To the Editor:

Recent election cycles have demonstrated that our country remains deeply divided, with economic factors often determining presidential outcomes. Since President Trump took office, we have seen extreme levels of national hostility, fear and suspicion not experienced since the Civil War. While responsibility for this climate is shared, the current administration’s actions and policies are particularly concerning. 

To the Editor:

Congratulations to North Carolina Republican Sen. Tom Tillis, who said on May 21 that this “anti-weaponization” fund of $1,776,000,000 is “stupid on stilts.” Unfortunately there are pretty good people all across this country who keep their head in the dirt by refusing to watch any news, or worse yet, refuse to watch anything but the lying Fox propaganda channel. 

To the Editor:

Like the writer of last week’s letter “Same Story, Different Wording,” I too, look forward to the day when The Smoky Mountain News stops printing letters from David Snell. 

Unlike that writer, however, my reason is very different: I look forward to the day when such letters no longer need to be written. That will be the day when Donald Trump and his cronies stop taking a wrecking ball to the American democratic institutions that our ancestors fought to create and preserve. 

To the Editor:

Out with the old, in with the new: time for reflection, perhaps resolve; certainly time to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies. As Lord Chesterfield believed, “that refuse of fools and cowards.” 

To the Editor:

The attitude of “I get up in the morning and go to work, come home tired and hope for the best” just isn’t going to work anymore. Especially if you are a three-time Trump voter.

This country is being ripped apart by a man who has intentionally divided the American people for his own gain and that of his wealthy friends. Take a close look at the Big Beautiful Bill and who it favors.

The first thing is to tame the rage so that you do not live in it all the time. Or worse, repressing it so often and so much that it calcifies into all-consuming despair. That won’t do. 

The next thing is to cultivate joy stubbornly and aggressively. You know, that “pursuit of happiness” business. It is not easy to do it in our madhouse of a country. You know it and I know it. 

To the Editor:

We all have dates etched in our brain that make us think about certain events. Are you old enough to remember exactly where you were when we heard about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963? Fast forward to Sept. 11, 2001, when we witnessed the most devastating attack on our country since Pearl Harbor. Do you remember exactly where you were that day? 

To The Editor:

Ashley Babbit! Remember that name. The Trump administration Department of Justice just awarded her family $5 million in a wrongful death suit. This shows how corrupt this administration really is and how it caters to those with loyalty to Donald Trump rather than loyalty to our country. 

To the Editor:

Rep. Chuck Edwards greeted attendees at the Republican Party's 11th Con-gressional District convention with: “Isn't it great to be making America great again?” Was that a question, Congressman Edwards, a prayer or an affidavit?

To the Editor:

Acknowledging the fact that, yes, all Americans have a right to have and express an opinion, and that the press has a prerogative to print those (as well as its own) opinions, I feel compelled to take exception to The Smoky Mountain News providing an admitted participant of Jan. 6 (a man tried, convicted, sentenced and then wrongly pardoned by the very person who incited the riot) a platform from which to proliferate the blatant untruth that the 2020 election was stolen (“Jan.6 participant speaks,” SMN April 2).