Curt Thompson
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Liberals constantly project their beliefs and actions unto conservatives. Democrats elicited support from foreigners from Great Britain, Australia and Russia in their 2016 presidential campaign, and then they accused Trump of doing that. They claim that our political system has too much acrimony but they call Trump and his supporters fascists and racists, and one even said that Trump was "literally" Hitler.
Mr. Reichel claims in his March 21 LTE that conservatives are calling for more socialism and that Mexico is doing a better job than we are in combating the Wuhan virus, thus proving the advantages of a socialist system. Mexico severely limits entry into its country and is much smaller than the USA, so it is an unfair comparison, but liberals are not fair. Socialism is defined as "any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods in which there is no private property and is a transition between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done." Never forget that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro and Che Guevara were all murderous socialists.
Most of Trump's proposals do not fall within the definition of socialism. The mandated closing of businesses and restriction of travel are not based upon economic theories, but based upon perceptions of ways to combat a virus created in Red China, a socialist state that lied about its initial impacts and the contagiousness of the virus. The country that currently is the epicenter of the disease is Italy, a socialist country.
As a conservative speaking only for me, I do not agree with the mandated closings of businesses or restrictions on travel but government is created by man to serve man, and that its primary function is to protect its citizens from enemies, whether human or microscopic. Rights are granted by God, not by government, and government survives only if the people permit it to survive.
Please note that the most effective action was the travel ban on China at the end of January. Banning entry into this country is legal and appropriate. Remember that the next time someone calls walls racist. It is also not racist to call it a Chinese virus, just as we call other diseases such as West Nile, Lyme, Ebola, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever by those names.