Opinion: Why conservatives — yes, all of them — must own President Trump

To the editor: Not so fast, Max Boot. (“If you back Trump for his tax plan, you have to own his racism, misogyny and amorality too,” Opinion, Dec. 5)

He cannot pretend that President Trump and his repugnant behavior are somehow owned only by his supporters. Every single Republican who has stood in a voting booth and pulled a lever for Republican candidates over last several decades owns Trump.

Conservatives turned a blind eye to outright racist campaigns in the 1980s. I have not forgotten Willie Horton or “Cadillac-driving welfare queens.” I have not forgotten the outright pandering to religious extremists by Republican politicians. Do the words “moral majority” ring a bell?

How can anyone ignore the glee that many conservatives get from conspiracy-peddling mouthpieces such as Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones? And no one should ever forget the Republican establishment embracing conservative hate-mongers such as Ann Coulter and Milos Yiannopoulos.

Boot cannot absolve himself or his fellow Republicans who nurtured this bitter fruit for decades.

No, Mr. Boot, you and all Republicans own President Trump.

Michael Conway, Los Angeles

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To the editor: What’s wrong with this picture? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan are smiling as they sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump.

The history books will say these two members of Congress and Republican Party leaders protected and enabled this embarrassingly unqualified and dangerous man, when they could have engineered his removal from office and saved the United States and the world from his corrupting and damaging actions.

Jerry Small, Venice

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