Wamp alienating those he may need
In a defiant 1936 speech at New York's Madison Square Garden to campaign for a second term, President Franklin Roosevelt said Republican critics of his first term are "unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred."
That quote came to mind in upon reading Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp's attack on (unnamed) Democratic County Commissioner David Sharpe.
Wamp described he-who-shall-not be-named as an "obstructionist with a partisan agenda."
Not content with just attacking Sharpe, who has represented the city of Red Bank and other areas in his district since 2018, Wamp asserted that "Red Bank is an unmitigated disaster," a condition he blamed on a "small group of people" — an obvious reference to the city's commissioners who "have run it completely into a ditch."
In his speech to the Pachyderm Club, a Republican organization, Wamp unfortunately violated a valuable tenet of politics, which is that by resorting to such harsh criticism he risks alienating those whose support he will need for future issues vital to county government.
That could give Commissioner Sharpe the last word:
"I welcome the Mayor Trump's criticism as an opportunity to mentor him on future issues vital to Hamilton County."
Michael Loftin
A nation is compromise
I would like to suggest that history may teach us that anytime a society or political system moves too far in one direction, left or right, it is met with an extreme reaction from the other side. This is never helpful. Currently, the left offers extreme ideas for our children’s identity, for stopping free discussion of opposing views, and for government control of our everyday economy and use of vital energy sources. The right offers extreme government involvement into reproductive rights, the shutdown of sexually unique lifestyles and the voices that come with them, and gun rights bordering on the insane. Have we lost all sense of civility and consensus?
Again, I would like to suggest that only through compromise, where neither side is completely satisfied, but also not completely at each other’s throats, is the true bond of that society proven. America, are we together and can we survive, or is this indeed the end?
Oh, and definitely term limits for all. Get these career politicians out. Can we at least agree on that?
Mike Wolford
Hixson
Casting for a new 'Wizard of Oz' remake
New, new version of "The Wizard of Oz" should be considered with the following people cast and the reasons for their selection: Marjorie Taylor Greene as the Wicked Witch of the East as she is always threatening somebody or suggesting violence take place.
President Biden as the Scarecrow who wants a brain as he just smiles and gets nothing done.
Tucker Carlson as the Tin Man who wants a heart as he is strongly against the LBGTQ+ community.
Rudy Giuliani as the Cowardly Lion who wants courage so he can get back to being America's mayor.
Donald Trump as the Wizard because he wants to be the "supreme ruler of the kingdom" (not country). Finally Biden's dog, Major, will be cast as Toto.
Joel Blake
Irony in pairing hate with call for civility
Surely the new Chattanooga Times editorial page editor noticed the irony of placing the following two items on the same page of Monday's editorial page (Sept. 4): a column by Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Bill Torpy calling out the lack of civility in current political discourse and then a political cartoon unmistakably equating Trump and DeSantis with violence, hate speech, white supremacy, and of course, Nazism.
One may agree wholeheartedly with Torpy (I do) and yet bristle in a dozen different ways at the clumsy demonizing of both Republicans. Clumsy in equating both Trump and DeSantis, who may share certain policy positions but who are night and day different in their conduct and public personas. Clumsy in accusing both of spewing hateful white supremacy rhetoric, while leaving no space, particularly in DeSantis' case, for a nuanced critique of how Black history should be taught in Florida's public schools. And finally, downright hateful in branding both with the swastika, revealing the cartoonist's galling ignorance of the racial aspects of Nazism.
No, political divisions are not lessened with such indiscriminate tripe, nor are we readers well served with such contradictions.
Gary Lindley
Lookout Mountain, Ga.
ACLU not American, civil or liberty-loving
Will someone please pass this on to those criminals in the ACLU who sued the state?
I want to know what right you have to come into the business of the Tennessee Senate or any other portion of our state and throw your weight around as if you were proponents of the Bill of Rights. Which you are not.
You do not hold to the Bill of Rights. Your old daddy, Roger Baldwin [an ACLU founder], has not realized his determination to take God and the Bible out of the United States. He has failed miserably as you have in this attempt, and just because you can shake a few legal papers in the faces of reporters and commissioners, the people still fear God and love their rights and the Bible. You have robbed the treasuries of county residents, forcing county insurance rates to the ceiling to pay your exorbitant extortion, and ultimately raising property taxes on the citizens. Your day is over.
You are neither American, civil, liberty-loving or in support of our United States.
I look forward to the day when you will be deported to where you will feel more at home, in the denizens of overseas communism. You will feel more at home there than in my beloved state of Tennessee. After all, I want everyone to feel at home and be happy.
For God and country.
June Griffin
Section 3 is as plain as day
I find it interesting that the Federalist Society, law scholars and others have given the same interpretation of the 14th Amendment, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution, as defined in the following (Section 3 is explicit, as any junior high school student would attest).
Section 3:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who having previously taken an oath, as member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial office of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House remove such disability."
I think there are those who are trying to neglect the 14th Amendment, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution in the 2024 general election.
James Hughlett