Letters to the editor (Nov. 4, 2018)

Respect the law

Our president is called a fear monger because he points out the obvious concerning the caravan from Honduras. Forgive me if seeing thousands of people illegally swarming the borders of Guatemala and Mexico while declaring resolve to overrun our border frightens me. People of good intent don’t raise their fists demanding entry to our country while asserting they will do so regardless of our laws. Such people are bullies, lawbreakers and invaders, having no kinship to the folks who seek legal channels to come here. Prospective immigrants who respect our country and laws enough to do that will see my open arms and heart. Demanding respect of our immigration laws and national sovereignty does not make one a bigot or a racist. This is not a race issue at all.

Refugee status or asylum requires specific circumstances that do not represent the vast majority of people now determined to jump our border. If you’ve been persecuted in your own country in connection to your race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or your political opinion, you have grounds to seek refugee status or asylum. While heart-breaking, poverty is not listed.

GOP abdications

There’s gotta be a reason why Republican stalwarts are abdicating the party.

Bill Kristol, founder of the influential conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, is today a leading voice of Republican opposition. Political commentator and author George Will, once a staunch, articulate defender of the conservative movement, is urging Republicans to vote against the GOP in November.

Well-known conservative commentators David Brooks and Max Boot, along with former conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes, all advocate against the party. Says Brooks: “Today you can be a conservative or a Republican, but you can’t be both.” Boot, author of “The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right,” now refers to his former party as the “white-nationalist party.” Sykes recently published “How the Right Lost Its Mind.”

Former national GOP operatives are also strident critics. Nicolle Wallace, who worked for George W. Bush and John McCain, says the party’s “volume business of misogyny is making moderate Republican women near extinct.” Steve Schmidt, once named GOP Campaign Manager of the Year, renounced his party membership, saying the GOP is “filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders.”

When Republican stalwarts are abdicating the party, there’s gotta be a reason.

Electoral College

Do people living in the “fly-over states” who advocate for the elimination of the Electoral College understand what they are saying? With a popularly elected president, voting for president in the fly-over States would be a waste of time. The majority of our population lives within a few hundred miles of the coasts, mostly in large cities. Many of our large cities historically vote Democrat. It’s not unreasonable to think that with a popular vote system for president, 10 or so of our largest cities could provide the majority of votes and thus determine presidential elections. The rest of the country might as well not vote for president. If the large cities changed over night from Democrat to Republican the shoe would be on the other foot.

Worried about your vote not counting? In Kansas, a “fly-over state, going to the popular vote would render your vote worthless. Large population centers would control the outcome. The Founding fathers had it right 235 plus years ago.