Letter to the editor: Legislatures' 'executive authority'

I found the first sentence of the Associated Press article “GOP makes power grab to rein in governors on virus response” (May 10) striking: “Republican-controlled legislatures are increasingly trying to strip Democratic governors of their executive authority to close businesses and schools.”

From my earliest grade school civics lessons, I learned the the legislative branch (legislatures — the elected representatives of we the people) makes the laws that the executive branch (in this case, the governors) executes. Maybe the writer forgot this fundamental, so I’ll repeat it in another way: Lawmakers making laws, whether wise or not, is not a power grab. That’s what representative government is supposed to do.

Not to be naive, but, assuming an executive (the president, for example) is privy to otherwise unavailable, classified information regarding national defense or foreign affairs, domestic policy should be debated in open legislative forums.

If this story could have been flipped, with Democratic legislatures reining in Republican governors, would the AP have called that a “power grab”? Would the Tribune-Review have printed it? I believe this is another example of shameful propaganda posing as news in a respectable newspaper.

Mark Nosko Sr.

Hempfield