A point to consider
A point that is being lost in the flap over whether or not Judge Brett Kavanaugh did what he is being accused of is simply this: A reasonable president should not nominate anyone who could not be confirmed by at least a 60 percent bipartisan majority of the Senate.
Surely there are enough lower-court judges who could pass this test. Why must we have the kinds of conflict that we've had over Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh?
A further point in the Kavanaugh case. Boys will talk. Someone out there knows and will eventually come forward. Do we really want that to happen after Kavanaugh is confirmed? Is packing the Supreme Court with conservative justices really worth it to the Republican Party?
TIM BOYER
Rogers
Must be explanation
Why Trump, why now? Some say I spend far too much time thinking about this. That's been my life and I have not retired in my head simply because I have Lyme Disease. I constantly ask: Why is Donald Trump getting away with destroying our rule of law and our democracy with at least 32 percent of the American people and even more in the Bible Belt?
Add the fact that Trump outrageously is a proven frequent liar about very important issues and most polled say he is unfit to be president. He has a business and personal history no one would want his/her child to follow, yet many Southern "conservatives" love him, if not admire him. It has to go beyond the Bible, abortion and same-sex marriage, but this is their frequent mantra. Many switched to Republican when the Moral Majority was created in order to strike down Roe v. Wade, enacted in 1973. The Republicans have never struck it down even though they have controlled the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court chief justice seat an overwhelming majority of those years. So why?
I have three thoughts: (1) If people could change one thing, it would be change. Trump has managed to get too many Southerners to believe they get to live back in the '50s with their predominant Judeo-Christian (mostly Christian) beliefs and with all the '50s social ills and evils too many refuse to accept were a problem; (2) many truly believe, year after year, that a conservative and a Republican are the same thing, although they are very different in ideology; and (3) today, people are susceptible to and groomed for flash, posturing, entertainment, and diversion from their real life. Eventually, the difference is not discernible and, frankly, many do not want to even ponder the question.
So today we have a showman who is a con without moral significance. Anyone else have any explanation why our America has a leader like Trump?
FRANKIE W. SARVER
Hampton
Giving it a good spin
Somebody should give Sarah Huckabee Sanders an honorary Doctor of Spin degree. She has a difficult job and probably does it as well as her counterpart in the Nixon administration who convinced the nation that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who reportedly padded through the White House in his stocking feet and with his fly unzipped) was a sex symbol.
BETTY HUNT
North Little Rock
Hill's words deceive
In response to French Hill's "Truth about my votes" letter, many of Hill's "truths" are cloaked in deceit.
Examples: "The AHCA, which we passed ... with my vote, protected health insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions." Yes, it did, but Mr. Hill fails to tell you the AHCA would have raised their rates so high they could not have afforded the coverage.
"This bill would now be law if it hadn't failed the Senate by one vote." True, and we should all thank the Lord that it failed.
"Obamacare [ACA] has driven up the cost of health care and ... health insurance premiums ...". According to a Reuters article dated October 2016 and citing Kaiser Family Foundation data, while costs/premiums did rise, the number of uninsured dropped and, based on pre-ACA increases, the premium increases were lower than they would have been without the ACA. In two pre-ACA five-year periods the rate increases were: 2001-2006, 63 percent; and 2006-2011, 31 percent. In the five years after the ACA (2011-2016) the increases were only 20 percent despite Republican efforts to repeal the ACA and replace it with ... well, they had no replacement plan.
This reminds me of a recent Facebook post where a Republican lady posted "facts" that fact-checked totally false. When she was challenged, her response was simply, "I really don't care about the truth." Maybe the Republican Party should adopt this as its new motto: "Vote Republican: We Don't Care About the Truth."
CHARLES MARTIN
East End
One and only in U.S.
Arkansas defined: the one and only state in the nation to require its homeless to register each month, online, 80 hours of work/school/volunteer service or lose health insurance for the rest of the year. The very idea of such a policy should bring tears and outrage to caring Arkansans and shame to the legislators/spokespersons who have mandated such heartless and harmful criteria for our disenfranchised citizens.
KARIS ALDERSON
Hot Springs Village
Gonna be rough ride
Get ready, Arkansas fans; the crash is here and the ride is fixing to get much rougher ... time to strap on the Bobby Petrino neck braces!
BOB CARNATION
Austin
Editorial on 09/19/2018