Battling for the Soul of the Republican Party

As a Republican from a red state and supporter of President Bush and his Iraq policy, I read with dismay the article by the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, “Hey, Governor, the GOP Won” (Commentary, Dec. 29).

This air-filled article said at most: Anyone who opposes us, we are going to beat up with the big values stick. This stick is not heavy and hard, but a figment of Sheldon’s hopeful imagination. Objecting to these “Vicars of Values” wishing to insert their version of religion into the public policy arena is almost -- but not quite -- as important as supporting national defense is to voters like me.

There are many red-staters who will switch to the other side in 2008 if these sanctimonious, self-declared owners of values continue to strut and crow like roosters at daybreak, thinking they cause the sun to rise.

Bill Bane

Great Falls, Va.

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Sheldon seems to have forgotten the 49% of the people that voted against Bush. Indeed, if you canvass the exit polls, a good percentage of the swing voters voted for Bush based on fear of the war and terrorism. (Karl Rove and this administration were glorious in raising those issues time and time again.)

Let’s take one issue: freedom of choice/the ability to have an abortion. Most people in this country are for upholding a woman’s right to an abortion. The Democratic view is inclusive: If you don’t want to have an abortion, don’t; if the situation arises in which you must, then do. Sheldon’s view, on the other hand, is to ram his values down everyone’s throats. He’s politicizing every issue with the “political capital” that he thinks Bush has in his pocket. If there were no war in Iraq, Bush wouldn’t have won, even with all of Sheldon’s moral platitudes.

Ken Pace

Laguna Beach

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I voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor. I was so enthused about his recent decision to give back the state Capitol’s “holiday tree” its rightful name, “Christmas tree,” that I wrote, recorded and released a song about it.

But I must wholly embrace Sheldon’s point of view concerning Schwarzenegger’s blindness to the core values of the GOP. Schwarzenegger is clearly trying to play both sides in an opportunistic game of political charades. If he becomes eligible to run for president someday and chooses to pursue this avenue, he will need to play his cards right. He will need to take the expressed wishes of the right into consideration. If he sides with the left, he risks losing his political base, and he cannot afford to terminate them or their core values.

Bruce L. Thiessen

Bakersfield