Readers react to Kansas courts, Sen. Ted Cruz and Congress

U.S. principles

The Broadway musical “Hamilton” has awakened interest in the history of our nation’s founding.

This interest should cause reflection on the bedrock principles of our constitutional democracy, including the concept of three strong, independent branches of government.

This bedrock principle is under attack in Kansas. In February, the House narrowly defeated a bill that would have amended the Kansas Constitution to throw out the method of merit judicial appointments (the Missouri Plan, in place in 34 states and the District of Columbia, according to Ballotpedia), and allow the governor to appoint judges based on qualifications known only to him.

Each house has passed bills to authorize the impeachment of judges based on vague, ambiguous grounds. Active attack campaigns are under way to defeat four of the five justices up for retention on the November ballot.

A more reasoned response would be to simply fund the schools adequately as required by the state Constitution.

What can you do?

Contact your legislator and encourage him or her to defeat measures that would blur the separation of powers or usurp powers from the judicial branch. Vote against any effort to remove the Missouri Plan from the Kansas Constitution.

And vote to retain all five Supreme Court justices who are up for retention in November.

Nick Badgerow

Prairie Village

Cruz for president

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has provided a service to this country. He knocked down the walls of political correctness.

But he went from being politically incorrect and bombastic to being obnoxious and just plain rude.

He’s a businessman and a political outsider, and, believe me, I get the attraction. But I really don’t think he has the temperament to be an effective president. A king, maybe, or a benevolent dictator, but not the president of a country that has a system of checks and balances and serious limitations on the power of the federal government in particular.

Only one candidate in either party has demonstrated publicly his willingness to defend the Constitution without regard to the personal political outcome.

That Republican candidate for president is Sen. Ted Cruz.

If and when he takes the oath of the office, which calls for defense of the Constitution, he’ll mean it, and he has the skills to be effective in all aspects of the job.

Please don’t make me vote for Trump. Please let me vote for a true and proven conservative, Sen. Cruz, a bold, without-qualms defender of the Constitution.

Bruce Buss

Argonia, Kan.

Childish Congress

In 2008 and again in 2012, this country elected a fine man to carry out the agenda he proposed and we believed in. A childish Congress thwarted his efforts.

Whether you think “she’s ready” or “feel the Bern,” know this: Neither Democrat will be able to follow through if elected on his or her promises and your hopes unless all of us work on the local level to change the composition of the U.S. Congress and our state legislatures.

This is the real battle and where the effort is needed.

There are candidates out there, waiting to serve, so call them. Ask what you can contribute financially or with your time and legwork.

Help get people registered to vote and to the polls on Election Day. Then perhaps we can all rejoice in our democracy working again as it should.

Nancy Clark

Shawnee

Rethinking U.S.

To the nation’s founders, tyranny was embodied in the monarchy of King George. We still have tyranny today, but the embodiment depends a lot on who you are.

To the Donald Trumps of our country, it’s a tyrannical federal government that won’t allow capitalism to run amok.

To the landowners in the West, it’s the tyrannical federal government that controls how our lands are managed.

But to you and me, to 99 percent of us, the tyranny comes from the corporate boardrooms. It comes from corporations reaping huge profits at the expense of employees. It comes from companies selling products that either don’t work or actually do harm, and then denying liability.

So when you think of tyranny, ask yourself, “From whom?” When you hear the phrase “limited government,” ask yourself, “Why?”

Ask yourself, “Who guarantees your life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”

If your answer is Sears, Roebuck & Co., you’d better do some more thinking.

John Chapman

Gladstone

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Kansas courts, Sen. Ted Cruz and Congress."