Tribune’s opinion is ignorant

The Lewiston Tribune’s opinion is all too often an ignorant one creating a bubble of ignorance on the topics it purports to provide informative arguments.

Such was certainly the case with the recent bill, now law, on critical race theory and education in Idaho. To hear the Tribune’s opinion tell it, any concerns over such is an invention of the Idaho Freedom Foundation inciting “radical” (the correct term is reactionary) GOP legislators.

Standing squarely against that ignorant assertion is Columbia professor of linguistics and music theory John McWhorter.

McWhorter has been writing at Reason.com for some time on the excesses of third wave anti-racism and now blogs on this topic at Substack: https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com

Unlike the Tribune’s opinion, McWhorter does not hold that today’s “woke and mean” social justice element is a continuation of mainstream 1960s anti-racism, tracing it instead to such truly radical sources as Stokely Carmichael.

There are probably flaws in the recently passed Idaho law — which was signed about the same time Washington adopted critical race theory training in its teacher education programs.

There should be middle ground between Washington radicalism and Idaho reactionaries but the Tribune’s opinion prefers to assert that any concerns about CRT are fantasy rather than deal with nuanced arguments.

Because of that fact, the Tribune’s opinion serves only to make our lives worse with words. It’s useless to those wishing to understand issues facing our society and work good-heartedly with others to find a middle path in our divided society.

Thomas A. Hennigan

Asotin

Mystified by Manchin

Why do people like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., still cling to an archaic rule like the filibuster?

As someone who originally hailed from the U.K., I still have problems getting my head around the Senate filibuster rule.

This archaic practice is not practiced in any other First World country. Everywhere else, majority rule is both accepted and welcomed. I will admit that here in the USA, political partisanship is now endemic, with the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., putting populism before looking out for their constituents.

However, I totally fail to understand Manchin stalling needed reforms by publicly stating he still believes that it’s possible to get bipartisan votes from the GOP even after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that he’s going back to his old ways and trying to get his members once again to “just say no” on anything the other party proposes.

We desperately need a government that helps everyone and gets rid of this right-wing fever that believes only former President Donald Trump is worthy of attention.

Jennifer Walker

Clarkston

Correcting Gier

In his letter, “Correcting Dugger,” Nick Gier asks why supporters of former President Donald Trump can’t get their facts straight. He then claims “Dugger’s May 9 column is filled with errors.”

Gier claims the U.S. pays 16 percent of NATO’s budget, not “almost the full bill” as Dugger claimed. ...

In truth, the U.S. paid closer to 22 percent of NATO’s annual budget in 2021, nearly $6.9 trillion. No other nation paid more than $650 billion.

Gier also claims NATO members’ contributions to the defense budget were on a “steep upswing” when Trump took office. That statement is more than questionable.

The truth is the Obama administration did not provide the lethal weapons support to Ukraine that it needed.

Gier claims former President Barack Obama gave them $195 million in military aid, “including 230 armored Humvees.” In truth, only 30 of those Humvees were armored. The other 200 were unarmored and militarily useless.

Before Trump, the U.S. had given only nonlethal aid, including medicine, night-vision goggles, armored vests and small drones, to the Ukrainian military. It also took six to nine months for this aid to be provided.

Not until the Trump administration did the U.S. provide any lethal military aid to Ukraine. This included Javelin anti-tank weapons and launchers and $400 million in additional military aid.

The rest of Gier’s complaints against Dugger’s column are equally as false. ... But space does not permit pointing them all out. Only liberals are awarded more than 250 words by the Lewiston Tribune.

Dick Sherwin

Lewiston