The Issue: Whether Republicans should tack toward the center to attract more voters in national elections.
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Phony Republican John Podhoretz has it completely backward, blaming conservatives for their election woes (“How Conservatives Sink the GOP,” PostOpinion, Feb. 22).
The fact is that millions of right-wingers sat at home rather than vote for the establishment’s candidate, Mitt Romney.
There’s a name for Republicans who say elections can be won if we collaborate with Obama, accept a lower standard of living, give up Second Amendment rights and accede to second-class citizenship.
But that word can’t be printed here!
Paul Izzo
Milford
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I read column after column by Podhoretz during the presidential primaries about how we needed an electable candidate — a moderate who would appeal to the center, because “the electoral fight in America is, always has been and always will be over the center.”
He said we would sink our chances for the White House if we put up a loon like Newt Gingrich, a fanatic like Rick Santorum or a dopey-sounding George W. Bush clone like Rick Perry.
So I lined up behind Mitt, whom I learned to respect and like.
I went to fund-raisers. I donated a ton of money. I even went to the convention.
We did it Podhoretz’s way — and got our butts kicked.
He made one good point in his piece, though: Conservatives believe moving to the center is like “a kind of soft liberalism.”
One of the defining traits of liberals is that when their idea fails, they always think it’s because it wasn’t tried hard enough. Podhoretz has been sounding more and more like a liberal every week.
Greg Rand
White Plains