Letters to the Editor: I’m a moderate Republican who wants the party saved from Trumpism

To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s column on the takeover of the Republican Party establishment by former President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” faction is timely and insightful.

Trump’s ascension to the GOP nomination and takeover of the Republican National Committee cannot be ascribed solely to his MAGA cultists. They were a minority within the GOP until most elected Republicans joined them to ensure the survival of their careers.

As a nonagenarian and lifelong middle-of-the-road Republican whose grandparents were among the “huddled masses” who fled tyranny and embraced the blessings and obligations of U.S. citizenship, I denounce the loss of the former GOP establishment. I wonder how and if it can ever be resurrected with leadership committed first to country and second to party.

Mel Spitz, Beverly Hills

..

To the editor: The Grand Old Party didn’t just lose its way because Trump came along. It has been on this train ever since 1964, when the Southern segregationists and the Barry Goldwater wing of the party found common ground in response to the Civil Rights Act.

The Southern Democrats were cast adrift because their party decided that Black Americans should be allowed to vote and go to integrated schools. For the 1968 election, Richard Nixon and his party decided that they could swell their diminishing numbers by making the southern segregationists feel welcome in the GOP.

This strategy spawned GOP’s anti-democratic wing, which now controls the party that once fought racism. The Republican Party has been a “maid in waiting” for a suitor that would fully embrace its worst tendencies. Trump is that suitor.

Rene Childress, View Park