Americans do not know it, but the Russians do: Democracy has a flaw.
The flaw: No matter how much education/facts the population receives, about one-third of the vote is driven by emotion.
The good news: That is not enough to rule; the bad news is that it is enough to be susceptible to those promoting civic turmoil and governing stalemates.
Our weakness is exasperated by having only two dominant political parties.
Michael Mainz
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Streetlight needed at Standifer Place
Standifer Place Apartments at 3400 Jenkins Road in East Brainerd has no city or county streetlight at its entry. It is a complex of 240 apartments.
On a blind curve, it’s dark at night. I almost wrecked my car attempting to turn into the complex during a rainstorm.
Get this: A cemetery just north of the apartments on Jenkins Road has a nice streetlight, even through the gate to the cemetery is closed at night.
I have called around to the powers that be and, also, the complex managers have called to have a streetlight installed – but nothing has happened. Dangerous!
William Esslinger
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Government with all guns good idea?
Leave it to the left-wing anti-Second Amendment zealots to presume that you can actually have and retain democracy when the government owns or processes all of the guns.
First, the U.S. Supreme Court does not, never has and never will have its own armored division. The power of government, at all levels, has always been and always will be “police power.” Read that as “force.”
Our founding forefathers gave us the Second Amendment not as an instrument for hunting or self-defense, although these are valid uses. Rather, the Second Amendment exists as the citizen’s last check against governmental tyranny. Contrary to a recent letter about dictatorships and guns, I would ask, “Would you absolutely trust a government that has all the guns?”
Do realize that the non-gun British do not have a written constitution. That system is entirely based on custom and tradition. Thanks, but I like my rights enumerated in law. Last, the London murder rate with knives last year was almost as much as New York City’s overall. Guns do not cause crime, criminals do.
Ronald Williams
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Trump America’s Russian premier
I am amazed at a correct prediction made by then USSR Premier Nikita Khruschev back in 1956 that his communist alliance would “take America without a shot being fired. We won’t have to invade, we’ll destroy from within.” Wow, how correct was that statement.
The U.S. has elected presidents from our country’s founding in the late 1770s until the 2010s, when somehow, inexplicably, in 2016, an untouchable was glib enough to charm the majority that his snake-oil remedy would solve our every problem. Thus, Trump became America’s first Russian premier.
Khruschev was the modern-day Nostradamus, in my opinion, to our country’s detriment.
Allan Baggett, Trion, Ga.