Readers share thoughts on wealth disparity, guns, Donald Trump
Intent of super-rich
As we are all aware, money donors are preparing to spend more than a billion dollars trying to ensure that the Republican Party gains control of American government.
What is taking place is the super-rich are donating the extra money they have on hand because of the huge tax cuts for the wealthy.
That’s correct. The rest of America has subsidized this fortunate group in order for them to financially support the 2016 Republican attempt to control the executive, legislative and soon the judicial branches of American government. That will be followed by more legislation providing more tax cuts and special privileges to the wealthy.
Got that?
They aren’t spending their hard-earned money to change America. They are spending your money to do that.
The super-wealthy do not wish to spend a dime of their money to educate your children or to help the elderly, the wounded, the poor or the sick.
The politicians who are sponsored by the wealthy conservatives have been trying for years to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, public education, food stamps, Medicaid, welfare, and, of course, all taxes for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans.
How does this make you feel?
Paul Yeager
Lenexa
Mistrust on guns
One significant reason so-called gun-safety measures are dead upon arrival is the lack of trust between those on opposite sides of the issue. Some of that mistrust comes from misleading information.
For example, a recent article stated that murders spiked in Missouri after the permit-to-transfer law was dropped. The president referred to the same.
Where is the data to back this up? And if there were an absolute numerical increase, how could that be attributable with any certainty to doing away with the permit-to-transfer law?
Criminals weren’t following the old law. Moreover, the old law applied to handguns only and was replaced with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which had been in place well before the old law was dropped. The background-check system also covers long guns and receivers.
Further, some of the people who now tell us murders spiked because the old law was dropped are the same people who pushed the National Instant Criminal Background Check System as a better replacement for the old system.
You can’t have it both ways.
Dishonesty, deceitfulness and ignorance are sometimes hard to separate. Whatever the case may be, the result is the same, zero trust and zero solutions.
Brad Wahle
Lee’s Summit
Gun extremists
I understand why President Barack Obama does not want to call militants with the Islamic State “Islamic extremists.” That would be like calling the shooters at Sandy Hook Elementary School, at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., and others “gun extremists.”
Wil McKinney
Lenexa
Trump’s appeal
With his thematic baseball cap perched atop that precarious hairdo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump challenges us to “Make America great again.” The implication is obvious.
Our country has been in a steep decline for a decade. The worst post-recession economic recovery on record, continual embarrassments on the world stage, failed big-government programs, leading from behind, etc.
But such a simple campaign slogan is often met with vitriol from head-in-the-sand liberals who are aligned with President Barack Obama’s dogma that America’s greatness was ill-gotten, misused and undeserved. They bristle at the notion that someone would dare rally an electorate around such unbridled patriotism, that our greedy nation strives for more than its “fair share.”
They, undoubtedly, hate the slogan, hate the cap.
Love him or hate him, Trump is filling venues at a much higher rate than his more politically seasoned Democratic and Republican opponents, with patriots waving the “Make America great again” signs and wearing the hats.
Maybe he’s on to something.
When it comes time to vote in November, I hope more people will vote for the candidate who wants to make our country great again versus someone who is embarrassed by our potential to do so. I like the cap.
Gary Pederson
Kansas City
This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on wealth disparity, guns, Donald Trump."