To the editor:

Sen. Sam Brownback, by appearing as the darling of anti-Obama rallies called “TEA parties,” the brainchild of the screechy right-wing media, sends a signal that he is willing to pay any price to succeed the best governor we’ve had in my 41 years as a resident of Kansas. He’s basing his campaign on opposition to the noble and sweeping efforts being made by our president to bring the nation out of the quagmire left behind by his predecessor, including a monumental national debt amassed by the launching of an unprovoked war in Iraq and repeated tax reduction gifts to the super-wealthy segments of American society.

What’s needed now, besides what’s already being done to clean up the mess in Washington and get our nation’s economy and democracy back in order, is not shrill demagoguery but earnest and consistent support for the man and the administration that will go down in history as having rescued our republic from the edge of ruin and disaster. Let’s be sure that whoever runs against Brownback for governor will be on the side of history and appeal to the better angels of the Kansas electorate rather than to our lowest instincts. This is not the time for prairie Know-Nothingism.