Letters: Schwarzenegger on the small-tent GOP
Re “GOP, take down that small tent,” Opinion, May 6
I witnessed a most surreal moment in 2006 as a staffer on former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reelection campaign.
At the California Republican Party convention, there was a debate about whether to withdraw the GOP’s endorsement of this sitting Republican governor. My mother’s voice rang loudly in my ears — “Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face” — as I listened to some party leaders argue that they would rather surrender the veto pen than tolerate the appointment of a Democrat as chief of staff.
Schwarzenegger’s Op-Ed article sadly illustrates that there are more Republicans now than ever who are willing to surrender seats at the table in the name of ideological purity.
Heather Peters
Los Angeles
Schwarzenegger says he is “too stubborn to leave a party I believe in.”
Well, governor, the party left you.
If we listed the current positions of the Democratic and Republican leadership but left off the names, Schwarzenegger would choose the Democrats as far closer to the ideals he admired in Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. These ideals are a reasonable limit to government, eliminating unnecessary regulation, reasonable taxation (lower than Reagan and Nixon), a strong military, revitalized infrastructure, reasonable environmental protection and healthcare reform.
Over the last 40 years, Democrats have moved to the center and have been willing to compromise, while Republicans have moved far to the right. So Schwarzenegger should overcome the stubbornness and become an “imbecile Democrat.”
Steven Cohen
South Windsor, Conn.
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