Over the last few months of Julie McDonald-Smith’s tenure as a columnist, it seems that more than a few discerning readers have noticed how wrong her “right view” is. But don’t get me wrong, Julie. I applaud the editor’s choice of bringing your “visions” to the public’s scrutiny.

So rather than “pile on” by suggesting your replacement, I’m suggesting that the editors of The Forecaster increase columns like yours by self-proclaimed standard-bearers of The Right. Why? Because any attempt by me to expose the bankruptcy of your (and their) views would be much too time-consuming. Nor would my suggested reading list of authors like Sinclair Lewis and Smedley Butler (two-time U.S. Marine winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor) generate any intellectual curiosity about what the real world and its history represent.

I figure that by consistently – and publicly – exposing how venal, juvenile and misinformed The Right’s pet peeves really are, eventually even casual readers will agree with the observation of Kurt Vonnegut when he said our nation was being run by his high school class! (Were you president of your graduating class?)

My “take” on the world goes back to the Depression years and World War II. Sometimes it takes an old curmudgeon like me to burst the yuppie bubble of self-importance. But as I said, keep up the know-nothing, feel-nothing diatribes against the poor, sick and elderly of the survivor class. Hope to heck you never fall into that wretched class you so imperiously vilify with your words.

Fred Dolgon

Old Orchard Beach