Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Dear Mr. Fox,

While this letter is principally intended to be political in character, I will seize the opportunity to begin on a somewhat different foot. My family and I immensely enjoyed the role that you played as D.S. James Hathaway in Lewis. I daresay James was the principal reason we watched it. I also liked you in The Search for Tutankhamun.

For a long time, I've wanted to say that I suffered a stroke in 2014 and I owe it to you, your fellow officers in the Thames Valley Police, and, indeed, to your colleagues in Midsomer County (whom I would tell that we have a fictional county, ourselves, in northwest Wyoming: Absoroka, the purview of Sheriff Walter Longmire) that the experience was at all bearable. I got through many bleak and horrible nights in the hospital, binge-watching your programs on my little tablet. So thank you all, very much.

Now, as to politics. I have seen you on television standing up to the shrill barbarians of wokeitude. I heard about what you were going through thanks to Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin, among others. Now I understand that you want to start a new political party that will defend your country, its culture, and its historical accomplishments. I know something about that myself, having been politically active since 1962. (I am the author of over 35 science fiction novels, mostly of a political and historical bent, and of thousands of political essays.) I was among the founding members of the Libertarian Party in Denver, Colorado, and wrote much of the Party's best platforms. That once-noble organization having shamefully transformed itself into a despicable platter of dog's vomit, I am now an ardent supporter of Donald J. Trump and believe he is the best president America has ever had.

Mr. Fox, please allow me to offer you, from the standpoint of my 58 years' experience, two minor pieces of advice. First, “Reclaim” is a terribly weak name for an undertaking of this gravity. As my favorite author, Robert A. Heinlein observed, “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.” Or as Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, commander of the NSEA Protector would put it, “Never give up, never surrender!”

Second, you are probably aware that the 19th century cartoonist Thomas Nast adopted a donkey as the symbol of the Democrat Party and famously created the elephant for the Republicans. He also conceived of the Tammany tiger and of Santa Claus as we know him today. As a symbol for your party, and in the spirit of Thomas Nast, I strongly urge you to avoid undue modesty and accept a lively, intelligent, cartoon fox).

“The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy (and stupid) Tory's back.”

In conclusion, I wish you every possible success. I appreciate that you have a long, difficult road ahead of you. There are people in your country who can guide you, like Sargon and my friend and fellow author, Dr. Sean Gabb. Look him up—you may know him as “Richard Blake”. Regrettably, Boris Johnson is rather more Bidenesque than he is Trumplike. The U.K. needs and deserves something far better. I like and admire Nigel Farage, myself, but that may just be me.

I have read that you'd like to do a western movie someday. I'd certainly pay to see that. Your colleague John Cleese, who is otherwise something of an idiot, did wonderfully as the villainous sheriff in Silverado. And the quintessentially western character Sheriff Walter Longmire was played handsomely by Robert Taylor, an Australian.

Your fan,

L. Neil Smith