Republican candidates in Missouri who had ads with guns lost the primary election | Opinion
Shots missed
Among various takeaways from Tuesday’s primary election, a most gratifying one is this: Republican candidates for Missouri governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general whose TV commercials most prominently glorified their attachments to guns lost.
You might have assumed that with Donald Trump being the world’s best-known recent gun-violence survivor, savvy Republicans would have downplayed their affinity for guns. Nope.
In the future, maybe ambitious Missouri office-seekers should write TV scripts free of firearms. After all, Missouri has the nation’s fifth highest gun death rate, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Missouri also routinely ranks near the bottom in the annual list of states with strong gun laws, as evaluated by the nonprofit Giffords Law Center.
Candidates who want to win elections next time might want to holster those weapons. Even better, store them safely with gun locks.
- Judie Becker, Grandparents for Gun Safety, Leawood
Poor service
When will Jackson Countians demand that County Executive Frank White and Director of Assessment Gail McCann Beatty step down from their positions?
They’ve served us so hard, it hurts.
- Richard F. Thomas Jr., Kansas City
Great examples
Why can’t the politicians learn from the Olympians?
It has been such a refreshing change to turn on the television and see what practice and honest hard work can accomplish. No negative comments about their opponents, and no blaming someone else if they don’t win the top prize. Then, at the conclusion of their events, only love and respect for their competition.
The political world needs to learn what the viewing public wants to see and hear — not the blazing guns and sickening disrespect too many of our politicians show and convey.
- Dennis Rabbitt, Overland Park
Violent words
Republicans who blame President Joe Biden for Donald Trump getting shot at are appallingly hypocritical. From the moment he entered the political arena, Trump has hurled words of derision and disrespect at opponents.
Demeaning nicknames and accusations are rarely accompanied by justification. Trump uses words highly charged with negative connotations, hoping they’ll fester in minds that don’t question them and permanently stain the image of the person attacked. He characterizes opponents as “communists,” “losers,” “vermin” and people who “hate America,” dehumanizing them and potentially making them targets of extremists.
Those who proclaim Trump a hero for getting wounded should recall how he repeatedly sought to discredit and diminish Sen. John McCain’s military record. McCain, a fighter pilot of 23 bombing missions over Vietnam, who spent 5 1/2 years as a POW and refused early release unless his men were also released, and who carried for life the physical ravages of the torture he endured, deserves admiration. McCain is a real hero.
Perhaps Trump’s mantras will be his undoing. He recently called Vice President Kamala Harris “evil.” Instead of shouting agreement, his crowd fell silent, perhaps shocked and dismayed at such a damning accusation. If so, Trump’s hate speech may finally be backfiring on him.
- Michael Chapman, Kansas City
We’re No. 1!
I wonder if there is a poll of the worst state primary ads. After this past election cycle, surely Missouri is No. 1.
- Susie Rawlings, Leawood
Two-way help
As local public school districts embark upon the annual tradition of holding events at which families in need receive free school supplies, the time is overdue to restructure the process.
Few would disagree that tangible areas of needed improvement exist in all districts — for example, buildings that require cleaning, painting, trash removal and so on. In exchange for school supplies, families should be provided the opportunity to address these areas of need as a means of reciprocation.
Aside from obvious advantages of the receipt of school supplies and civic improvement, parents and children alike could develop a sense of gratification and pride, as opposed to a status quo reflective of exploitation and repression.
- Donald Robertson, Blue Springs
Done dirty
Imagine if MAGA Republicans were running Team USA at the Olympics with Donald Trump. I imagine they would challenge every event that a U.S. participant was in and was not given a gold medal. Republicans would say there was fraud and unfair judging because Trump and his party challenge them.
It has been almost four years since I began asking Sen. Roger Marshall and other Republican officials for facts as to why they challenged the 2020 Electoral College count. I have received nothing from them. They basically lied to the people of Kansas and the United States.
MAGA Republicans believe in elections that are “heads, Republicans win; tails everyone else loses.” They do not understand the concept of fair and free elections.
I am so proud of our Olympians. They win with grace and lose with grace. I cannot say that for the Trump Republicans. They want only themselves to win. That was why Project 2025 was written — so Republicans in power can always win and the people of the United States get nothing except autocracy.
- Karen Bradfield, Lenexa