Club and the NAACP. Groups like Abortions R Us, the Society for the Promotion of Sodomy, NAMBLA, and Handgun Control Inc., an organization founded by the only person to receive brain damage when her husband was shot in the head. These are the kinds of people, standing at the press conference microphones telling the country that John Ashcroft is unfit for high office.

What is sad about this, is that Democrats aren't smart enough to realize that the critics of John Ashcroft are the ones who are a threat to this country. These are the people committed to tearing down institutions, standards and morals. These are the people whose philosophy underlies the degeneration of our society to the point where nothing that is good in man is recognized. These are the people who will preside over the death of our republic, buried under an avalanche of cynicism and mistrust. These are the people the lemmings among us will follow over the cliff. They are not fit to judge John Ashcroft.

The President of the United States has a duty to appoint people who will be loyal to him and his ideas to serve in his Cabinet. The very idea that a bunch of shrill, hysterical, collectives of extremists might deter good people from serving their President and their country bodes ill for the future of our nation. No longer are the political parties dealing with each other as the loyal opposition. No longer can we agree to disagree. No longer will we defend someone's right to hold positions other than our own. We are no longer a united people but a people defined by our differences, more interested in being identified by our hyphenated label than as citizens of the United States.