Life under dictators

Do Donald Trump’s supporters have any concept of living under a dictator?

Have they ever studied Russia under Vladimir Putin, Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro, Chile under Augusto Pinochet, Germany under Adolf Hitler? Or closer to home, where Cuba traded one dictator, Fulgencio Batista, who committed genocide against opposition, for a “better” one, communist Fidel Castro?

Are they currently watching Benjamin Netanyahu stay in power to avoid jail time from corruption charges — convicted felon Trump’s goal? Despite massive internal Israeli protests demanding his resignation, Netanyahu continues his annihilation of Gaza.

Can they relate to being jailed, beaten and even killed for opposing a dictator, as illustrated recently by Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death ... ? Trump has pledged to jail political opponents, saying “such people will be ‘sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country’ ” (Spokesman-Review, Sept. 9).

Also, I ask Trump supporters, unless you’re wealthy, do you think he will change and actually support measures that benefit you rather than simply continuing to talk like he does to stoke your emotions and anger?

Project 2025 ... is his dictator playbook. He admires autocrats like Netanyahu and especially Putin, to whom Trump would hand over Ukraine.

Locally, if Michael Baumgartner is elected U.S. representative, does anyone think he’ll stand up to Trump’s dictator aspirations any better than the other current congressional Republicans?

Carmela Conroy, opposing Baumgartner, has international diplomat career experience, including dealing with dictatorships, to help her understand and counter Trump.

Norm Luther

Spokane

Symms a hard worker

I was disappointed in the opinion piece (Tribune Aug. 23) on the late Steve Symms written by Marc Johnson. He obviously knew little about Symms, his staff, and those who voted for him.

Johnson portrayed Symms as a fun-loving charmer who contributed nothing positive for Idaho. Actually, Symms hated more laws and regulations and was only interested in supporting legislation that primarily benefited Idaho without creating more bureaucracy. A good example was when legislation was needed, he helped pass the Craig-Wyden Bill which supplied millions of dollars to rural counties that had lost timber sale receipts when the Forest Service timber program crashed.

Symms was a great friend of ranchers and the timber industry. His staff understood issues impacting business and attended many meetings with agencies managing land and resources. He and his staff significantly impacted federal decisions. In a public meeting he once said, “God gave spotted owls wings so they could fly to another tree when a logger cut his down.”

Johnson is egregious in stating those who politically supported Symms, and Donald Trump today, are “low information voters.” Ranchers and loggers who work every day in our ever­changing environment reject “information” supplied to voters by Eastern politicians and their media.

Symms was a hard worker and right in opposing government overreach that is destroying many state economies, making them dependent on federal funds. His frustration in turning that around probably contributed to his decision to step away from politics.

Bill Mulligan

Clarkston

Why rename bases?

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recently renamed nine U.S. Army bases and also renamed the streets on those bases. Why? Because the military base names did not comply with Biden’s and Harris’ woke and diversity, equality and inclusion ideology.

A few bases had names tied to Civil War history. Many of these bases had been in use for more than 100 years and played major roles in the history of the United States. This is an attack on the history of the United States. I trained at two of those bases, Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, for which that history has now changed. They are now called something else after 100 years because these bases carried names from the Civil War.

If I talk with a fellow veteran or someone on active duty and mentioned I had been assigned to Fort Bragg, they knew immediately I had been there for duty with the 82nd Airborne Division or Special Forces. Now that history is gone and decades of this training is gone with it, and the support this base gave to providing security for the United States.

Every veteran and current active-duty person should be incensed, especially for those men and women who died or were wounded while defending our country.

Changing a nation’s history by renaming nine Army bases is a Marxist strategy initiated by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrat party.

Craig Buchanan

Lewiston

Happy to see C-17s

I was thrilled to walk out on my patio the afternoon of Sept. 13 just in time to see the three C-17s taking off from the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport. From where I was standing, they seemed to be at almost eye level.

The C-17 was the preferred ride of my ex-U.S. Army son’s team as they traveled around the world. If touch-down exercises at our airport helps them in any way with their training — training which keeps our soldiers safe during peace and war — I would be happy to see them fly by my home every single day. A brief moment of noise is a very small price to pay for everyone’s life of safety here in the USA.

Mark Sater

Lewiston

Restore some civility

In my retirement years, I created a routine to help keep me somewhat active and hopefully be relatively free from those sedentary ailments that can afflict elderly individuals. At age 74, I can officially qualify as elderly. Actually it probably came a few years prior, but who’s counting?

I try to swim at least two mornings a week and bowl in three or four leagues as these are the two activities that require only a minimum of physical exertion to complete and spend less than a mocha caramel grande coffee. My thought is that combining these less-stressful regimens and a reduced ice cream intake, I will “live long and prosper.”

I finish my day with scanning through our noteworthy Lewiston Tribune newspaper and some limited television. This particular evening, I was watching an episode from 2000 of “The West Wing” and relishing how an award-winning show from then had some insightful writing and acting of how our nation’s democracy could be reasonably helpful to “we the people.” It wasn’t complicated; just 11 words from a staff member to the president: “We seem to be using the word enemy a lot lately.”

Now daily interaction between political parties has created near total dysfunction in the Senate and Congress with half-truths, finger-pointing and derogatory statements posted on social media so much, it’s spilled over into the general public, causing friends’ and families’ dysfunction.

Will we pause and restore some civility to our current political realm before an implosion ruins our children’s’ future?

Mike Petrusky

Clarkston

Candidate forums set

The League of Women Voters of Moscow invites Moscow, Latah County and Idaho Legislative District 6 residents to attend our candidate forums from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Latah County Fairgrounds Event Center in Moscow.

The Monday forum will feature candidates in contested Latah County races. Candidates in contested District 6 legislative races will be featured at the Tuesday forum. We invite people to submit questions for candidates by email to moscow.league.questions2@gmail.com.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization committed to voter education.

Chris Sokol

Moscow

Back to open primary

Dorothy Moon, chairperson of the Idaho Republican Party, has rightfully condemned the defacing of political signs. Her example is a poster condemning Proposition 1.

In the same email, she noted that “both the Idaho Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have denounced Rank Choice Voting.” That is their right.

However, Prop 1 was not sponsored by any political party. About 70,000 people (7% of the total registered voters in the state) signed petitions supporting the initiative. So why the Republican anti-Prop 1 signs? If anyone has violated voters’ rights, it is the Republican closed primary with every effort made to close it even more. The closed primary was a key stimulus for the Prop 1 effort and there was a simple way to avoid it: Go back to a fair, open primary like we used to have.

The recent actions by Moon and Attorney General Raul Labrador fly in the face of our democratic process. They forced the issue and now the people will decide.

Earl H. Bennett

Genesee