Greg Jayne in his Jan. 10 opinion column, “Republican Party abandoned its most worthy ideals,” related that he hasn’t left the Republican Party, it left him. Allow me to paraphrase President Bill Clinton and say, “I feel your pain.” I, too, have voted for Republicans in years gone by when statesmen of intellect occupied positions of respect within the party.
May I also be among the first to welcome Jayne to the age of maturity in which thoughtful consideration brings one to understand that supporting any candidate in this party that has become the home of anti-intellectuals, and a wide variety of know-nothing cranks, (racists, gun nuts, scientific illiterates, and economic illiterates among them), is tantamount to supporting those elements who now effectively dominate today’s GOP.
This brings me to the Jan. 7 editorial “We must do better.” Indeed, The Columbian must do better. By recognizing that you will never achieve good governance, let alone sane and logical policies, by supporting candidates in a party that allows itself to be led or controlled by such elements, The Columbian should consider exactly what we will get when it next endorses state Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, and others of their ilk.
