This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Listing the amoral special interests in the Republican Party ought to frighten any thinking person: the National Rifle Association (a seditious organization hyping gun addiction), the American Legislative Exchange Council (a huge formerly secret cabal of duplicitous interests), Grover Norquist (committed to shrink the federal government and eliminate Social Security and Medicare as we know it), Karl Rove (a specialist in sliming opponents), tea party Ayn Rand devotees seeking new heights of heartless egomania, neocon warmongers and Southern white bigots. All of these fit comfortably in the Republican Party.

Democrats gape in disbelief as Republicans dismiss global warming as a liberal conspiracy, demand deregulation of banks, despite the recent debacle, and fight against environmental controls. Even worse, Republican legislators wasted four years hellbent on destroying the president — the people's choice.

A win by Gov. Mitt Romney will only further entrench these perverse manipulators of a democracy already crippled by tainted money. The GOP needs to clean up its act to prove it is fit to rule.

A respectable conservative party would have chosen Gov. Jon Huntsman, who refused to cave in to its extremism.

Ron Molen

Salt Lake City