Republican Trumpsters are moderates? Please
Re: the Nov. 11 letter “Our Democratic senators will be leftists.”
Ms. Nordman’s letter regarding Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly almost made me laugh. Does she consider current Republican senators, including Martha McSally, to be moderates?
If true, their definition of moderate must include the following: First, taking health care away from 20 million fellow citizens. Second, never offering a detailed health-care plan to replace the ACA. Third, claiming the COVID-19 virus is a “Democratic hoax.” Fourth, supporting the move away from democracy and toward authoritarianism to maintain political power, and finally, a continuous long-term effort to suppress voting from groups viewed as supporting Democrats rather than appealing to those groups to gain their support.
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These are descriptors of the current Republican Party, Trumpism and many of their supporters.
Republicans also are not willing to reach across the aisle. If you do not accept this description of your political party, then you are just as delusional as you claim Sinema and Kelly are.
Craig Whaley
Northwest side
Time to abolish
Electoral College
Once again, a letter writer argued in favor of the Electoral College as a tool to prevent “the tyranny of the majority.” This oft-quoted specious argument never addresses the tradeoff: “the tyranny of the minority.”
Voiding the “majority rules” protocol, the Electoral College was created to prevent an unworthy man from becoming the president. In order to prevent a demagogue with no understanding of governance, no respect for the rule of law, no ability to logically confront problems and no desire to unite the citizenry and lead the country down a sustainable path from becoming president, the Founding Fathers adopted the idea.
Ironically, the Electoral College disenfranchised 3 million voters in 2016 and caused that exact event to occur. When a tool creates the very problem that it was designed to prevent, it reveals its fallaciousness as a solution. The Electoral College is an anachronism that deserves abolition.
Rick Cohn
West side
Sister Clare
still inspires
I quote the 1976 post-Watergate observation of my favorite philosopher-politician, Sister Clare Dunn, who almost completed four terms in the Arizona House of Representatives before her death in 1981. Her belief in democracy still inspires:
“The people are resilient. In spite of their disillusionment they are determined to make the system work. I believe that prominence of the virtues of justice and integrity in those of us whose lives touch the public is the kind of moral leadership that people are looking for. To respond to this challenge at this time is of greater importance for the future of our country and our world than we may ever know.”
Norah Booth
East side
Christy doesn’t
act rationally
I am an active, involved constituent of Pima County District 4. I follow local, state and federal issues.
Just when it appeared there would no longer be an extremist GOP representative on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, up steps District 4’s Steve Christy.
From voting against the clearly lifesaving mask mandate and asserting that humans have no role in climate change, he most recently voted against certifying Pima County’s legitimate and accurate election results.
What Pima County needs now, more than ever, is informed, rational decision-making. Fortunately, new Supervisors Rex Scott and Matt Heinz will bring a stable, logically informed presence to the board to counter Christy’s indefensible positions.
Christy’s baseless positions are not in the best interest of the community he serves and further expose his ultra-conservative ideologies.
Luci Messing
Northeast side
Voter ID is the real election fraud
So, we have been told by independent election officials that there was no widespread fraud in this election. In fact, we have also been told that this was the most secure election in American history, again, by independent experts in the White House. That means that both states with and without voter identification laws were without widespread fraud.
The only conclusion I can draw is that voter identification laws, by deduction, are only in place to suppress the vote wherever possible. It is surely just a coincidence that these laws are only in place in Republican-controlled states.
It would be helpful to know how many people in each state were turned away from the polls because of lack of voter identification and what their makeup was (how old? of what color? etc.) vs. how many were detained for possible fraud.
George Kramer
SaddleBrooke
Republican Party sold
its soul for raw power
Shay Stautz has a message of redemption for Arizona Republicans — offering them a sunny Reaganesque vision of their future. But redemption comes after confession, and Stautz makes no mention of what, exactly, the Republicans got wrong that caused their defeat. Let me help him.
The Republican Party in Arizona and nationwide accepted the leadership of a demagogic charlatan as the leader of their party. They accepted his vulgarity, his mendacity, his corruption, his divisiveness and his malignant narcissism, because he had an “R” before his name. But Donald Trump was never a genuine Republican or a conservative of any stripe.
In 2016, the Republican Party sold its soul for raw power. Their deal with the devil just came due in 2020.
Larry DeWitt
Northeast side
Business bandits bent out of shape
Leading up to the election, Arizona business leaders spent a few million dollars to defeat a tax increase for education funding in the name of an inability to afford it. Now they are preparing to spend even more of that money they don’t have on a lawsuit to negate the proposition they failed to defeat.
The true irony here is that if you ask anybody who is involved in helping people find work what the loudest complaint from Arizona business leaders is, they will all tell you the same thing: Arizona schools are not preparing graduates adequately for work.
Perhaps if these vandals stopped doing everything they can to hamstring schools, the schools might be able to get the job done.
David Reynolds
East side
Good to have adults back in the room
Today my heart is full. Almost to the point of weeping. I watched Joe Biden introduce some of the members of his new team and I knew that our country would be in some of the most capable, patriotic hands ever.
Each and every one of those who spoke filled my heart with gratitude at their expertise and willingness to speak truth to power, unafraid of either being fired or being at the receiving end of angry tweets from the White House. I am eternally grateful to all 80 million-plus Americans who voted to bring decency, pride, compassion and integrity back to the White House, some of whom waited for hours on end to make sure their voices were heard, especially in light of the risks that they faced because of this nation’s debilitating and deadly pandemic.
We Americans can finally rest assured that adults are once again back in charge of this country’s national interests and security. What a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Hallelujah!
Gladys Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Press must publish its COVID math
Re: the Nov. 21 article “Study: Motorcycle rally sparked infections in next state.”
Articles such as this should always include the mathematics to allow people to assess the risk that the subject of the article posed. In this case, the writer says that the AP found that at least 290 people in 12 states tested positive for COVID after attending the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. Doing the math, I find that 290 people out of 500,000 in attendance means the infection rate was 0.06%.
This rate of infections is minuscule. Why do COVID articles never include the death rates or infection rates, only numbers? What is important to the reader is the rate, not the number. Numbers are meaningless without the rate.
Jerry Bich
Oro Valley
Sen. McConnell’s
hunger games
What did Mitch McConnell eat for Thanksgiving dinner?
Thousands of people in the United States are hungry. They are lining up at food banks. Many people have to choose between buying food or medicine. What can be done about this? Who can help us?
Mitch McConnell is arguably the most powerful person in the United States. He can decide if the Senate works night and day to solve these terrible problems. He has chosen not to help us. He says that if Democrats don’t accept his proposals, he won’t discuss the matter. He’s going home for Thanksgiving.
What did he eat for Thanksgiving dinner?
Lucille Penner
East side
I’d like to report
election fraud
Recently Arizona lawmakers have set up an email for the citizenry to report election fraud. The email address is 2020election@azleg.gov. To this I have submitted my account:
Dear Arizona Senate President Karen Fann,
There has been an attempted election fraud in Pima County. Pima County Supervisors Steve Christy and Ally Miller voted without citing evidence of actual fraud, or of problems so significant that they should invalidate the election, not to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election. Steve Christy, in particular, made some unsupported allegations that there was fraud, not in Pima County, but elsewhere in the country, that apparently he felt justified in a “no” vote to certify Pima County’s results.
I suspect Steve Christy’s action are part of much larger plot by President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.
Please investigate Steve Christy’s action and report back to me your findings.
John Mcconnaughey
Oro Valley
