Letters to the editor: Recovering from Trump, the Capitol riot, vaccine, election results
Recovery
The results of the recent presidential election have left the political system in a bad place, with polls saying that three-fourths of Republicans don’t believe the election was legitimate and won’t trust future elections. That seems like a seriously bad outcome for the long-term health of our Republic. Somehow these people must be convinced about the steps that have been taken to disprove Donald Trump’s lies about the election, lies that he has been telling almost since the day he became president in 2017.
Anyone who has followed events closely knows about the numerous court cases that have been filed by the Trump campaign, mostly in the few swing states where the margins of victory were relatively small. All sorts of outlandish statements about voter fraud were made to the press, but in court, one is in danger of jail time if they lie, so those outlandish claims weren’t made. The result, in the fifty-plus cases, was that they were all thrown out, because they were untrue. I have to assume many of those who are still convinced of voter fraud are not aware of these events, but they are all easily verifiable.
Walt Thode, Boise
‘Savage few’
Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson, Mike Crapo and Sleepy Jim Risch all have blood on their hands for the death at the U.S. Capitol. Why? Their unflinching support of the lies of Trump and the ReTrumplicans about the “fake news” of a stolen election. The insane notion that somehow election fraud occurred only in the states that Biden won and Trump lost. These lies, supported without evidence, and in the face of 59 lawsuit losses fomented the savage death at the U.S. Capitol. Judge Learned Hand wrote in 1944: “A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.” The Idaho delegation’s soulless support of Trump and his lies drove the “savage few” to attack democracy, attempt to kill it, while killing innocent people. These fascists, yes fascists, who support Trump’s authoritarian attempt to carry out ideologically motivated violence to support his racist agenda are poison to a free society. Seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters, the suppression in this coup is an effort to rule only by the “savage few,” led by Fulcher & Co.
Kim Trout, Boise
Where is the vaccine?
Where is the vaccine, Gov. Little? You have the information from the 2020 Census on how many seniors there are in the state. You should have requested at least that amount of vaccine and enough to cover the first responders and care center population. So where is the vaccine ? The government says the states just need to ask — the vaccine is there.
I have called all the pharmacies. They do not have the vaccine for seniors yet. Save On has not been giving shots because they do not have any vaccine. The St. Luke’s clinics do not have the vaccine. Even the hospitals say they do not have the vaccine for seniors yet. The Primary Health clinics do not have the vaccine. All these places COULD be giving the shots. Other states have already vaccinated the tier one population and are already vaccinating the seniors.
All these pharmacies, clinics and hospitals have personnel who could already be giving the shots but there is no vaccine.
Brad Little, you are not doing your job. Where is the vaccine?
Joan Allgair, McCall
Stop the madness
Stop the madness, not the “steal.”
States changed election laws across the country making it easier to vote in a pandemic. You say the changes were unlawful. Well, that can be debated. What you cannot dispute is that each party participated under the same rules in their state.
What was different? Democrats were united, organized and made extraordinary efforts across the country to get out the vote. Democrats did not write the election laws or break them in the disputed states. They took advantage of them and got more people to vote.
How did independents, disgruntled Republicans, and Democrats do it? Here’s a small example. Hundreds of women from all over our state participated in the over 10,000-member Facebook group Idaho Women for Biden Harris. We hand-wrote postcards and virtually phone-banked from our homes to help get-out-the-vote efforts in states across the country. I called voters in Iowa and Nevada from my home for weeks. Thousands of us virtually descended on Georgia to help their efforts to get out the vote for the Senate runoff race.
Be angry that Trump lost. Believing he stole the presidency is a lie. Don’t fall for it.
Carmen Weyland, Boise
Condemn the riot
We, as a book study group of mostly white people who support equity and anti-racism, condemn in the strongest possible way the actions of white domestic terrorists storming our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (“Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson is our current book.)
We speak out against the mob insurrection at the Capitol building as well as President Trump’s seditious encouragement to act with force on the Capitol. As Idahoans, we will not be silent about this evil of racism in the form of white supremacy. We point out the double standard of police response in comparison to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. We listen to the voices of Black and Brown peoples describing racist practices of police and white citizens. We work to understand our own complicity in white privilege contributing to the ill-treatment of our Brown and Black neighbors and replace it with positive, peaceful and supportive actions. We call for all people and government leaders to support an equitable and just society.
Rev. Ed Keener, Boise
Co-signed by Liz Roberts, Carol Mendiola, Carol Stirling, Chris Sealing, Eileen Odell, Bonnie Post, Margaret Harloe, Marta Baker-Jambretz, Phill Allen, Julie Stutts Baker, John McMahon, Shelley Axtell, Gayle Wilde, Richard Mussler-Wright.