Dear Editor:

Imagine a group of discontented employees of the Coca Cola Company deciding to develop and produce on their own a new soft drink, and then bring it to market with the name Coca Cola. Surely it would take no more than a nanosecond for the company’s lawyers to spring into action to protect the priceless Coca Cola brand, to keep it from being devalued through association with a shoddy imitation. 

These thoughts on protecting a venerable brand come to mind as I look at the current generation’s version of the Republican Party, or maybe better to say Parties. The party surely has had a venerable history, beginning with Abraham Lincoln. I’ve disagreed often over the years with Republican policy positions and leaders, but it generally didn’t occur to me that those policies and leaders -- Richard Nixon being an exception -- were outside the bounds of rational political options. 

But now it seems that the supporters of Donald Trump, and the radical right in general, are managing to corrupt the Republican brand to the point that their version, and the threat to democracy that it poses, is being rejected by old-guard Republican leaders themselves, such as Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney. Is this not the time to point out that Trump and his followers are the new RINOs, the new Republicans in Name Only? Let’s hope that voters not be deceived by the R following the names of many current “Republican Party” figures. 

Thomas Eichler 

Wiscasset