Most Americans not extremists

Let me get this straight. In a recent column David Limbaugh wrote that the "bipartisan" Battleground Poll revealed that "60 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative and only 36 percent as liberal." If this is true, then an awful lot of conservatives must have voted for Barack Obama, since he was elected president by a wide margin. Or maybe they didn't vote at all.

Limbaugh goes on to say that George W. Bush was hardly an "extreme conservative," and John McCain wasn't a "staunch conservative, either." It's not conservatism that's in trouble, Limbaugh argues, but the Republican Party. Still, if most Americans identify themselves ideologically as conservative, wouldn't more of them have voted for an even semiconservative candidate like John McCain?

I think the truth is that most of us don't consider ourselves extremists in any form. The only reason that "liberal" is still a dirty word to some is because Limbaugh and other conservative extremists keep telling us so. As much as they would like to believe that the majority of the country supports their ideology, the record speaks for itself. That said, I'm all for freedom of speech and fully expect Limbaugh to keep blowing hard.

JEFF JERNIGAN, Cape Girardeau