Trump and Musk are a joke
To the Editor:
Despite what MAGA Republicans say, our esteemed president inherited a robust economy from President Biden (except for egg prices, apparently). The stock market was booming, unemployment was low and inflation was going down.
President, secretaries control agencies
To the Editor:
It seems many have talked about the three branches of government and their separation and nonelected personnel. I don’t know why people don’t realize that the President is the head of the Executive Branch and can control hiring and firing in his 15 departments.
Oval Office meeting provides clarity
To the Editor:
I realize by the time this is printed that the Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky (Friday, Feb 28) will be old news. But it should never become old news. We saw what we saw, and it has given us clarity about who our leaders are.
Give Trump time to do the job
To the Editor:
When Bill Clinton was President, we had a balanced federal budget. Now we have trillions of dollars in deficit spending. We have a serious spending problem. Let the President complete his job. If he fails, you can vote Democrat in 2028.
Remember now next time you vote
To the Editor:
It has been hard to keep up with the news cycles during the first week of President Trump’s administration, but a few things deserve public ridicule. In his infinite wisdom, Trump pardoned and released about 1,500 January 6 criminal defendants into our communities to do violence and organize their militias.
Are we safer after the pardons?
To the Editor:
In January 2021, Daniel Rodriques travelled to Washington, D.C., to take part in a gathering of supporters of the incoming president of the United States.
The essence of power is a towel
Editor’s note: This story originally ran in The Smoky Mountain News in November 2018 following Politics Editor Cory Vaillancourt’s trip to Georgia to meet President Jimmy Carter. The former president died Dec. 29, 2024.
There, in Sumter County, Georgia, not far from the Alabama line lies the tiny town of Plains (pop. 784), a most unremarkable place home to a most remarkable man.
Godspeed, President Carter
To the Editor:
Not being particularly tearful yesterday (Dec. 29) was a terrible moment for me. It was the day that marked the passing of President Carter, a man of unsurpassed moral integrity.
Mencken’s vision
When I asked a friend in the north of England what people there think of our recent election, he did not hold back.
“The chief reaction here generally is one of utter incredulity,” he wrote. “There’s a sense of bewilderment at the number of people, apart from his most rabid supporters, who could actually vote for the creature, allied to a sense of wonder at a political and legal system which could allow it to happen.”
Trump’s election tells us a lot
To the Editor:
The 2024 presidential election revealed one thing in crystal-clear, proof-positive, light-years beyond any reasonable doubt comprehensibility, that the ability and capacity of the average American voter to simply (but so importantly) distinguish between fact and fiction, the ability to grasp (and choose confidently) between truth and falsehood, the aptitude necessary to seek out and determine right from wrong, to diligently and with purpose contrast good and evil, and lastly, the ability and the practiced competence to differentiate and choose the honorable from the dishonorable — no longer exists.
