I read with interest the article concerning civil rights hero James Meredith`s decision to join the staff of Sen. Jesse Helms. Your designation of Helms as an ”archconservative,” however, while accurate, reveals more about the prejudices of your writers than about Helms.
In my Webster`s dictionary, the prefix ”arch” is defined as one who is
”extreme,” or ”most fully embodying the qualities of his or its kind
(archconservative).”
Certainly Helms is generally agreed to be an extreme conservative or one who most fully embodies the qualities of a conservative. However, if this is so with regard to Helms` conservatism, is it not equally so with regard to the liberalism of Senators Paul Simon, Teddy Kennedy or Howard Metzenbaum?
Who is more extreme-senators on the left fringe of a liberal party that has been repudiated in five of the past six presidential elections or a senator on the right fringe of a conservative party that won five of those six elections? Why, then, have I never seen these archliberal senators or any public figure identified as ”archliberal” in your pages? Is ”arch” an epithet reserved exclusively for the right?
Why is The Tribune so quick to label Helms? Might there be an ideological bias here?
