Willem Lange, in his Oct 5 column in the Valley News (“American ground is shifting beneath our feet,” Oct. 5), references Ronald Reagan’s comment, “Government can’t solve your problems, government is the problem,” and goes on to say “The idea lay dormant and forgotten … until a few years ago a real estate magnate identified by his New York peers as a con man and a grifter brought it to life by opening as skillfully as a leech ever opened a vein, the deep seated fears and frustrations of the anti-establishment and anti-intellectual among us.” Bingo!
Nancy Parker
Lebanon
An authoritarian agenda
Donald Trump is a threat to the survival of the Republic. I have penned those words many times. But what exactly do I mean when I say that Trump and the current GOP represent an existential threat to the Republic? It’s simple: the end of a two party political system. Under Trump’s aegis, and based upon the red state narrative that the left is evil and must be destroyed, the GOP is attempting to terminate the Democratic party’s participation in American polity. If state and federal Republican Party leadership have their way — if the GOP wins the House and the Senate in 2022, and if Trump runs for, and wins, the presidency in 2024 — laws will be passed, obstacles erected, false narratives promoted and reified, that will make the election of opposition candidates impossible. Indeed, opposition itself will become a crime against the state. America will become a court in which only one side gets to present an argument to the judge and jury.
Take a look around the world. From Turkey to Russia, Iran to Saudi Arabia, China and beyond, monolithic systems of government thrive; systems in which opposition parties are crushed, their leaders imprisoned, their very existences illegalized. This is the future we face in a GOP-led, Trump-led America.
We are, in fact, already on this path. Voting rights are being dismantled, laws are wending their way through state legislatures that will effectively nullify election results if those election results don’t suit the wishes of Republican leadership, books and words are being banned — all because Donald Trump and his acolytes have spent the past five years promoting lies about the supposed nefarious evils of the political Left. Arthur Miller would indeed find our current morass quite amusing. Donald Trump and his minions are a threat to the Republic because if they prevail, the Democrats will be systematically eliminated. It’s that simple.
Dan Weintraub
Quechee/Boston
Newcomer runs in rural Vt.
I am enthusiastically supporting Kelsey Root-Winchester to represent the Caledonia-Orange legislative district (Topsham, Groton and Newbury) in the Vermont State Legislature. She has been a tireless worker in seeking to improve her community in many ways and I am confident that she would be a real asset in helping to make Vermont a better state. I am very disappointed in her opponent’s voting record during his one term in the Legislature. His vote against women’s reproductive rights is especially egregious.
I urge voters to elect Kelsey and I look forward to her good work for our district.
John C. Morris
Topsham
Vote for Mark MacDonald
Mark MacDonald has the experience and dedication to represent us well in the Vermont Senate. Now that Bradford has been moved from the Caledonia County district to the Orange County district, I will be voting for Mark.
He knows Orange County and its citizens. He lives on a farm in Williamstown where he spent much of his formative years and now raises beef cattle. He is a retired teacher and a Vietnam veteran.
Mark has served in the Senate for 20 years and before that in the House for 11. During his terms as a senator Mark has worked tirelessly for Orange County and the state of Vermont.
I encourage you to cast your vote for integrity and a record of service.
Gary W. Moore
Bradford, Vt.