Letters to the Editor: July 17, 2026
GOP restraint?
Jonah Goldberg’s “Right and Left Need to Confront Their Own Radicals” has a central false assumption. Namely that there is still a moderate right/Republican faction willing and able to restrain or refute the Trumpists.
If Obama or Biden had re-made ICE into thug squads murdering citizens without accountability, made $2 billion in crypto in their first year, fired most of the inspectors general, abused executive orders to circumvent the Constitution, unilaterally imposed tariffs, pardoned seditionists, let DOGE run amok, started a vanity war — I could use up the entire size allotment listing how Trump attempts to evade law and precedence — they would be apoplectic.
And ironically, the Trump government taking partial ownership of Intel and Nvidia is more socialist than anything the government has done since re-directing industrial production in World War II.
Paul Lemman
Newberg
Whose watch?
So let me see if I have this straight:
From a federal perspective, according to President Trump, the Obama and Biden administrations oversaw clean elections in 2016 and 2024, but the 2020 election, held when Trump was in charge, was crooked.
Brad Thompson
McMinnville
Comments
Otis
Paul,
While there are a handful of congressional members that disagree with Trump from time to time, you are correct in thinking that there is no faction remaining in the Republican party that will keep Trump in check.
He, and his followers, are willing to do anything to anyone that opposes him.
Tusker
Yeah, Brad. That's right. States establish rules & procedures for their Presidential elections: mail-in ballots, lack of id. required to vote, counting procedures, etc. ...not the Feds. That's why passing the SAVE act should be such a big deal for both parties, but it's not. Requiring voter id. would reduce cheating. One party wants it; the other doesn't. You think Tim Walz of MN wanted only real & living citizens to vote for him as governor? How about Newsom? How about the 260,000 illegal voters found so far in Oregon, per the DOJ? Might want to expand your news sources a bit, Bud...
tagup
260,000 illegal voters in Oregon?
How would the DOJ know who is legal to vote in Oregon when They don’t have access to voter roles?
Your source please?
Tusker
Fair call, tagup. Moments after posting, I tried to edit the comment, but don't know how. The DOJ's September 16, 2025 lawsuit, dismissed in January by Federal Judge Mustafa Kasuhbai, postulated up to 260,000 ineligible voters. Oregon's late April, 2026, settlement of Judicial Watch's October, 2024, lawsuit, however, confirms 800,000 ineligible/inactive voter names, which are now slated for review & removal, but those do not translate to illegal voters. (Hmmm, curious as to why Oregon stopped cleaning up ineligible voter names in 2017 for most of 9 years, as required by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993(?) Source: judicialwatch.org Press Release April 29, 2026)
tagup
Yeah well, an estimated number from a dismissed lawsuit doesn’t really move the needle for me. Especially, since the president is pushing his theory (again) that the vote is rigged. That seems like an invitation for the DOJ to exaggerate any claims.
There is no actual evidence of widespread fraud or illegal voting in Oregon ( or anywhere else). That’s why every case brought to court has been a loser.
The “save” act is about voter suppression not security.
madmacs
Conflating inactive voters with ineligible voters is ridiculous. Oregon is removing inactive voters from its rolls of registered voters. Inactive voters don't get ballots, it is purely a housekeeping exercise. The notion that there were 260,000 illegal voters in Oregon is ridiculous, that would mean that 11.6% of the votes in the 2024 presidential election were illegal; that didn't happen. The current DOJ pushes forth whatever asinine garbage trump tells them to. Neither is even remotely credible.