Deserve their creation
I can’t believe no one has figured out Donald Trump’s con game yet.
I believe he’s never had any intention of being president. He saw how screwed up the Republican Party was and thought he would jump in and get some publicity to enhance his fortune and feed his huge ego. To his surprise, everyone fell for it. And now he realizes he could really be president. Which he really doesn’t want to be.
So he’s trying to make everyone mad at him, even the Republican Party, with his absurd hate-filled statements. It seems he wants to make sure he has no chance of being president. He just wanted to make more money. That seems to be all he cares about.
The Republican Party and the media deserve the monster they created.
Whatever happened to the great leaders that used to run for president?
VIC JOHNSON
Mount Ida
May make difference
I wish the Republicans in the Congress would be half as tough on Barack Obama and the Democrats as they are on their own candidate.
FRANK LATIMER
Sherwood
Improved traffic flow
In order for communities to grow and succeed, we have to have the necessary infrastructure to support it. The well-being of this region is important to me and I was proud to serve as recent past chairman of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, whose goal is to help people and businesses thrive.
Our roads and bridges are tasked with the job of moving both commuters and commerce safely and efficiently from point A to point B. For decades Interstate 30 accomplished this, but its design and function are now past their prime and it’s more taxed and dangerous than it needs to be.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and Metroplan commissioned a study that concluded I-30 warranted improvements, including lane expansion to accommodate projected growth. This is a good thing.
The latest I-30 Crossing design from the highway department, referred to as the six-lane with collector/distribution lanes, has three through lanes in each direction with two additional lanes feeding traffic across the river bridge into the downtown areas. This plan addresses the need for increased vehicular capacity and improves safety.
It also maintains six lanes of traffic across the river bridge throughout the construction phase to facilitate the movement of people and goods through the corridor and into our city centers.
Investment in our region’s transportation infrastructure will do more than improve traffic flow; it will better connect us to the places we want to be and the goods and services we need. A better-connected community—sure sounds like a place I’d like to live.
STEVE WINCHESTER
North Little Rock
Think, be courageous
Dear Republican delegates: Please, please, please don’t do it! There’s still time to do the sensible thing.
Strap on some courage—no time for butterflies.
JERRY BURCHFIELD
Little Rock
Party more important
Who could have thought that the once proud party of Lincoln (with charity for all and malice toward none) could have so completely lost its moral compass? For almost 40 years it seems Republican leaders have strutted around like angry peacocks enticing voters with contrived displays of patriotism, militarism, constitutionalism, and hate disguised as something they call “family values.” In a cynical effort to gain raw political power Republicans have been willing and, sadly, able to cast the constitutionally elected government of the United States as the enemy of the people. Especially when they lost elections, but, maybe more telling, even when they won. I heard a long time ago that Republicans run on a platform denouncing government as dysfunctional and incompetent, they then get elected and prove it.
Republicans’ seriously distorted view of our constitutional processes and their juvenile willingness to play games with our security, our economy, and especially with our E pluribus unum just to win elections is despicable. Republican mouthpieces, outfits like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, have for years provided insulation for and amplification of these pernicious actions.
Doubt this? Look no further than the embarrassment that is the GOP’s presumptive nominee. Racist, misogynist, xenophobe, homophobe, bully—just a few of the names that his own Republican Party members regularly use to describe their nominee! Knowing this, they are still willing to endorse and vote for this dangerous fraud. The next time a Republican wants to talk to you about “their values and principles” remember that their party is more important than their principles, even more important than our country.
KEN GRAVES JR.
Benton
You can’t make this up
The spectacle of GOP meltdown continues, with both Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell giving position statements on current political questions.
Mr. Ryan has confirmed his intention to support the presumed Republican nominee for president while acknowledging the unacceptability of the racism inherent in Trump’s characterization of a federal judge as unsuitable due to the birthplace of his parents. This translates to “Sure, he’s a bigot and racist, but he’s our racist and bigot.”
McConnell, with a straight face, declares that he will not allow President Barack Obama’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court to be considered and voted on in the Senate. Mc-Connell says that he wants the replacement for Antonin Scalia to be someone nominated by a president who is elected by the American people. According to the best records I can locate, President Obama was elected by the American people—twice.
The only words I can offer at this time are often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. “
You could look it up.
DENNIS A. BERRY
Bryant