To the editor:

The “conservative” agenda listed on the front page Dec. 12 does not seem familiar to me. It mentions nothing about smaller government, less waste or less interference with lawful commerce. Rather, it calls for greater governmental intrusion in social areas.

I used to think social conservatism had a value in that the practitioners could be educated. I am changing my view. There is a picture in the Statehouse of the “sergeants-at-arms” who successfully removed the populists from their occupation of the legislative chambers. And now the populists call themselves conservatives – I think William Allen White used the term, “mossback Jacksonian.”

Perhaps we should eliminate the terms conservative, liberal, right and left wing. Describe what the politician says about the issue without the deceptive, inaccurate and sloppy shorthand.

Earl L. Haehl,

Lawrence