Mercury News Letters to the Editor for July 25, 2024
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Re: “Patriotic Biden decision caps a life of service” (Page A6, July 23).
We all applaud the service of Joe Biden to our country since 1972. Let us wish Kamala Harris success. She will be running against Donald Trump, who is leading in all the polls. It’s time to review his accomplishments.
He added $7.8 trillion to the national debt. The unemployment rate was 6.3% when he left office, an increase of 1.6 percentage points. His 2017 tax cut was the main reason for the increase in debt. He lost 2.9 million jobs.
He lost his business license in New York for tax cheating, and was found guilty in the hush money payment case. He must pay $83.3 million to a woman for libel over raping her, and another $454 million to the state of New York for civil fraud. Trump’s charity is banned due to fraud. Trump University was asked to return $25 million to the students.
Mohan Raj
San Jose
Re: “GOP adopts effective minority outreach” (Page A9, July 21).
It’s not surprising the GOP is making inroads with some minority voters. For decades Democrats have made promises to these groups and have largely failed to deliver.
One subset within minority voters the GOP is having success with is small mom-and-pop businesses who are learning the cruel reality of the impact progressive Democrat policies have on their livelihood and quality of life. Soft on crime prosecutors, a regulatory climate penalizing small businesses in favor of large businesses (who can always absorb the costs of new regulations) and ever-increasing prices of energy and utilities due to progressive policies centered around climate mitigation efforts are hammering these small business people.
In Republican candidates, they see someone who will at least listen and sympathize with their concerns and advocate for rollbacks of the most onerous policies. I’m not surprised by GOP inroads with these groups. It’s all quite logical.
Mark Carbonaro
Monterey
Sunday was a sad yet beautiful day for us Democrats.
Say what you will of Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, can you imagine Joe’s opponent ever doing something like this? Joe has put the country’s needs ahead of his own dreams. By this act alone, our president has managed to define the Democrat Party as a party that puts America first unlike the other party that talks the talk but has yet to walk the walk.
I urge everyone to unite behind the Democrat Party and Kamala Harris, the party’s nominee for the presidency.
Myokyaw Myint
San Jose
Once upon a time, we had a presidential candidate who wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” that provided shining examples of lives well spent and behavior to emulate. Today we have a presidential candidate who orchestrates a parade of groveling cowards each competing in a race to the bottom of the barrel as gross examples of naked opportunism. What’s so great about that?
The pervasive rot and division evidenced in our political parties which we deplore up one side and down the other is not the problem we need to solve. It’s merely a glaring symptom of a much deeper, much harder problem. We have collectively abdicated responsibility for our behavior. We have no sense of shame whatsoever. What we deplore in others we only too happily engage in for our own satisfaction. Unless we reverse this trend there will be no more greatness in America.
Eugene Ely
San Jose
Democrats are losing their opportunity to save our democracy. All the news about the Democratic Party seems to be about the infighting and none of it about the looming threat of Project 2025.
By the time the smoke clears on the Democratic candidate at the August Democratic National Convention there will be precious little time left to inform the public about the looming Republican disaster and their horrific Project 2025.
Now is the time to act decisively and make use of the 3½ months we have left until the November election.
Don Barnby
Menlo Park
