Letters to the Editor: Sept. 5, 2025

Lost trust

The subject of mail-in ballots has been in our news lately, and not surprisingly, our left-wing Democrats don’t want the practice to stop in Oregon.

As a Republican, I have to admit I like mail-in ballots, because I’m not physically able to go and stand in line to vote. But I always do wonder who is doing the counting and whether it is honest.

I would like to think so, but I’ve seen too much fraud in this country to really be confident. I don’t trust our U.S. senators, Ron Wyden or Jeff Merkley, to be honest about the process, either.

I recently I had the opportunity, thanks to YouTube, to see and listen to Shelly Boshart Davis. A Republican representing Oregon’s House District 15, which includes Albany, she is in favor of voting in person.

She’s a beautiful and intelligent woman. It’s so refreshing after listening to idiot Dems.

It’s been my experience through 84 years of life that attractive people are usually the best (Shelly Boshart Davis) and ugly people the worst (Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley).

If we switch to in-person voting, I’m sure I can find a way to get there.

Judy Hromyko

McMinnville

The big con

Republicans have pulled off the biggest con in history, enriching billionaire oligarchs at the expense of everyone else.

Our taxes stayed the same while taxes on the uber-wealthy were slashed. Meanwhile, government services we paid for were reduced or eliminated.

The list is long: food banks, health care, roads, education, weather service, air safety, clean air and water, disaster relief, national parks — almost everything actually serving regular folks.

Now we pay for a gold-plated White House, $4 billion plane for Trump’s personal use, $30 million of Trump golf trips in seven 7 months, illegal military invasion of our cities, masked goons with assault rifles arresting people without due process, senseless deportation of honest, hardworking immigrants, separation of children from parents, massive private prisons and cuts to veterans and Medicare. The next great idea is to create a sovereign wealth fund to subsidize private companies.

Trump’s tariffs amount to an illegal tax on goods, equivalent to a 15% to 20% value-added tax, and the burden again falls on the 99%, not the 1%. We have the most corrupt, incompetent, wasteful government in our history, run by slavish, unqualified toadies.

Congress is dominated by self-serving cowards who ignore their duty to the Constitution in a rush to pander to their base and mega-donors while ignoring everyone else. To stay in power, they are rushing to rig elections through gerrymandering and voter suppression.

The Supreme Court is packed with loyalists who re-interpret the plain language of the Constitution. An ignorant eugenicist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is willing to let children die of preventable disease in order to “clean the gene pool.”

Welcome to the Big Con: creation of an authoritarian government that enriches a few at the expense of the many and calls it “beautiful.” Maybe you should vote more carefully next time — if you can.

Margaret Cross

McMinnville

Egregious hypocrite

It would be hard to name President Trump’s most egregious hypocrisy, as there are so many to choose from. A favorite of mine is claiming any loss he suffers is because the system is rigged by liberals, even though he was caught on tape pressuring Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 additional votes in his favor.

A more recent example is his attempt to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Trump alleges she’s unfit for the position because she simultaneously claimed two properties as a primary residence. The key word here is “alleged,” because she has not been charged with any crime.

By contrast, President Trump has, in fact, been found liable in a civil fraud lawsuit for, among other things, inflating the value of his Mar-a-Lago resort by 2,300% on financial statements, and claiming his Trump Tower penthouse was nearly three times its actual size. As New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said, “He had a propensity to engage in persistent fraud by submitting false and misleading Statements of Financial Condition.”

Maybe the Trump coat-of-arms motto should read, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Stephen Long

McMinnville