Yeah, keep dreaming
Thank you for publishing Jonathan Bernstein’s opinion piece on the editorial page predicting major gains for Democrats in November. I needed a good laugh.
FRANK LATIMER
Sherwood
Has failed Americans
I have become apolitical, that is, I do not claim affiliation to any political party. I do not like the words independent or progressive, along with the regular party labels, because they still brand a person. What I look for in politics are ideas that I can fully accept and support. This is not easy given the political climate in the country. I prefer to listen to candidates’ approaches to problems, make sure the facts are being told, and either support or discard the ideas presented.
My feeling is that our political party system has failed the average American. Since Congress has become so divisive that they agree on very little, the country as a whole is not being provided the representation we are promised by the Constitution. Not only have the executive and legislative branches taken a turn for the worse, but it appears that the Supreme Court may be headed in the same direction, which means a strictly partisan government, not a government of the people, by the people and for the people, as Lincoln spoke of.
What has become really difficult for me is when I go to vote. I find that I can only vote for the candidate, not necessarily the party, that has the best ideas and solutions to offer. So when the poll worker asks me in a primary whether I would like a ballot of one party or the other, that becomes a difficult choice.
I have been alive to see many wondrous things initiated by government at all levels. I only hope and pray that I will be around long enough to see our country return to civility and service to its citizens, the truly representative government that many of us remember with fondness.
GEORGE WILKEN
Little Rock
Words proved fitting
James Pardew’s opinion piece in Monday’s paper was spot-on. Even after the president’s unbelievable press conference with Putin Monday, Mr. Pardew’s essay is even better.
JOEL BUCKNER
North Little Rock
Will never quit fight
The apparent ignorance by the editors of why a woman might make a choice to have an abortion was again on display in a recent editorial.
I promised a 96-year-old last month, through tears, that I’d never quit fighting for the right of a woman to have a legal abortion. She had just told me she gave herself one with a hanger at the age of 17, almost died, and never was able to have children.
If part of that fight involves me actually believing our current president and what he says, legal abortion is at risk. Trump promised his followers who he would appoint—who am I to doubt him?
KAREN MUSICK
Little Rock
Party or patriotism?
As I watched the sickening spectacle unfold in Helsinki on Monday, I was surely not the only central Arkansan with the question for our Republican congressional delegation: Where are you now?
To be sure, in the hours following the nauseating image of an American president kowtowing to a brutal dictator and disparaging the men and women of our nation’s military and civilian intelligence community, you each issued statements critical of Russian aggression. These were embarrassingly mild in rebuking the disastrous actions of your party’s leader. Senators, you both declined to call out the president by name. Congressman Hill, you feebly chastised Trump for having “missed an opportunity” to let the Russians know we don’t believe their denials. Other than giving you political cover, it is unclear what this daring rhetoric will accomplish.
So the question, “Where are you now?” is not about words, but actions. Will you support legislation today to protect the Mueller investigation from presidential interference and firings in the Justice Department? Will you use the power of your office from this point forward to withhold nominations to judicial positions and foreign policy posts until the president explicitly repudiates Putin’s lies? Will you remember that you belong to a co-equal branch of government, and the one that most has an obligation to represent the people of Arkansas?
Historians to come will surely use Helsinki to mark a dividing line between party and patriotism. Very soon it will be too late to be on the right side of it.
STACEY SCHWARTZKOPF
Conway
What really matters
Dear Fellow Arkansans, I know you are as orgasmic (ecstatic for those with a religious bent) as I am that the new Supreme Court appointee may help emasculate (don’t worry, in this case weaken) or, what the hey, totally demasculate (see Urban Dictionary) Roe v. Wade.
Goodness, all Arkansans know poor and middle-class women don’t have the wisdom or intelligence to make decisions about their own bodies. Well-off women and, importantly, the mistresses of rich and powerful men can fly anywhere they choose for an abortion. So it is nice to know the rich will still be able to sc * * * who they want and the poor will still be getting sc * * * ed.
LA NOLEN
Little Rock