Readers Respond

From the mail bag:

I seldom get past the first page of most articles in Newsweek. It's my wife's subscription and while I do skim the magazine, I never scan it. Your article in this week's issue held me from start to finish.

I am a Marine (left active duty the day before Bill Clinton took office), an entrepreneur, a family man, and a lifelong Republican. I am an Eagle Scout. I have eaten cookies baked by Barbara Bush, I idolized Oliver North, I worked for the campaigns of Ronald Reagan (I cried the day of his funeral, and gave up a friendship because someone had the nerve to laugh at the image of Nancy kissing his flag-draped coffin.), George H.W. Bush, James Inhofe, and have never regretted a single right-wing vote I have ever cast. My first misgiving about casting a Republican vote came when Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama. As one the men I most revere in modern times, Powell's endorsement was very heady to me. I had to spend many more hours debating my own values before I could finally cast my lot with McCain.

As a side note, regarding the companion article about Orange County, my in-laws are long time OC residents, and I spend several weeks of every year there (this coming weekend, in fact), sailing on their boat, dining at their yacht club, and commiserating about everything from illegal immigration to impending socialism, over nickel-a-point cribbage.

"I mention all this not because I expect you to be fascinated with my life story, but to establish some bonafides." I welcome your 'unwelcome realities' because I have long recognized them and I thank you for giving voice to them.

I have long since turned off rush (at this point his name shouldn't even be capitalized), and I avoid Fox News as well as any Democrat alive. The extremism of most right-wing media is as much to blame for November as anything McCain did. If we as a party cannot get past the infighting and factions, we will be sidelined for eight years, not four. If we cannot get past the images projected by limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, we will be doomed to an even longer banishment from effectiveness, politically. People like Stephen Colbert actually portray a more believable 'Republican' in their satire than anything our current pundits are able to project.

So thank you for finally bringing a voice to the 'quiet conservative'. Those of us who don't have to insult our President to disagree with him, who don't have to turn our back to those in need to show how 'Republican' we are, and those of us who realize that our party is much stronger with diversity, but much weaker with confrontation.

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I am one of those voters mentioned in your [NEWSweek] article who turned twenty between 2000 and 2005. I voted for G.W. Bush in two elections, supported the Iraq war, and was a college republican when I was doing my B.A. I am from a solidly middle class family from the mid west.

I voted for Barack Obama in the last election. The reasons were manifold, but the main cause was singled out in your article; a lack of policies that seemed to hold any benefit for the American middle class. The US middle class saw few gains in the last decade, and the Republican message of lower taxes for all seems deeply out of touch. Republicans need to work on solving problems that concern people of my generation, such as a lack of affordable health care, crushing debt from student loans, and a budget deficit that will not be paid off in my generation's lifetime. President Obama offered solutions to these problems, imperfect as they may be, while the loudest voices in the Republican party seem to be busy shouting at the wind.

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Limbaugh is only part of the problem. I find him to be somewhat tame when compared to the likes a Mark Levin, with whom Mr. Frum had a recent unpleasant encounter. Even if I agreed with 100% of what Levin says, I'd still find his nasal, sneering, arrogant, and narcissistic diatribes downright repugnant. Such behavior represents the worst that humans have to offer one another.

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I wanted to write to SUPPORT your piece in Newsweek. I just read it online and felt myself nodding my head in agreement with you. A bit of background... I am a white, college educated, married female. I registered Republican in 1978 when I was 18, and remained a Republican until 2000 when I re-registered as an Independent because I couldn’t stand the idea of GWB leading the party (sorry, I know you worked for him but I think he’s a doofus). I was on my county’s Republican Central Committee at the time... Needless to say, I resigned from that position. While I don’t identify myself as a conservative (I’m a little too socially moderate) I feel the GOP has abandoned me. There is no room for me in a party that has morphed into an intolerant, “Stepford Wife”-esque, totalitarian regime that demands blind obedience to its precepts. The hate mail that you are receiving is evidence enough of that, and if a true conservative like you is getting thrown under the bus, imagine how the rest of us moderate folks feel.

Right now, I’m struggling through this financial downturn just like the majority of Americans Ñ I was laid off in June 2007, started a consulting business working on real estate development projects, and my clients have all stopped working on their projects because of the housing and financial market meltdowns. We have trimmed our budget, but still we are burning though our savings and our retirement accounts have been cut in half. I am scared, and I hear NOTHING from the GOP that indicates that it is developing or supporting policies that will help me or the millions like me in our country right now. It’s time for the party to start communicating what ideas it has to fix this mess, rather than just slamming the guy who’s doing what he thinks will fix it. At least Obama’s trying... and looking like he cares about ordinary Americans. The Republicans look like a bunch of self-serving, politically motivated spoil-sports.

You are right... The GOP will remain unattractive to the majority of Americans as long as it remains narrow-minded and ideologically stuck in the Reagan era. Please continue to spread your message so I can come back to a party that espouses small government, personal integrity and responsibility, respectful intellectual discourse, tolerance and policies that are good for the COUNTRY, not just good for Republicans. There is a long way to go, and as long as Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and their narrow-minded, anti-intellectual cohorts are the face and voice of the GOP, it will take a loooooong time to get there.

I’ve never felt compelled to write to a magazine contributor before... That’s how strongly I feel about this. Good luck...