LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: COULD KINDER BE A CLOSET LIBERAL?

To the editor:

It is refreshing to read Peter Kinder's comments praising Harry Truman. It always pleases me when conservatives grovel at the feet of dead liberals. Kinder reveals that both of his grandfathers were Truman Democrats. They must have been raging liberals.

They stood side by side with Truman when he was the first president to advocate national health insurance. They were there when he integrated the armed forces. They applauded when he proposed federal aid to public education. The were elated when he essentially drove the conservatives from his own party by enacting a strong civil-rights plank at the 1948 Democratic National Convention and Republicans inherited the old Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. They supported his strong ties with labor and working-class Americans, including an increase in the minimum wage.

I could fill this page with other liberal programs Truman supported, but I believe you get the message.

Perhaps we liberals have misjudged Kinder, whose revelations in his column lead us to believe he is either a closet liberal or a liberal wannabe.

Let's make a deal: Kinder will convince his radical, right-wing, reactionary, conservative friends to step aside so we liberals can completed President Truman's agenda this year. After the Truman agenda is implemented, we can argue over political philosophy.

PAUL J. ALLEE

Jackson, Mo.