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 rise to the Republican nomination and takeover of the Republican National Committee cannot be attributed solely to his MAGA cultists. They were a minority within the Republican Party until the majority of elected Republicans joined them to ensure the survival of their races.
As a lifelong, nonagenarian Republican whose grandparents were among the “huddled masses” who fled tyranny and embraced the blessings and obligations of American citizenship, I denounce the loss of the old Republican establishment. I wonder how and if one day it can be resurrected with a leadership committed first to the country and then to the party.
Mel Spitz, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: The Grand Old Party did not lose its way simply because Trump arrived. He's been on this bandwagon since 1964, when Southern segregationists and the Barry Goldwater wing of the party found common ground in response to the Civil Rights Act.
Southern Democrats were left adrift because their party decided that black Americans should be allowed to vote and go to integrated schools. By the 1968 election, Richard Nixon and his party decided they could boost their dwindling numbers by making southern segregationists feel welcome in the Republican Party.
This strategy spawned the anti-democratic wing of the Republican Party, which now controls the party that once fought against racism. The Republican Party has been a “maid-in-waiting” for a suitor who would fully embrace its worst tendencies. Trump is that suitor.
René Childress, See Park
