Readers write

U.S. has fascist threat, not a communist one

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is offering an especially sinister reason for supporting President Donald Trump’s outlandish demand for passage of a $350 billion Pentagon appropriation. Johnson says some of the funds are needed for “fighting communism on our own shore.”

In the first place, it’s illegal for the U.S. military to conduct domestic law enforcement, Trump’s threats to do so notwithstanding. Secondly, it’s blatantly unconstitutional under the First Amendment for the military or any branch of government to suppress anyone’s political beliefs, communist or otherwise.

Third, of course, there is no communist threat in this country. None. Trump has lately been raving about communism, as if this were 1956 rather than 2026. Not a single communist has won a Democratic Party primary for a seat in Congress. Trump is either too ignorant to know the difference between communism and democratic socialism, which is practiced to one degree or another by most industrialized democracies in Europe and elsewhere, or he thinks the American people are that dumb.

America does, however, face a very real fascist threat – exemplified by agents of ICE gunning down innocent people in our streets. Like the would-be fascist dictator he is, Trump has recently promoted criminalizing democratic socialism. Spineless toadies like Johnson pander to their constituents in Trump’s MAGA base instead of exercising actual leadership by educating them about his many threats to our democracy.

This November, we must vote to run these scoundrels out of Washington and our state governments.

CHRIS MOSER, STONECREST

Voters will remember which party promotes freedom

With the midterm elections coming up in November, it seems Republicans are hopeful about keeping the Senate for sure, and possibly the House.