Primary season hosts GOP’s pandering to its base
It’s primary time, setting up for the 2018 general election. Primaries are when candidates are falling over each other to appeal to the gun-toting base. A recent example was Casey Cagle campaigning against a fuel tax break for Delta Air Lines, which meant other GOP lawmakers followed in lockstep to amend the sweeping tax bill. All this was in reaction to a marketing decision made by Delta to discontinue a little-used discount offered to NRA members. Brian Kemp, the candidate for governor, is shown in a TV commercial making his Second Amendment point by literally pointing a shotgun at a teenager. Growing up in Georgia, my dad taught me to never point a gun at anyone unless you intend to kill them. I’m a dad who belongs to Moms Demand Action, and I do not approve of Kemp’s message.
DAVE FEDACK, DOUGLASVILLE
Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for Gaza’s hardship
Hamas is primarily responsible for the situation in Gaza. When Israel withdrew in 2006, Gaza could have looked forward, as did Israel after surviving the 1948 invasion by five Arab armies.
Tiny Israel uplifted all the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, building a modern economy while under siege. It built a society in which Israeli Arabs serve in senior positions, and have a higher proportional representation in medical schools than Israeli Jews.
Instead Hamas stuck with its stated goal of annihilating Israel. It started several wars. It still diverts much of the cement, trucked in from Israel for civilian construction, to terror tunnels. Gaza power shortages are caused by the rival Palestinian Authority, which won’t pay for electricity.
Hamas boasts that the violent “protests” along the border are aimed at dismantling Israel. The “protesters” set alight Israeli farm fields, as well as the gas lines bringing in gas from Israel. Meanwhile, over 2,000 truckloads of supplies enter Gaza from Israel weekly, but none from Egypt. Israel continues to provide water and electricity and treat Gazans in its hospitals.
As long as Palestinian leaders remain obsessed with destroying Israel, both sides will suffer.
DORON LUBINSKY, ATLANTA
GOP pols lack empathy until suffering hits home
I am so tired of reading about Republican politicians whose empathy genes lie dormant until something hits their own families. Got a gay son with AIDS? Not my problem – unless it is my son. Got a kid with an addiction problem? Oh, it’s crack, you are poor, and obviously lazy and a criminal – jail is the answer; not my problem. Oh, my precious white grandson died? Now I see the issue. These politicians can’t get out of their chauffeured limos and gated communities to actually see what the issues are and talk to those affected by them because they do not care – until the issue strikes a member of their own family. I am sorry for Sen. Isakson’s loss (“Johnny Isakson and the opioid epidemic,” Metro, April 22). He’s very late to the game on solutions. But maybe he can energize the dormant empathy gene in some of his fellow Republicans who haven’t lost children or grandchildren yet.
LIBBY GOZANSKY, ATLANTA
Left is too willing to punish those of differing views
We used to be proud of the idea that, when I had a disagreement with someone about some political or policy or philosophical matter, we could respect each other and discuss and debate the issue so that he better understood my viewpoint, and I better understood his viewpoint. Perhaps he could convince me that he had some valid points, and I could do likewise. Now, large segments of the Left have adopted the position that honest disagreement is no longer allowed. If someone disagrees with any of their theories, their response is that this person must be destroyed. Massive efforts will be undertaken to destroy that person financially, ruin his reputation and his career, attack his business, and intimidate his friends and family and anyone who might consider supporting him. This is a shameful degradation of our once-noble culture of respectful debate and discussion.
BILL WHITLOW, AUBURN
About the Author
