Is nothing but extreme right Republican?

Where did the Republican Party that I once knew go? It has been taken over by the irrational extremists - by the TEA party and death panel people, the folks who deny global warming and evolution and think the Earth is just a few thousand years old.

Hatred is being spread like a virus.

There's no longer any room for thoughtful, open debate. A member of the Republican National Committee recently proposed a 10-point purity test that even Ronald Reagan couldn't pass.

Is this the way it's going to be from now on - no more debates, just opposition?

Today, elected Republican officials are afraid of backlash from the fringe right, which labels everyone who disagrees with its political views as liberal. Is that a matter of relativity?

Is anything left of extreme right considered liberal and, thus, no longer moderate?

It's alarming when lifelong Republicans become not Republican enough. Christine Todd Whitman, Lawrence Wilkerson, Susan Eisenhower, Lincoln Chafee, Colin Powell and Christopher Buckley all have been lifelong Republicans who say their party has veered off in the wrong direction. Incredibly, even Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was recently judged by the far right as not being Republican enough.

Joan Weysler

Iowa City