Legislative radicals are not really conservative

I grew up in a conservative family in a conservative town in a conservative state. Though that label no longer describes me, I would take it any day compared to the radical right wing ideology that currently prevails in the Iowa Legislature. Two of the tenets of the conservatism of my youth were limited government and local control. The many ways in which the Iowa Legislature today is trying to control the what and how of education are guided by authoritarian principles. And my conservative models would have been appalled at the Legislature's efforts to undermine public education. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between inconsistency and hypocrisy, and I'm afraid if they want to pretend to be conservatives their governmental overreach has exposed their true stripes.

Robert Sessions

Iowa City