Letters to the editor: March 9

Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 9, 2023

Why don’t lawmakers answer their mail?

Why is it that some politicians seem to ignore input from their constituents?

Since moving to Rowan County in 2020, I have yet to receive so much as an acknowledgment, much less an actual response from Senator Carl Ford (three letters) and Harry Warren (two letters).

I think they must be modeling themselves after former U.S. Congressman Ted Budd who completely ignored 15 of my 23 letters during his term as my representative. When Rep. Budd did respond in writing, it was always an obvious canned issue letter that did not answer the specific questions or address the concerns I raised.

On the other hand, Senator Thom Tillis and former Senator Richard Burr responded to every letter I wrote (42 and 30 respectively), although like Rep. Budd, the responses were mostly perfunctory.

I can’t help wondering if I were registered as a Republican instead of unaffiliated or if I contributed to their campaigns, would Ford and Warren give me the time of day?

— Thomas Strini

Spencer

US version of Pravda

The Soviet Union’s dictatorship system was ably assisted by their government newspaper, Pravda. Performing as Russia’s chief propaganda arm, Pravda spouted the party line, which oftentimes included outrageous lies.

Dominion Voting sued Fox News for slander because Fox hosts accused them of altering the 2020 election results. Why don’t many Republicans know about this trial? Fox refuses to cover it, much like the way they refused to air the Jan. 6 hearings. So much for the “news” part of Fox News.

Testimony at the trial by no less than Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has supported Dominion’s claim. He has admitted that he, and many of the Fox hosts, disagreed privately with Trump’s claim of election fraud. However, they continued to spew the “Big Lie” because they did not want to lose the Trump supporting viewers. Green, in the form of dollar bills and stock value, was more important to them than Red vs Blue … and the truth!

For many years, Fox has become the propaganda arm for far right-wing Republicans. Sean Hannity even spoke at a Trump rally! They have supported far right-wing conspiracy activists to help enhance the Republican party’s election chances. In the process, they have sided with those that wanted to overthrow the government on Jan. 6. Fox and the far right-wing Republicans like to project themselves as patriots. The reality is that they tried to overthrow a legally held election by having a coup. To many people that makes them the opposite of a patriot … a traitor.

Fox News has become the Republican party’s Pravda, which when translated, means truth. It’s probably no coincidence that Trump’s social outlet is named Truth Social.

— Jerry Forthofer

Rockwell