Readers write

GOP lawmakers now avoiding Trump in midterms

I am confused. The majority of U.S. (and state) Republican representatives and senators have been supporting the Trump administration’s shameful policies since his 2024 election.

They have relentlessly aided and abetted Trump, promoting his legislative agenda (some of which is illegal or unconstitutional), and most often have avoided pursuing any actions that might provoke Trump’s ire — while ignoring what is best for the American people.

Now that the midterm election is fast approaching, many of these same enablers are trying to distance themselves from him. How does one get their constituents to believe in and support their candidacy and Trump’s “agenda” when they shun attending the Republican midterm convention or decline to have the party’s #1 messenger campaign with them? The American voters are too smart not to see through their blatant hypocrisy!

JUDY B. COHEN, ATLANTA

Lawmakers refuse to stand against fear, ignorance

Mark Twain said, “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” When I first came across this, it was between the 45th and 47th presidents. At the time, I thought, “How true!” But now it is too true.

I was too young in the 1950s to understand what a senator from Wisconsin (Sen. Joseph McCarthy) was doing and how Mark Twain’s statement applied so well. And I was too young to know what the female senator from Maine (Sen. Margaret Chase Smith) thankfully had stood up to say to her fellow senators. But now I know what is happening, and I regret that no senator anywhere is standing up.

No one can call out the Four Horses of the Apocalypse — Fear, Bigotry, Smear, and Ignorance — running across our country. We citizens have to stand up and do so the best way we can.

ALIDA C. SILVERMAN, ATLANTA

Crazy spending drove today’s affordability issue

Regarding “Key issues of division in Ga.’s U.S. Senate race” (Sept. 7): While I am pleased to see Sen. Jon Ossoff “has made affordability the umbrella for his economic argument,” let’s not forget how we got here. Ossoff voted along with other Democrats for trillions in COVID-era government spending that contributed to over 20% cumulative inflation under President Biden.

Now Ossoff wants to make “affordability” his rallying cry? He and other Democrats created the problem, and once prices go up, they rarely go back down. Plus, their solutions, such as higher taxes, more regulation, and government expansion, appear ill-suited to promoting affordability.

We need government to step back, operate in a limited fashion, balance its budget, and let the capitalist system produce affordable goods and services efficiently and effectively.