Harry Trickey
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
In today's New York Times (Jan. 18, 2020) columnist Bret Stevens wonders, "Can anyone save the GOP?"
He postulates that "Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor will try a longshot gambit in New Hampshire."
"Governor Weld points out that every time an incumbent president of either party faced a significant primary challenge from Truman to G.W. Bush in the Granite State, he failed in his bid for re-election."
"So Weld reasons why not try it with Donald Trump in a state that is notoriously fickle in its loyalties and against an incumbent who 'regards the law as something to be evaded.'"
That brought me to wonder what exactly Bill Weld would be saving?
What are the values of the present Republican Party that are worth putting into a new wineskin?
With President Richard Nixon, the GOP adopted racism as an election strategy something President Ronald Reagan parlayed to perfection.
The party accepted extremist views on women's rights, abortion and homophobia as advocated by fundamentalist Christians, starting with Falwell and continuing to the Grahams.
They accepted the Heritage Foundation's advocacy for military intervention in foreign countries.
They sided with the John Birch Society (Koch family) to crush unions, to limit the federal government by "strangling the New Deal social safety net programs in a bathtub" (Grover Norquist) and to enrich American Oligarchs.
"Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist and nationally-recognized expert in retirement security states that "Republicans in the Senate are openly planning to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block in a second Trump term."
Republican "Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) during a town hall appearance said, 'members of Congress should hold discussions about Social Security behind closed doors, so we're not being scrutinized by this group or the other.'" (LA Times 6/19)
And finally, during the last Republican presidential debates, the high point was a discussion about the size of Trump's hands.
What in this, Mr. Weld, is there to salvage?