The letter below was published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, August 5, 2019.

Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D.

Regarding Christopher DeMuth’s “America’s Nationalist Awakening” (op-ed, July 20): Why has such an old idea suddenly become new again? Because “the federal government has abdicated basic responsibilities and broken trust with large numbers of citizens.”

Buried in the text, however, are two small words: “opportunity cost.” As I view the political landscape, what I see is that the words of the political left have totally dominated and paralyzed government, business and private life with the thought control of their ideology and the punitive power of their overwhelming loudness.

Phrased alternatively, the left is all words and no deeds. Please, fellow voters, start thinking about “opportunity cost.” By focusing exclusively on the words of the left, what opportunities has this obsession cost us as a nation and as individuals?

The good life isn’t to be found in the shiny words of the left but rather in the deeds of a functioning government and society.

Em. Prof. Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D.
Florida International University
Miami