[In response to] "Washington’s intellectual hypocrisy" (Opinion, Jonah Goldberg, Dec. 5), I’ll tell you why there is so much hypocrisy in politics: America has lost its heritage.

The moral foundations this country was founded on aren’t in our school textbooks or taught by our professors at our universities. We have been left to believe that our country was created by secularists, for fear that we may insult those who don’t believe there is a God.

We weren’t meant to be a democracy. Our forefathers said, "A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way." (Fisher Ames). John Adams said, "Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

We were created to be a republic. The world thinks we were a secular nation because we wanted separation of church and state. The idea of separation of church and state came about by the Danbury Baptist Association. It wrote to Thomas Jefferson asking him to keep the government out of its churches for fear people wouldn’t be able to worship God the way they wanted to.

If you’re unhappy with the way our country is being run, you can change it. Being proactive by learning the truth, the reasoning and the convictions for our country’s foundation is a start. It’s as President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

You aren’t a Republican or a Democrat; you, we, are Americans. Let’s work together to make our nation what it used to be and stop complaining about it. I still believe in America. I hope you do, too.

Tamara PolsonFrankfurt, Germany

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