Readers React: Big government works for them

Re “The GOP fault line,” Opinion, May 1

Richard A. Viguerie argues that tea party Republicans are ascendant because a majority of Americans agree with their premise that big government is bad.

But shrinking government is an idea that sounds good only on paper.

Let’s ask the question a different way: Do you want clean air and water, or should factory owners be free to pollute with impunity? Do you want meatpacking plants inspected for cleanliness? Should we shutter the national parks?

Of course not. Americans want and need a stable, functioning government.

Throughout my working life, I toiled away with the understanding that I had a social compact with my leaders. I would pay my taxes and, in return, I’d have good schools, roads, jobs and pensions.

But for the last 30 years, I’ve been told that I should keep paying my taxes — but get little for it.

I don’t want to live in this wrecked world the GOP has given us. I’ll take the “big” government any day of the week.

Cheryl Holt

Burbank

With his well-written Op-Ed article, Viguerie seeks to change the meaning of the well-respected term “conservative” and to confine its use to his ideologically pure wing of the GOP. That may be good politics for the Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Tom McClintock wing, but it defies history.

Viguerie wants to change the English language and generations of tradition for political advantage. The real question is whether the media and others will let him get away with it.

Thorpe Vincent

Woodland Hills

Identifying Viguerie as an author is like identifying Michael Jordan as a basketball player.

Viguerie is a leading theoretician in the decades-long conservative movement. He exposes the ultranationalist agenda of the tea party.

At base, Viguerie’s strategy is a takeover of the GOP, putting in its place a new party of anti-government reaction. Until it is in position to replace the GOP, Viguerie’s movement paralyzes government, using the latter’s own rules against itself.

The best defense against the tea party is to repeal all congressional rules for a two-thirds vote, excepting those mentioned in the Constitution, and to return to majority rule in all legislatures, state and national.

Jean E. Rosenfeld

Los Angeles