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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Letter on plutocrats and theocrats are not victims of liberals or gay marriage

VIDEO: Jan. 27, 2014 (Bloomberg) -- Full episode of "Bloomberg West." Guests include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' Tom Perkins, who says he regrets some of the words he used in his letter to the Wall Street Journal complaining that the rich are victims of a war on the rich by liberals. (Source: Emily Chang, Bloomberg West TV show segment, "Tom Perkins Exclusive: B-West (1/27)" Jan. 27, 2014 (41 minutes) ) See related stories by Peter Delevett, "Tom Perkins apologizes for Holocaust comments, but it's hardly his first controversy," San Jose Mercury-News, posted Jan. 27, 2014 and , "A Plutocrat's Nazi Rant, Tom Perkin's odd defense of the rich distracts from the income equality debate we need," BusinessWeek, Feb. 3-9, 2014, p.10. Also see previous posts Plutocrat claims to be victim of war on the rich (2/5/14) and Oregon gay marriage advocates focus on the family while religious groups play the victim role (2/9/14)

I was inspired to write a letter to the editor (see a text copy below) based on by my two previous blog posts concerning unprincipled Republicans assuming the victim role:

In an ironic reversal of roles from 2004, when gay marriage was outlawed, defenders of marriage equality this year are going on the offensive and trying to restore equality with a constitutional amendment and a related political message planning to "focus on the family," whereas their theocratic opponents are claiming it will make them a victim unless voters pass another constitutional amendment to defend their established "religious freedom" not to perform gay marriage religious ceremonies.

A similar claim of being a victim was recently made publically by the near billionaire Tom Perkins, a longtime Hewlett-Packard employee and board member I've worked with, who accused liberals of waging a war against the rich and being ungrateful for the jobs plutocrats like him create.

Perkins claims to be a Republican, but his attitude is contrary to principled Republicans (e.g. HP cofounder Dave Packard) who criticize liberals of "whining about being a victim instead of taking personal responsibility."

Principled conservatives agree nobody is made a victim by treating all families equally under the law and it is unprincipled of anybody rich and powerful as Tom Perkins to claim he is a victim.

(Quoted from Thomas Kraemer, "Mailbag: Claim was unprincipled," Sunday Corvallis Gazette-Times Albany Democrat-Herald, Sunday Feb. 23, 2014, p. A6)

An editorial by Steve Lundeberg, "Your letter, your opinion, but be readily verifiable," combined edition of Sunday Albany Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, online at gazettetimes.com posted Feb. 15, 2014 prompted me to add the following sources notes to the letter I submitted because the story had not yet fully broken when I sent it:

Andrew Sullivan made a conservative case for gay marriage over a decade ago and the Log Cabin Republican group started by the OSU Professor W. Dorr Legg also looked at gay marriage as a conservative issue over a half-century ago:

See my previous posts for more on OSU and W. Dorr Legg's gay marriage publications:

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