Smart, well-rounded

You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, except, apparently, for the Arkansas delegation to Congress. Republicans used to stand for limited government and the market economy. Now they stand for whatever Donald Trump utters in the moment. Did their brains just fall out of their heads?

Arkansas used to have great senators and congressmen. They were admired and respected around the world: J. William Fulbright, John McClellan, Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and Congressman Wilbur Mills, the longtime chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee where our progressive income tax laws were written.

They brought pride to our state. In 1992, the rest of America elected our five-term governor, Bill Clinton, president of the United States of America. Our hearts swelled with pride as the rabid right went crazy.

The genius of our tax code, until 1981, is that everyone was taxed exactly the same on their taxable income. America became great because of our graduated income tax, not in spite of it!

Our senators and congressmen led our nation and our world through the Cold War. People born after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 probably do not know what the Cold War was about. I was on the front lines of that war as Special Weapons Officer aboard USS Haleakala while deployed with the Seventh Fleet in 1961. What we did was highly classified, but I can tell you that we were prepared for the Cold War to become a hot one at any moment. You youngsters should listen to your elders, especially those with well-rounded educations in the arts and sciences.

RUUD DuVALL Fayetteville