Letters to the Editor

Letter: Who’s the RINO?

In the Jan. 20 opinion section, Sheryl Nelson of Soldotna criticized Sen. Lisa Murkowski for being a RINO – Republican in Name Only. The problem is, the Republican party is Republican in name only!

Dwight Eisenhower would be baffled by the slide from a philosophy of personal responsibility to a victimhood mentality filled with delusional grievance. He certainly would not have looked the other way as the country was attacked by a mortal enemy, with a death toll now surpassing the deaths in the war he fought and helped win.

Ronald Reagan would not recognize the anti-democratic authoritarianism or a conspiratorial mob that refuses to have some shared agreement about what a “fact” is. And he sure would not be comfortable sidling up to Vladimir Putin.

George H.W. Bush knew that to be a valid party of opposition, you had to have an alternative vision, not just a “they are the enemy and we must stop them” approach. It’s hard to imagine him cheering on a congressional delegation voting to overturn a presidential election, much less a bunch of Rambo wannabes out to lynch the Vice President.

And even Richard Nixon, who was at war with the press on many issues, never fell to the low of using Nazi terminology to refer to them.

Maybe Lisa Murkowski is a Republican, but can no longer stand with individuals who have usurped that party name. Maybe she should have found the courage of her convictions sooner.

Jim Thiele

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Anchorage

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