If left were in control

Really, Mr. Gitz! If the left has truly won the culture war and is in control, as you assert, there would be many more important changes to celebrate. Let me explain.

If the left is in control and “politics flows downstream from culture” why don’t we have universal health care? A higher minimum wage? Internet availability everywhere? And, for the love of Pete, where are those more environmentally sound energy policies to keep our air and water clean and slow down global warming?

I’m also confident that, were the left in charge, it would be rebuilding our country’s deteriorating infrastructure, getting big money out of politics, and protecting our voting rights. The left would return government to monitoring and regulating the big banks that got the country in big trouble 12 years ago. Furthermore, if the left were in control, Medicare would be negotiating its drug prices as private health insurers do, thereby helping that excellent program manage working people’s hard-earned contributions more responsibly.

If my “lefty” friends and I were in charge of the world (or even just Arkansas) we would not be waiting for universal kindergartens and pre-Ks while our right-wing legislators try to control what schools and universities can teach.

And that new gender language that annoys you so? It will likely not make it from academia to the mainstream because it is plain confusing. Yet something must and will evolve to help us respectfully refer to wider concepts of gender than the terms male/ female can convey. One person’s PC language is just another person’s being polite, Professor. That change will take a while, and it will be bloodless. However, how about that attempted coup on our government by the right? An organized assault on the U.S. Capitol? The failure of the Senate to convict the man who incited the assault for his sedition?

Ideologies and influence: left of center or right of center — I know which scares me more. JUDY WILMOTH WHITE

Little Rock