To the Editor:

“How is it possible, what has lobotomized people who cheer and celebrate the most transparent fraud, the most outrageous liar, the most straitjacket-ready psycho ever visited on the body politic?” Those are the words of Hal Crowther, longtime journalist and essayist. 

To the Editor:

Recently Donald Trump spoke at the NRA convention and promised to roll back gun control measures enacted under Biden and fire the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

North Carolina is becoming a national leader in expanding choice and competition in education. For some North Carolinians, this is a source of pride. For others, it’s shameful. 

To the Editor:

It is amazing how people focus on the abortion issue yet ignore important issues that affect far more people. I guess focusing on abortion keeps liberals from focusing on the failures of the Biden administration and the awful state of our nation.  

To the Editor:

I wish to respond to the recent letter from Margaret Pickett of Highlands which she opened with the following statement:

“In North Carolina we have a candidate for governor who is alleged/reputed to have said, ‘I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote … We want to bring back the America where Republicans and principles and true ideas of freedom rule.’ 

To the Editor:

In a letter in SMN’s April 10 edition, a former official of the Haywood County Democratic Party challenged Christians to defend an array of typically awkward Trumpian statements and actions during Holy Week that she characterizes as “unholy.” What is notable about the letter is not what it contains, but what it does not contain, which is any evaluation of how the actions of her party’s current national standard-bearer — indeed how the actions and policy aspirations of her party as a whole — bear even a remote resemblance to genuine Christianity. 

To the Editor:

The only extremists in this country are the people who support publications like yours. Liberals support child groomers and other vile people and live in some fantasy where they think the world belongs to them. 

They couldn’t be more different. But it’s not about race, religion or party affiliation. 

Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, a Republican, present strikingly different views not only on their priorities if elected governor but also on the 30,000-foot view of what North Carolina is and will be. 

The Primary Election season isn’t quite over in North Carolina, as several races didn’t meet the 30% vote threshold to deliver outright wins to top finishers. In The Smoky Mountain News coverage area across Western North Carolina, voters have two Republican runoffs to watch — Hal Weatherman and Jim O’Neill for the lieutenant governor position currently held by Republican Mark Robinson, and Jack Clark and Dave Boliek for the state auditor position currently held by Democrat Jessica Holmes, who was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper after fellow Democrat Beth Wood resigned in 2023. 

To the Editor:

Nikki Haley, in a February 21 interview with National Public Radio, said: “I think what’s really important is to know that the majority of Americans dislike Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said. “So we think that there needs to be an alternative.”