Deciding if Kerry Has Conservative Appeal

As usual, Robert Scheer’s commentary, “True Conservatives Would Back Kerry,” Sept. 21, is right on the money -- except for one tiny little detail. There is absolutely no way that President Bush or the other radical right-wing pseudo-intellectual ideologues behind his administration could possibly be considered either “conservative” or “Republican” by any reasonable definition of the words.

Scheer is also correct in stating that the interests of “true conservatives” would undoubtedly be better served by electing John Kerry. But what he forgot to mention is that most of those reasons principled conservative Republicans could find for supporting Kerry are also reasons why principled liberal Democrats should not.

Wayne Strache

San Marcos

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Scheer’s article is a bit of folly. He states that true conservatives should back Kerry. Kerry was No. 1 on liberal voting in the Senate, ranking above Ted Kennedy. This information is from the Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal organization for more than 50 years. Maybe we should look for his next column in the comics section.

George Erber

Huntington Beach

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Scheer rightly states that Bush’s backers have no principles. If the Bush leaguers disagree, what are their principles? They can’t include small government, fiscal responsibility or individual rights, because Bush has demonstrably failed in each of these areas.

Rob Schmidt

Culver City

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Scheer devotes the entire column to an attack on Bush, without trying to justify why a conservative would want to vote for someone with one of the most liberal voting records in Congress over the last 20 years. True conservatives are having a hard time finding anyone to vote for in this election.

Bruce Walker

San Pedro

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Scheer describes only half of the problem. As a lifelong conservative, I have to agree on his description of kill-and-spend Bush and his logic that no true conservative would back him. The short-term problem, however, is that the Kerry alternative is too weak and indecisive to be really attractive to anyone -- conservative or liberal. The much sadder and long-term problem is that our society is apparently no longer able to produce quality candidates for our highest office.

Gary Blakely

Anaheim