Tucson Speaks Out: April 27

GOP budget

After months of being asked by our government to share their budget proposal with her and begin negotiations, after 100 days, the GOP has finally decided to present it and declared they will not consider any negotiations. Doesn’t the GOP recognize that Arizonans voted a Democratic governor into office? Don’t Republicans realize that the job of a legislator is to work with all the elected legislators for the good of all state residents? I’m sick to death of the hubris and arrogance of the GOP believing that they can simply declare to the whole state that it is their way or the highway. They ignore a vast swath of Arizona voters. We have terrible rankings in health care, environmental protection, and education. The job of our representatives is to work for all residents’ well-being. I don’t believe I’m alone in encouraging Governor Hobbs to simply veto parts or the entire budget as she sees fit. She would have my complete support.

Hollis Hemingway

Northwest side

Mr Oro Valley Johnson Jr.

As an avid reader of the letters to the editor (and sometimes submitter) I find somewhat surprising that Mr Johnson seems to have a letter praising the right and damning the left (with questionable information)on a pretty regular basis. I think perhaps the paper should consider offering him a regular opinion section. Perhaps on the comics page.

Richard Govern

Foothills

Gerrymandering facts

In his recent rant about gerrymandering (April 25), Mr. Johnson has seemed to have forgotten a few facts. The Republicans started the effort to gerrymander in the states of North Carolina and Texas. The effort in both states was successful and made it very difficult for Dems to be represented.

Suddenly, when the tables are turned, Mr. Johnson seems to think that this will bring the end of democratic elections. Why didn’t he think of that when the Republicans were sponsoring gerrymandering efforts in many states?

The gerrymander effort was the Republicans' attempt to cheat so as to maintain power. The Democrats have had a bill introduced 10 years ago that would outlaw blatant gerrymandering. The Republicans have refused to bring it to the floor for a vote.

Mr. Johnson's last comment, saying that Republicans would be treated as the Jews in Hitler's Germany, shows his desperation. His exaggerations show a similar state of mind as that of Trump, who is slowly losing his mind.

Robert Diedrich

Northeast side

Dozing Donald

More and more pictures of our illustrious president falling completely asleep while in a cabinet meeting. No one believes it is inappropriate for a 79-year-old man to take naps during the day. We all object for someone purporting to be doing a vital job being completely out of it. In every picture, several of his adoring minions stand behind him, glancing at his snoring majesty but too afraid to nudge him into wakefulness. Such a sad story of a sad human being.

Philip Reinecker

East side

What's actually despicable — a response

I now have clarity on the reference to someone "being off their meds." But I digress. A "despicable coup?" What's "a step too far?" What could be more democratic than having the voters speak — as they did in Virginia and most definitely did not get to do in Texas? Democrats doing anything to maintain power? Two words: January 6th — talk about lying and cheating to maintain power. Moving on to the arrogance of asserting that Tucson offers "a comfortable lifestyle for most" — this from someone living in his Oro Valley bubble. What defines a "comfortable lifestyle," and where is the supporting data? That there are no bread lines? Lastly, Loyal Johnson should apologize to every Jewish person for his obscene comment regarding "every Republican being treated like Jews in 1943 Germany." What an outrageous and disgusting statement. Let me add ... Donald Trump has taken this country to "hell in a handbasket" in more ways than space here allows to list.

Hope Gastelum

East side

A most offensive letter

Loyal Johnson’s letter comparing the supposed mistreatment of Republicans by Democrats to 6 million Jews being exterminated by Nazis should make us cringe. How horrendous and vile and minimizing the torture and killing of Jews in Germany. Democrats are not gassing or herding Republicans into rail cars. Republicans are not being starved to death or used for medical experiments. Republicans are not pushed into ditches and shot executioner style. His letter should offend every human being and especially every Jewish person. To compare the holocaust to differences between political parties in this country is the same logic the Nazis used to justify the slaughter of 6 million Jews. These people are out to get us so we need to eliminate them. Shame on you Loyal.

John Kautz

Midtown

Who is paying Nanos' legal bills?

Your recent article "Critics: Nanos report not sworn" tells us that Sherrif Nanos' attorney filed the report requested by the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Who is paying his legal bills? Is he or are we the taxpayers of Pima County? If it's us, we need to see the attorney's bills (any privileged information can be redacted) and know how much we are paying.

James Tuthill

Oro Valley

The tyranny of the majority

Virginia state law explicitly requires congressional voting maps not to unduly favor or disfavor any political party, but the one now in power has used its majority via the ballot box to gerrymander its state from a 6-5 split to a lopsided 10-1 advantage for Democrats. No problem here.

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump received approximately 40% of the vote from the six states of New England. Nevertheless, Democrats hold 21 U.S. House seats in the region, while Republicans have zero. We are told this outcome represents fair and representative government.

As if the political dialog couldn’t get any more bizarre, blue states are now asking us to believe that Republicans are rigging the 2028 election by only allowing American citizens to vote.

Our Founding Fathers warned us about the dangers of unchecked majority rule.

Jeffrey McConnell

West side

Ignoring history

Ron Rude's April 21 opinion "The evil ideology of Trumpism..." states that "most self-proclaimed White Christians, especially their leaders (pastors, bishops, deacons), were unfaithful failures — inside churches and in the public arena — including multi-generations of pre and post-Civil War southern Confederacy (refortified nationally in our time as today's GOP)." Uh, those people in the pre and post-Civil War South were all Democrats.

Mr. Rude ignores 140+ years (1820s to 1960s) of the Southern Democratic Party's support of slavery and segregation. Democrats started the Civil War, lost, and a Democrat assassinated Lincoln. Dems created and supported the KKK, Jim Crow laws and lynchings. Then, a Democrat state governor defied a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that the 1896 SC ruling of the "separate but equal" doctrine (segregation) was unconstitutional. Republican President Eisenhower sent a U.S. army division into the defiant state to support desegregating schools. Resistance game over.

Here's a Rude Awakening. Your attempt to ignore history is a dismal failure.

Steve Sollenberger

Foothills

Name the two responsible for Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu has spent four decades pressing the United States to go to war with Iran, leaning on both Republican and Democratic presidents. They refused, understanding the cost. It took Donald Trump’s impulsivity to convert that long campaign into action, with self-serving disregard for the consequences.

So don’t blame MAGA voters. Don’t blame Democrats or Republicans. Don’t blame the Pope, Catholics, Christians, Jews, Muslims or any religion. institution or group. And above all, don’t blame the American people, who will pay the price in blood and treasure.

This was not the will of a nation. It was the decision of two men, one who never stopped pushing, and one who was without the discipline, judgment, or foresight this moment demanded.

History often buries responsibility under layers of politics and rhetoric until no one is left accountable. That is how the same mistakes keep getting made.

Do not let that happen here. This war has authors, name them: Donald J. Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lawrence E. Mazin

SaddleBrooke