Conservatives had their chance

Re “True conservatives just want a turn,” Opinion, Nov. 3

There goes that Jonah Goldberg again, attempting to put lipstick on the proverbial pig and send all of us liberal elites scampering to our dictionaries to look up the word “psephologist.”

But his assertion that “true” conservatives are now poised to take over the Republican Party and triumphantly return conservatism to its real small-government roots ignores both psephology and the history of conservatism in America, which has always been aligned with the “Know Nothing” movement in politics.

American conservatism has been consistently characterized by an intentional insularity. Its unwavering support of theocratic coercion masquerading as “temperance,” “family values,” “school choice” or what have you exposes it for what it really is: a pig-headed refusal to deal with the realities of a changing world and a cynical willingness to frighten a gullible electorate to achieve self-serving goals.

And you don’t have to be a psephologist to see that no amount of fancy jargon can cover up this basic fact.

Stephen Thewlis

Palm Desert

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Goldberg is, as usual, only looking at part of the picture.

He states that conservatives have been waiting decades to try out limited-government ideas, without acknowledging the domination of Congress from 1994 to 2006 by conservative Republicans with exactly those same ideas.

Sorry Jonah, but conservative Republicans were thrown out of office in 2006 and 2008 precisely because their, and your, ideas proved a disaster for this country. Please stop whining and give the other team a chance to positively affect the lives of the American people.

Bryan Hays

Saugus