Cal Thomas only trashes people, never offering thoughtful comment. So be it. Trashing those he describes as “victims who make up much of the Democrat base” is way out of line.

In his Dec. 29 diatribe against the media, he railed on about the size and cost of government and the programs it conducts to help the poor, the homeless, union members and the elderly. These people, he told his readers, “could better their lives by relying less on government and more on themselves.”

That’s right, folks. Forget what you put into Social Security and now count on to keep you (barely) alive; stop cashing the checks and get a job. All those with mental illness and no sense of who they are — get smart, go to work, get off the dole. All union members (about a third as many as in years past), stop squawking, get back to work, shut up.

Never a diatribe from Thomas, not once, about the $3 trillion senseless invasion of Iraq; not once a diatribe about the Department of Homeland Security, now among the largest, most expensive, least effective and most invasive agencies of government; not once a Thomas diatribe against welfare for defense contractors, tobacco and other corporate farmers, and the very richest Americans who (aided by “W”) spend millions to avoid paying taxes that support the country they proclaim to love so dearly. No, these are “victims” of the liberal media and Democrat “extremists.”

Kenneth L. Roberts, Turner