Letters: Republicans remain silent; Betrayed by the Democratic Party

Republicans remain silent

Donald Trump promised to avoid foreign entanglements and improve life for everyday Americans. So why won’t Congressional Republicans push back as he breaks those promises and pursues policies many Americans oppose?

An unnecessary and potentially open-ended conflict with Iran risks American lives, strains military readiness, depletes weapons stockpiles, and adds billions to our already staggering national debt. Meanwhile, families struggling with gas, groceries and healthcare costs are told to accept cuts and sacrifices while huge tax breaks once again flow disproportionately to the ultra-wealthy. Trump himself recently said he isn’t thinking about Americans’ finances “even a little bit.” That sentiment is becoming painfully hard to ignore.

Trump and his family have already made billions profiteering off this presidency. His Acting Attorney General is currently poised to pay Trump another $1.7 billion in taxpayer dollars to settle a baseless lawsuit in which he’s scheming to sue his own administration. This shameless self-dealing and corruption is more typical of Russian oligarchs or a third-world dictator, not the President of the United States.

Despite all this, Republicans remain silent.

The Constitution vests Congress with the power of the purse and the power to declare war. Republicans have displayed neither the integrity nor the courage to stand up to Trump and defend our Constitution. They need to be held accountable for violating their oath of office.

This November, voters need to remember that America deserves leaders willing to defend the Constitution and our citizens, not merely one man.

George Polycranos, Port Matilda

Betrayed by the Democratic Party

I am a lifelong Democrat, but my party has betrayed me. I like to tell people I am a (President) Kennedy Democrat. I am now 70 years old; in high school the only sport for women was cheerleading. Women worked hard to carve out programs for us. This took years. Trans athletes are human beings, but they are not women. Period. I watched my party declare “No Kings,” and yet I was given no choice for a nominee for president, our Kings decided. I watched my party scream that Republicans are Nazis, but two prominent Democrats, Dershowitz and one of PA’s own Supreme Court Justices, have left the party over antisemitism. I watch our party condemn ICE and yet allowed Biden to destroy our border and then, in desperation in 2024, oversaw 270,000 ICE removals/deportations, without so much as a hint of protest. The most effective propaganda tool is to accuse the other side of exactly what you are doing. My party is more concerned about power than me.

Please, there are very good people who are Democrats — wake up, don’t let our party be destroyed. More of our leaders need to support Sen. John Fetterman and support what is good for our country even if it means that we support some of President Trump’s initiatives. Finally, give us a viable candidate in 2028 and stop insulting us with the likes of AOC, Harris and Newsom, they are killing our party. Only we can save our party.

Margaret Potalivo, Boalsburg

Marching toward undemocratic government

What if Donald Trump’s wreckage, chaos, aimless wars, alienation of allies, anti-science idiocy and assaults on voting rights are the point? What if those aspects of “flooding the zone” are essential features, not inadvertent bugs, of fascist strategy?

Fascists resort to and rely on conspiracies that surprise and overwhelm settled polite society as their road to power. They disrupt business as usual, and sow fear and panic among the populace, even as they connive to discredit elected governments.

Trump has used executive power to destabilize society, to discredit the legal system, and to undermine confidence in elected government. Pardons for his Jan. 6, 2021, heroes and martyrs have emboldened his supporters by implicitly pledging them amnesty for future acts of political violence.

Meanwhile, liberal Democrats have facilitated the MAGA march toward fascism. Barack Obama told bankers who had bilked billions of dollars from investors with their junk-mortgage derivative contracts, and who had evicted millions of less affluent families from their homes, “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Fascists welcomed the pitchfork posse to their ranks. Hillary Clinton labeled half of Trump’s supporters “deplorables,” driving that cohort into the fascists’ arms.

Now Democrats are pressing the march toward flagrantly undemocratic government by fighting as hard to disfranchise Republican voters through gerrymandering as Republican leaders have fought to nullify Democratic votes, once again stepping into the trap set by fascist strategists, the true beneficiaries of every move away from fairly apportioned representative democracy.

Ken Lawrence, Spring Mills