Something Uncharacteristic

I usually begin my mornings by reading the newspaper, and listening to the Bob and Tom Show on 104.1 FM. I particularly enjoy the OP/ED page, where the "From Our Readers" letters are highly informative, sometimes passionate, often humorous, and always an insight to the people in my community. Over the years, I've noticed that there are frequent contributors to these "letters," whose views of life are quite different than my own. I read them, often shaking my head at the extremes they go attempting to make a point. I've watched the growth of this town, from a "stop on the freeway" at 18,500 people, to a thriving city of nearly 100,000, but the biggest change is mainly political.
During the "housing boom" at the turn of the Century, people from all over the Bay Area sold "flats" in San Francisco, and bought huge homes (relatively) on the proceeds, outright. Something I've learned, over the years, is that people who live in metropolitan areas tend to be very liberal. Vacaville, in my youth, and well into my 30's, was a fairly conservative agricultural community. Today, it has taken on a considerably more liberal slant.
Of the frequent contributors to the OP/ED page is a flaming-liberal, mean spirited man named Harry Short. I've read a lot of his crap over the years, and know-without-looking when I am reading one of his letters. Apparently, he was abused by a Conservative, as a child, and still harbors a grudge against anything further right than Lennin. I don't know the man, personally, all I know is what he vomits onto the OP/ED pages as often as The Reporter allows. One character assassination after another; a cheap-shot here, maybe he thinks he's funny...
He wrote a piece, attempting to make light of the Tea Party-folks, that kind of "lit me up," and I wrote a response. I don't know... maybe it's just that I'm tired of people who focus on the "antics" of a protest group, rather than the issues that bring them together. It was the same thing in the 1960's, people made fun of the "drugged-out hippies," rather than focusing on an unfortunate and unpopular war. I guess I snapped.
I'm more of a moderate-conservative, recognizing the need for "programs," but abhor abuses and extravagances. I want a government that is efficient, and don't believe in creating more government. I believe that, according to the Constitution, the government should be representative of the will of the people, and never conduct deals "behind closed doors". So called "earmarks" should be abandoned, as a practice, and politicians need to realize that they represent a constituency, their seat is not the property of the individual, it belongs to the people who elect them. I have never voted for anyone on the assumption that they would vote their personal preference over the needs and will of the people who elected them. I guess I'm naieve that way.
Maybe it's the "liberal backlash," making the word "conservative" the butt of all jokes, and a repository for blame. I didn't agree with the tactic when conservatives were in charge, either. Making fun of people for their beliefs is just plain un-American.