Pause and let
the dust settle
Dear Republicans, I empathize with your disappointment about Donald Trump losing the presidency. As a Democrat, I felt the same in 2000, when the Supreme Court ruled for George W. Bush. I ask us all, over the next six months, let’s allow the dust to settle, OK?
Let’s look forward together to experiencing a calming sensation. Drop fear, breathe and listen: Are there tweets and behaviors that attack or rile? Behaviors we don’t want our children to follow? Standards and norms being broken? Is division encouraged or are there requests for unity? In six months, how do you feel inside?
And please: Can “reds” and “blues” stand together as purple, in the middle of extremes, and talk together about issues? Find where we actually agree? And can’t we urge all members of Congress to do the same?
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We need to heal. We desperately need Congress working together for us, for the U.S., for our 21st century challenges. No national challenge is red or blue.
Nancy Jacques
Northeast side
Freedom to vote preserved
We have so much to celebrate with the election over and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the winners. But, what a surprise to those of us who supported this team, thinking the majority of our fellow citizens felt the same. It is mind-boggling to now know that almost half of our voting population really did want Trump to win a second term.
It is disheartening to realize by the voter turnout that our divide is so extreme. To many of us, this was a vote for the sake of our country to make sure that our Constitution and the rule of law would not be extinguished. Those that voted for Trump apparently didn’t realize that had Trump won, they wouldn’t have had the freedom to vote in the next presidential election.
There wouldn’t have been such an election.
Cathey Langione
Marana
Give me liberty and count all votes
We all know that famous sentence; the author had just been “saved,” (made right with God) through the Great Awakening that had happened in America. There was a near-supernatural move toward God, where millions of Americans gave their life to Jesus, left their old, sin-filled lives and began to adopt the ways of Jesus and the Bible. Patrick Henry meant those words because he was free in his heart and wanted America to be free to.
The preachers led the Revolutionary War from their pulpits. They encouraged their congregations by preaching: “He whom the Son has set free is free indeed; do not become subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Patrick Henry asked the people: “is peace so dear that you would purchase it in chains?”
That day has come again. We cannot be passive about voter fraud. Everyone should be passionate about knowing the truth. Our liberty depends on it.
Nancy Stovall
Northwest side
GOP election arguments turn ridiculous
Two days after the election, once it became clear that Joe Biden would win, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News to announce that Republicans would not stand by while the election was robbed. As proof of election fraud, he pointed out that Democrat-leaning cities waited until results from rural counties were in, presumably so Democrats could adjust the vote counts accordingly. Really?
Might it simply be that it takes longer to tabulate hundreds of thousands of votes in cities than thousands of votes in rural areas? He also cited Republican down-ballot wins as proof that Trump was robbed. How does that work?
Were ballots altered to reflect Biden while not changing the down-ballot votes? Or is it just possible that many Republicans were willing to vote for their representatives in Congress, but could no longer stomach Trump? As a long-time Republican, it is embarrassing to watch the Republican leadership move from deceptive to ridiculous in order to defend the indefensible.
Gordon Hamilton
Midtown
Elections recounts and profiles in demagoguery
Calling for election recounts due to margins that might be reversed by a few hundred votes (the most change that generally happens in recounts) is normal. Unsubstantiated claims of large-scale fraud are not. They are attacks on us all, on election officials’ integrity, and on the basic democratic principle that the loser accept the outcome without inciting followers to revolt.
The margins in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia are far beyond what a recount will change. It is time for the president to concede, as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 (with smaller margins) and John McCain graciously did in 2008. And it is time for the GOP leadership to take former President George W. Bush’s lead, congratulating President-elect Joe Biden. Those who parrot the president’s rants out of loyalty are threatening democracy.
They should fulfill their responsibilities to their constitutional oaths, being profiles in patriotism, rather than in demagoguery in service to a would-be dictator who believes he can never lose.
Gary Rhoades
Foothills
Can McSally count?
Re: the Nov. 10 article “Kelly unveiling team as McSally remains silent on election outcome.”
This article says Mark Kelly is beating Martha McSally by 83,000 votes in the Senate race, yet there are only 77,000 votes remaining to be counted. Yet McSally won’t concede or even talk about the race.
Is she waiting for a meteor to strike the Earth, kill us all, therefore making her loss a moot point? Does she really think that Arizona is going to throw out millions of ballots, canceling dozens of races in which Republicans did great, just to make Donald Trump happy?
McSally is lucky that Trump is still around, or she would be the most classless politician in the country. Let’s remember this and her underhanded campaign against Kelly if she ever tries to sneak back into Arizona politics.
John Vornholt
Northeast side
Kudos to The Coronet for opening patio
Sally Kane and her team opened The Coronet’s patio restaurant last week and it was a welcome back addition to the Tucson restaurant scene after she closed in the spring to address COVID-19. With all the appropriate health provisions in place, the food was phenomenal, and the service was equal.
In time, she will open the dining room and the bar — but only when it’s safe to do so. Now it’s up to all of us to support Sally and the rest of the Tucson restaurants in there comeback.
Ron Sable
North side
McSally is being a sore loser
We can certainly accept the Republicans’ right to hold out and wait until every ballot is counted, although the statistical evidence is entirely against them. The popular vote and the electoral college already fully confirm Joe Biden’s victory. But, true to form, undignified, sullen, and infantile, Martha McSally, Donald Trump’s Arizona patsy, remains mum, refuses to accept reality and falls ever more deeply into a hole of dishonor, greed and selfishness she has dug for herself years ago when she decided to become the president’s puppy dog.
The Republican leadership, including the Republican senators in Washington D.C., has tragically become so un-American. They are no longer fighting for what is right and good for the people and the world, but desperately trying to cling to power which they have used selfishly to enrich themselves with one tax cut after the other, hurting more individuals whose health care and Social Security they want to take away, while wrecking our environment and legal system. Shame on you, Martha.
Albrecht Classen
Midtown
