Where has gone Republicans’ common sense? Letters to the editor, Dec. 11, 2020

Republicans and common sense?

It is painful to read that 61% (Monmouth Poll) of Republicans — among them people I know, like, and respect — believe the election was “stolen” from President Trump through, presumably, a massive national network of cheating.

I volunteered the two final days at the polls and two more, unfolding mail-in ballots. The whole process was well organized and highly efficient. Ballots were never touched by poll workers before they were loaded by voters into the counting machines, nor left unsecured. When unfolding and stacking ballots for counting, we worked in groups and were always observed; ballots were handled with great security. It would have been impossible for me to stop work at any time to collect and alter any ballots. The same goes for all workers who always worked with partners or in groups handling any aspect of ballot marking or counting.

The workers and I were all ordinary Americans doing the best we could to be accurate, honest and fair. To think that poll workers who are ordinary Americans all across the country had some secret way to alter millions of ballots defies common sense. Which begs the question, “Republicans, what has happened to your common sense?”

Blame the person in the mirror

Do you think Donald Trump loves the United States of America? If your answer is yes, how has he shown it? Has he shown it by denying the world's worst pandemic in over 100 years just to satisfy his political opportunism? Has he shown it in an attempt to destroy some of our Democratic institutions, overturning 240 years of history to preserve democracy and its institutions?

Has he shown it by giving comfort and aid to the enemies of democracy? Has he shown it by attempting to overturn a legitimate election just to stay in power, even though he knows it was legitimate and that he lost?

The odd thing is he could have won this election. I believe that had he assumed the role of a real leader and told the people the truth about the pandemic and what we had to do to overcome it, he could have won the election. He is responsible for his own defeat. He can't blame anyone else but the person who looks back at him ln his mirror.

Dining or deaths? Choice is before us

 Nobody would deny that we are in tough times and that the economy is playing havoc with people’s lives, including but not limited to restaurant owners and workers. But when I hear that the restaurant owners are going to protest the ban on dining in the face of surging COVID numbers, I can only quote Bob Dylan: “How many deaths does it take till he knows that too many people have died?” And then Dylan says, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.” 

So is a quarter of a million not enough? How about a half million? 

Newsom is just winging it on COVID

California citizens are fed up with the “Do as I say, not as I do” Gov. Gavin Newsom. He has lost the people’s trust. He can no longer cite science as the genesis of his COVID-19 management; shooting from the hip, at best.

This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Where has gone Republicans’ common sense? Letters to the editor, Dec. 11, 2020."