Letters to the Editor

Edited by Jim Buckley

At bat. Courtesy SteveGarvey.com

No DEI at Olympic Games

Part of the modern world goes on pause during the Olympics. The stunning performances by young athletes who have dedicated their lives to perfecting their skills belies the new cult of equity. Equity translates into mediocrity as evident when we see it applied in academia and government.

Unfortunately, diversity and inclusion are the tools used to achieve equity. So why do we put up with attempts to reach equity when the results never result in quality? Instead, the world’s athletes are role models of how to achieve success in any field. Discipline, practice, dedication, and self-sacrifice are the tools that lead to success in our lives.   

As we see the results when the winners gain gold, silver, and bronze medals, so we can see whether those in our government have sacrificed themselves in service to we who voted them into office. Have they shown discipline in leadership and organization? Have they inspired innovation and excellence from those working under them?

When our leaders have a record of service, whether few or many years, we are able to judge how effective they have been. If media are honest, there is a record over the years, so we have evidence and can see whether re-election is a good idea.

Plainly, we have examples before our very eyes, and can vote for someone who led our country through a successful term despite every weapon used against him, and continued attacks. And now he has an excellent Vice President nominee to run with him. Trump and Vance. We must vote for the good of our nation.

Gretchen Kieding

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: Good luck with finding that elusive “honest” media. Voters and Trump supporters (including me) have been demoralized by the dishonest media’s full-throated support of Ms. Harris’s candidacy. However, the public – in its wisdom – has saved us from imminent disaster before [Bush vs. Gore, Trump vs. Clinton] and I’m crossing my fingers voters will save us once again.

A side note here to those who fear Trump isn’t doing enough or has lost his spirit: He’s tired. You’re tired. I’m tired. But he and we must respond positively to Trump’s plea of “fight, fight, fight,” after having nearly lost his life to an assassin’s bullet. So, buck up, and remind yourself of the words of Colonel William Prescott to his men at Bunker Hill: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Husbanding resources while the Harris/Walz team is receiving its adulation is probably wise. We’ll see the “whites of their eyes” after Labor Day. The Trump team, along with you and me, hope and pray that won’t be too little, too late. – J.B.)

Dems in Ecstasy

When I heard the news that Kamala Harris had selected Tim Walz as her running mate, immediately there arose a song in my heart. This is not the choice a strategic thinker would have made. It seems that the last-minute, anti-Israel, antisemitic backlash in the Democrat Party prevented her from picking Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who could have moderated her image a little and possibly delivered Pennsylvania.

 Because I have been reading the Power Line blog since it was launched during the George W. Bush presidency, and because their founding writers Scott Johnson and John Hinderaker are both based in the Twin Cities, I have followed Minnesota politics for years. Tim Walz has been as destructive to Minnesota as Gavin Newsom has been to California. To have a far-left ideologue such as Walz in a position of national power is a terrifying prospect, but his candidacy as VP makes Harris an even more stark contrast with Trump.

 Trump is the Republican candidate the Dems wanted. I think we could have done better – Tom Cotton, for instance – but it was not to be. The Democrat National Committee (DNC) and the national news media wanted Trump as their opponent, and they got him. At the moment, they are over-the-moon excited about Harris, and who knows, she might win. But her chances just got a lot worse.

Dale Lowdermilk

Santa Barbara

Age-Appropriate Entertainment

Have you ever been to a Drag Queen Story Hour? They are fun for the kids as the guys dress up as ladies and there is nothing sexual or X-rated in any way. You could also have a woman dressed as a cowboy or a gold miner from 1849. Librarians would not allow that. I am a retired librarian from public library world. We provide age -appropriate entertainment for children that is not harmful in any way. Go to a Drag Queen Story Hour....

Shirley Cabeen

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: No doubt the Drag Queen Story Hour is not harmful to you. And, in most cases it probably isn’t “harmful” to kids. However, it really does seem inappropriate, as does the resistance to parents who want to opt out of any “performance.” Watching five- and six-year-old kids stuffing dollars into costumes of grown men dressed as women was enough for me to think maybe there are better ways of reading to children. Let’s let these guys do their thing for an adult audience. Leave the kids alone. – J.B.)

The Celebrity Appeal

It is widely understood that most voters go to the polls conscientiously, but with little information. Candidates think their commercials, mailers, and personal appearances guide the voters. The political parties preach that it’s their label that guides the voters.

In fact, the campaign information and political stands of the candidates have very little penetration to the average voter. Party preferences listed on the ballot can be and are most often the deciding factor in a vote.

There is, however, one overwriting fact that reaches as many as 80% of the voters and has nothing to do with political positions or parties.

That fact is celebrity. Throughout American and California history, the celebrity always wins. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, Roosevelt, Dwight, Eisenhower, Donald Trump, George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, SI Hayakawa, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Political philosophies bounce all over the place, the nature of the campaigns were all different, but they all the winning candidates had one thing in common: celebrity.

Therefore, I make a bold prediction:

The next U.S. senator from California will be Steve Garvey.

Jim Worthen

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: We too would like to see Steve Garvey as Senator and we loath the idea of Senator Adam Schiff, but so far, we haven’t been able to secure even a telephone interview with Mr. Garvey. If he expects to win, he’s got to step up his game and make himself more available. – J.B.)

Moving Even More Left

Upwards of 10,000 Chinese dissidents were crushed to death by tanks in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Yet, Tim Walz and his bride chose the 5^th anniversary of this monstrous and undemocratic massacre for their wedding date...

...Then proceeded to take their honeymoon in China.

Folks, it's hard to make this s**t up. We have a candidate for vice president who considers China his ideological home. And you maybe thought it would've been difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a running mate who outflanks Kamala on the left.

Can you imagine the scandal if a Republican candidate for the White House had been bouncing around post-Soviet Union Russia for the past 33 years...

...And declared Russia his real home? The FBI would've come up with reasons to arrest him.

Modern day China is the inspirational home of the 2024 Democrat Party!

David Samuel McCalmont

Santa Barbara

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