To the editor:

Cal Thomas’ column (Journal-World, Dec. 29) is laborious, inchoate struggle to develop a narrative for Republicans with infallible ecumenicity. Cal is neurotically driven to claim that the Democratic base is only comprised of the elderly, the poor, the homeless and other “victims.”

I told my 92-year-old father-in-law that Cal thought he should give up Social Security and get a job. He snorted. I would add that, contrary to Cal’s claim, the press could easily verify my facts.

Cal’s righteous anger, bigotry and spiritual pride are all made evident in his gay bashing in this same column. One wonders if it is rooted in sexual repression or simply bad judgment. Men and women continue to honor the American way of life because it delivers community and illumination. Everything else is simply a distraction.

We may be exasperated by the political scuffling but most of us, and certainly the gays among us, refuse to be distracted from the goals of equality and freedom. Cal’s obvious and heavy-handed distortions are Stoic ones untainted by any hint of a higher ethic, and, unlike the ancient Stoics he does not understand, his outstanding virtue is the exploitation of the idea of freedom to treacherously exclude those he does not like.