Sounding off: Politics at top of readers' minds

Economy top issue for voters

Many Americans are struggling to feed families and put gas in cars. “It’s the economy, stupid” says it all! That phrase was coined by James Carville for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. Today, President Biden supporters tell us Bidenomics is working and things are just fine. But are they?

The average gasoline price is $3.52 a gallon, a 50% increase over $2.30 when Biden entered the Oval Office. Grocery prices are over 25% higher. Mortgage rates have gone from about 3% to over 7%, putting the American dream of home ownership out of reach for many.

These are but a few examples to demonstrate that America’s economy is terrible for far too many Americans. Sadly, the Biden administration has no solution but to tell us that everything is just fine. It’s time to admit that everything is not fine; Carville was correct — “It’s the economy stupid”!

Americans need leaders with successful business experience in the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives to improve the economy for everyone. Here we can vote for such leaders as Donald Trump, Dave McCormick and James Hayes, all of whom have excellent and demonstrated business records.

It’s time to make America energy independent again and scrap the wasteful attempts to reduce carbon emissions. This is but one example of how to tame inflation and restore the America we know and love. Many others will also be employed to defeat the Barack Obama-Joe Biden promise to “fundamentally change America.”

Maury Fey

Murrysville

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Democracy or hypocrisy?

If you are a viewer of MSNBC, CNN or one of the other major networks, you have been told ad nauseam that our “democracy” is at stake.

On June 27, the first presidential debate was held between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It was evident that night that what was at stake was our Republic.

Biden’s family, his physician, Democratic leadership under Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, as well as the mainstream media, led us to believe that Biden was solidly sound to lead our nation.

If Biden were winning by 10 points in the polls, would these same people feel his cognitive decline to be an issue? If it were an issue, would it be large enough of one to consider invoking the 25th Amendment? If Biden feels he needs to step aside for the good of the nation, then why not resign immediately?

Joseph A. Wulfsohn, media reporter for Fox News Digital, reported in an article published July 11 that “Progressives are enraged as Democrats reportedly privately admit Trump is not an ‘existential threat to democracy.’”

It seems transparent that “democracy” is being replaced by hypocrisy. Are millions of Biden voters about to have their votes disenfranchised?

It is all about winning an election, regardless of the cost.

Full stop.

Romayne K. Levcik

Greensburg

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Harris as president Dems’ death wish

Kamala Harris for president? Does the Democratic Party have a death wish? She has been in charge of President Biden’s disastrous failed border/immigration policy since 2021. ’Nuff said?

Gerald Schiller

Penn Hills

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Calling on the Founders to respond to Project 2025

One answer from our Founders that I could offer in response to Project 2025, to those installing a version of the Ten Commandments in public schools, to those who want to “teach” the Bible and Christianity in American public schools comes from Thomas Jefferson’s Jan. 27, 1800, letter to Joseph Priestley:

“Pardon, I pray you, the temporary delirium which has been excited here, but which is fast passing away. The Gothic idea that we are to look backwards instead of forwards for the improvement of the human mind, and to recur to the annals of our ancestors for what is most perfect in government, in religion and in learning, is worthy of those bigots in religion & government, by whom it has been recommended, and whose purposes it would answer, but it is not an idea which this country will endure.”

Second: Read the complete Benjamin Franklin Silence Dogood No. 9, which begins with: “It has been for some Time a Question with me, whether a Commonwealth suffers more by hypocritical Pretenders to Religion, or by the openly Profane? But some late Thoughts of this Nature, have inclined me to think, that the Hypocrite is the most dangerous Person of the Two, especially if he sustains a Post in the Government.”

Third, Thomas Jefferson to nephew Peter Carr Aug. 10, 1787, on how to read the Bible: “Fix reason firmly in her seat. … Question with boldness even the existence of a god … (and) the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from god.”

Bruce Braden

Carmel, Ind.

The writer is a Mt. Pleasant native.

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Secret Service incompetence troubling

It’s now apparent that Thomas Crooks, the person who attempted to assassinate former President Trump, was better prepared for the events that unfolded at the July 13 rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds than were the United States Secret Service personnel (“Secret Service is investigating how a gunman who shot and injured Trump was able to get so close,” July 14, TribLive).

The gunman reportedly entered the property in full view of attendees of the rally carrying a backpack containing range-finder binoculars and related shooting gear, and perched himself on top of a building within 160 yards and with a clear line of fire to the podium where Trump would be speaking; he proceeded to fire numerous rifle rounds, nearly killing Trump and wounding several others, one fatally. Up until the shooting started, the attending Secret Service personnel seemed to be inexplicably oblivious to any danger to Trump.

It’s interesting to note that organizationally the Secret Service is within the Department of Homeland Security, whose director is Alejandro Mayorkas, the same individual who is responsible for protecting this country’s borders, but who nevertheless has allowed tens of thousands of illegal migrants to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. Mayorkas is a President Biden appointee.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting U.S. political leaders, their families and visiting heads of state. The director of the Secret Service is Kimberly Cheatle, also a Biden appointee.

The chain of incompetence that obviously threads through the Secret Service, Homeland Security and the president’s office is quite troubling.

Wayne Baughman

Salem

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Do politicians’ lives have more worth than others?

Political violence? A dark day in America? What about the slaughter that has happened in our schools? Small children’s bodies torn apart by high-powered guns and ammunition.

Do politicians’ lives mean more than the concertgoers in Las Vegas? The kids in Parkland, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, Columbine, etc.? The constant slaughter in our streets every day?

Oh, that’s right. It’s OK because politicians have so much more worth. The same politicians who could do something by passing comprehensive gun laws with teeth are threatened. And I’m supposed to be outraged? You have to be kidding me. I’ll save my outrage for better causes.

Gloria Butler

Upper Burrell

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Presidential race, a sad state of affairs

They stood, two old men arguing over who was the worst U.S. president, and then, which of the pair occupying center stage in Atlanta was the better golfer. It could have been a pair of geezers sitting on a park bench. But no. It was called a presidential debate and aired to an estimated 50 million television viewers. There being no live audience was a blessing. It ended up being 90 painful-to-watch, televised minutes.

CNN, which hosted the dismal performances of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, should be ashamed. Two seasoned CNN reporters, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, were at their worst allowing the pair to ramble, refuse to answer questions and lie. Questions were poorly framed, and the decision not to fact-check answers was a mistake.

While Biden’s feeble, unexpected showing will be long remembered, Trump’s lies will be easily forgotten, as he has the well-earned reputation of being a pathological liar.

National polls have consistently shown that voters wished for other choices in this year’s presidential elections. The Atlanta event demonstrated why so many Democrats and Republicans (not the MAGA cult) were wanting different, younger candidates heading their parties’ tickets.

Now Biden has stepped aside. Republicans, on the other hand, are willing to have a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and liar as their nominee. A sad state of affairs. Is this America?

Glenn Plummer

Unity