Readers React: If racism doesn’t drive Republicans like Paul Ryan away from Donald Trump, what will?

To the editor: I agree with Jonah Goldberg’s assessment of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) endorsement of Donald Trump. (“Paul Ryan’s endorsement of Donald Trump isn’t just a mistake, it’s a disappointment,” Opinion, June 7)

Recently I watched a news clip of Ryan in which he stated that Trump’s criticism of Gonzalo Curiel, the U.S. district judge overseeing the Trump University fraud case, was a “textbook definition of a racist comment,” but that he was still endorsing Trump for president.

How bad a person does a Republican nominee have to be before he loses the support of the party hierarchy?

Betsy Estrada, Mission Viejo

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To the editor: Goldberg and Ryan should read the late psychologist Julian Jaynes’ book, “The Origin Of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.” In it, Jaynes writes:

“Reasoning and logic are to each other as health is to medicine, or — better — as conduct is to morality. Reasoning refers to a gamut of natural though processes in the everyday world. Logic is how we ought to think if objective truth is our goal —and the everyday world is very little concerned with objective truth.”

But we are witness to a very different election cycle. Voters are not very concerned with objective truth. Voters want immediate action —any action — as long as it is promised to make us great again.

David Laufer, Oxnard

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To the editor: Turnabout is fair play. If liberal Hillary Clinton is the face of the Democratic Party, then racist Trump is the face of the GOP.

If you don’t believe me, here’s what Ryan said when he disavowed Trump’s comments about Curiel: “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment ... It’s absolutely unacceptable.”

So, to my Republican friends I say this: It’s time to look in the mirror. Is a racist presidential candidate the image you want voters to see?

Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach

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