Thanks for the impressive outdoors writing
I arbitrarily chose Maggie Nichols’ article “Fall Colors” (RN&R, October 2023) to read with one of my English as a second language students. I wound up being wonderfully impressed by the quality of the writing.
I’m not sure if it will get this 64-year-old out of his chair (I keep falling down on the ice), but I can still be deeply impressed by the use of the language. —Greg Wall, Carson City
Trump should be disqualified
Some states are trying to test in court whether Donald Trump can be disqualified from another term in office according to the 14th Amendment. This is absolutely the right course of action to pursue. It would also be wise to enact legislation prohibiting citizens from holding public office when they have been found guilty of fraud or felony crime.
Every storied democracy that has ever existed on this planet—most notably Athens and Rome—pre-emptively banished political bad actors from the public scene so they could not infect the body politic with their heinous ideologies and methods ever again. They cared about democracy enough to protect it.
A candidate already found guilty of civil fraud should not legally be able to run for any office of public trust, whether additionally convicted of a penal crime before an election or after. He should not be able to touch the office of dog catcher, auditor, road inspector, elections official or school board member. Certainly, he must not have access to leadership over the Department of Justice or ever make high court nominations. Dump Trump now! —Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
“Trump should be disqualified – Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah”
Why would I subscribe to your newspaper if you are going to print an opinion from someone out of our state. Keep it local and I might reconsider. Yet another example of distorted media, making the article appear as a local opinion.
Make America Great Again – Trump for 2024
Hello, we have a thing in this so called Constitutional Republic called the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Trump hasn’t been convicted of anything as far as I know so far. You are innocent until proven guilty. FYI I am not a Trump supporter either.
The key statement in “Trump should be disqualified” is in the last paragraph: “A candidate already found guilty…”.
The problem with pushing Trump off of ballots now is that the candidate has not yet been found guilty by any official legal entity. Kicking him off the ballot without due process only adds fuel to the fire that Republicans have started regarding rigged elections.
This election should be a cake-walk for Democrats. After holding power for two years, there are LOTS of accomplishments to be touted and avidly compared to the hateful, childish chaos that defined Washington while Republicans were in charge. But it will take everyone voting to keep those chaotic children from taking charge again.
One way to demonstrate how the country fares better under Democratic leadership is to see the results. But where are all the signs showing the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act? Folks need to be reminded that their tax dollars are going to something that actually benefits them as a demonstration of how government is supposed to work. And it did work when Democrats were in the majority.
Republicans have an opportunity to demonstrate their patriotism by denouncing Trump and anyone who supports him. Policy differences about how to manage the border do not present the same existential threat to our democracy as the attack on the capitol that resulted when Trump called his mob to action. Claims about whether or not there is some kind of money-making scheme where $40,000 may have exchanged hands between a couple of Bidens does not present the same existential threat to our democracy as the attack on the capitol that resulted when Trump called his mob to action. The possibility that Biden’s age might come into play so that our current Vice President would have to take over until the next election does not present any kind of existential threat to our democracy; it defines the strength of our democracy in exactly the opposite way that the attack on the capitol which resulted when Trump called his mob to action did.
There is no rational way to claim patriotism and support someone who has demonstrated contempt for it by sitting idly by while his mob attacked the capitol. No playing with words about whether or not Trump is serious about being a dictator on any day can undo how Trump sat idly by while his mob attacked the capitol. And all the nice-talk we’re starting to hear from Trump now that he thinks he’s got the Republicans in his pocket can erase the fact that he sat idly by while his mob attacked the capitol.
Deplorable is exactly the right word for anyone who supports a man who could have prevented the attack before it happened, stopped it while it happened, and who, to this day, has shown that he would readily do it again. If you’re inclined to vote for Trump or maybe sit this one out, I suggest a reading of “The Federalist Papers” where you’ll see where our forefathers argued for our current constitution to specifically fight against what we’re currently seeing with the MAGA movement and Trump.