To the editor: Columnist Virginia Heffernan talks a lot about the men who have moved on from the Republican Party. I think the real story is the number of women who have left the party.

I have been a registered Republican for more than 53 years. I am an active feminist but have hung on to my registration in the party of individual rights and liberties, personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, a strong national defense and fiscal responsibility. I hung on to my party registration although I didn’t always vote a straight GOP ticket. I hung on until I couldn’t.

My Republican credentials would hold up to anyone. I founded the Anaheim Young Republicans and was a delegate to the National Young Republican Convention. I was the youngest delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention. I attended several Republican national conventions and advocated for women’s rights, the Equal Rights Amendment and to take abortion out of the party platform. In 1987, I was the regional political director for George H.W. Bush’s campaign for president. I organized the California delegation to the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

It was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings that put me over the edge. When I heard the words coming from the Republican leadership and the president, that fine thread holding me to the GOP finally broke. I couldn’t believe the disrespect for women I was hearing.


I am not alone. Surely there are thousands of women across America who gave up on the Republican Party. The GOP died years ago, but it finally got buried with the Kavanaugh hearings.

Eileen E. Padberg, Laguna Niguel

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To the editor: Heffernan’s column really hit home. I joined the Republican Party when Barry Goldwater told me he would keep government out of our pockets and out of our bedrooms.


Then Republicans decided they needed the religious right — never mind that science now came from scripture and intolerance became a new family value.

Then Republicans decided they needed lots of money, so along came Citizens United — never mind that candidates were now owned by special interests.

Then Republicans decided it was worth sacrificing progress to ensure that Barack Obama was a one-term president — never mind that gridlock became the new norm.

Now Republicans have thrown away any moral compass or fiscal conservatism to keep a man in office who is unfit to be there — never mind that they were humiliated into sycophancy.


Republicans: It’s time to abandon ship. There has to be something better than this.

Judy Cabrera, Glendale

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