Sounding off: Founders, elections, candidates among week's topics

Founding Fathers not Christian nationalists

Republican leader Marjorie Taylor Greene recently stated that “Our Founding Fathers would’ve been considered Christian Nationalists, and I agree with them!”

Greene has embraced a trope of exclusion that is factually and historically wrong.

While many of the Founding Fathers were religious, they did not intend to create a Christian nation. The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of Christianity or any specific religion.

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, said, “Religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.”

John Adams states more definitively that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Separation of church and state reflected concerns by the founders based on centuries of religious wars in Europe.

The lasting scars of those wars lead to the First Amendment prohibition on “establishment of religion.” Madison wrote, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.”

The Founding Fathers created the Constitution based on the rule of law. Jefferson wrote, “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”

Christian Nationalism must be rejected. It is a threat to our rights and the democratic republic of the Founding Fathers.

Michael Pardus

Penn Township, Westmoreland County

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U.S. should have one primary date

The presidential candidates for the two major parties in the November presidential election are now set. The significant majority of voters in this country don’t like either one of them. We are now, thanks to our primary process, reduced to choosing not whom we like the best, but rather whom we hate the most.

How did this happen?

For starters, there is the problem noted in your editorial “Does the presidential primary matter in Pennsylvania” (March 7, TribLive). The voters in Pennsylvania have been denied the opportunity to have any role in selecting our parties’ candidates. Most of the candidates for president were weeded out long before Super Tuesday. They were eliminated after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. What makes the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire so much smarter than Pennsylvania voters enabling them to choose our candidates?

The solution is obviously one primary date where all states vote for our parties’ candidates on the same day. If not, our state Legislature should move our primary date to the date of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. This would ensure that we have some participation in the selection of our parties’ candidates.

Al Lindsay

Buffalo Township

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Trump, Greene a great ticket

Vice President Kamala Harris was like a jack-in-the-box during President Biden’s State of the Union address, standing and clapping wildly after almost every sentence he uttered. She looked like an idiot.

In the audience sat Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative Republican representative from Georgia wearing a red MAGA baseball cap. Now, Greene isn’t loath to give her conservative opinion on any matters political. From her seat in the audience, she shouted at various things Biden said. You couldn’t make out what she was saying. Too bad she didn’t have a microphone on her. I’m sure the powers on up didn’t wanted to have her “mic’d up.”

After Biden’s address, I would have liked to have seen Greene rip up her copy of his speech, just like former Rep. Nancy Pelosi did after President Trump’s State of the Union address.

Now I ask you — wouldn’t that make a great presidential ticket? Trump as president and Greene as vice president.

George Wesolosky

Leechburg

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Biden has done much for us

Much has been said about President Biden’s age, even though Donald Trump constantly gets things mixed up and can’t remember dates and names.

I do not write for sympathy, because none is needed. True, seniors forget some dates, forget some names. But so what? That’s true of a lot of us, old and young.

The issue is what they do, not if they forget a date or name.

“Honest Joe” is a perfect example: For a guy who is attacked for being old, he has done a hell of job for us. Look at the record.

Biden fights to protect the right to vote, not overturn it. He has brought new jobs and manufacturing, investments that actually help middle Americans: better cell service and internet, health care insurance, lower drug costs, and better roads and bridges.

Today, coming out of the pandemic, the economy is stronger than ever with the stock market at new highs and more jobs than any time before.

For a guy who forgets some dates, wow, what a record, especially for middle-class America.

Meanwhile, what have Trump and your Republican congressional representatives have done for middle America? In my opinion, nothing to invest in our country; no new manufacturing jobs; no new infrastructure; no lower drug costs; nothing to bring working families anything of value.

Both Biden and Trump forget some dates and names, but I think only Biden has ever done anything for you.

If just this once, vote Democratic.

Chris Baldonieri

Latrobe

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Excessive fine for Trump unconstitutional

Former President Donald Trump has been fined $454 million.

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

I wonder, in this economy today, how much should be considered to be an excessive fine? What amount would constitute a cruel punishment? How much of a fine should be called an unusual punishment? Half a million dollars? One million dollars?

I hope that soon I will hear in the news that the fine assigned to Trump has been determined to truly be an excessive fine and that it has been found that to decree a fine of $454 million violated the Constitution of the United States. What punishment should be meted out to the official who would so violate the Constitution?

Dan Manka

Fairmont, W.Va.

The writer is a Regent Square native.

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McDaniel and NBC’s agenda

Well, NBC news “journalists” have shown their true agenda in such a big way it can no longer be ignored.

Ronna McDaniel was hired by NBC to hopefully balance their left-wing rhetoric. However, the talent on their shows threw a fit and demanded she be fired before she even started the job.

The hateful, condescending things the NBC commentators said about McDaniel were disgusting. They said her association with the Republican National Committee and MAGA makes her an enemy of the left, NBC, MSNBC, our democracy and truth and justice. McDaniel’s opinions and ideas were not welcome and were not to be tolerated.

In my opinion, this behavior shows in great clarity the nasty, divisive nature of these liberal “we’re protecting democracy” news shows.

Jeanne Shields

North Huntingdon

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Appreciative of Dukes’ play, coverage

As a season ticketholder and Duquesne law graduate, I certainly appreciate the stellar coverage given to the Duquesne Dukes men’s basketball team during their NCAA “March Madness” run in the tournament. Like Duquesne University President Ken Gormley, I am feeling like a kid again. Having met all of the players on the team, I can say that they seem to be very polite and well mannered, and they do play hard during the game.

I met Coach Keith Dambrot seven years ago, during his introduction as head coach, and was most impressed by his knowledge of Duquesne and the fact that his father, Sid Dambrot, played for the Dukes during their early “glory years.” Dambrot has now come full circle in leading this year’s team back to the tournament. Mission accomplished.

Thanks also to Tribune-Review president Jennifer Bertetto for continuing to provide newsworthy local coverage.

Gino F. Peluso

Lower Burrell