From a New England Republican:
I hesitate to add to the pile of mail reacting negatively to your attempt to talk a little sense to the Republican base on the subject of Sarah Palin but alas the base isn't terribly receptive to commonsense. This has been so for a long time and it has to be said you have played a part in this state of affairs although I do admire your guts in giving them a reality check. I think you probably believe, as I do, that the Republican party is going to lose decisively in the fall both in the presidential election and the congressionals and faces potentially a long period in the wilderness without a major change of stance ie. tacking back to the middle. The Palin decision effectively torpedoed, as you clearly understand, the best card in John McCain's hand: namely the popular perception that he put country before party and himself. Basically it made him and the GOP look both irresponsible and deeply unserious, a perception that is only being heightened by the soap opera atmosphere starting to develop around the nominee.
I'm a retired bank exec of moderately Republican views but I've become deeply disenchanted with a party that is now dominated by the sort of people who were writing you anguished letters of rebuke. Most of my circle are upper middle class folks, now dismissed as elitists when in fact we are the achievers, the people that basically make the country work. A lot of us with resumes not unlike Barack and Michelle Obama, in fact two of my kids went to the same schools. My family have voted Republican for generations, my Grandfather used to boast he voted for Alf Landon in 1936, so you get the picture. The Republican party as we used to know it has been destroyed by what I'll call extreme right wing ideology and Rovian tactics that elevate politics above governance with predictably awful results. I'd say my view is widely shared amongst the sort of Republicans with whom I associate. It explains why the party is losing the suburbs generally, states like VA and CO, and only has one congressman, my congressman, in New England. If November does turn into a wipeout I think you'd be well advised to reflect on this and recognize that if the GOP stays in the NRO/Evangelical Christian/far right mode its future is bleak for demographic reasons if none other.
No need to reply. You're no fool, but you're chained to a rather foolish set of beliefs. All the best.
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