Copyright Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
Go nuclear To borrow an expression from the nuclear power industry, Senate Democrats have “scrammed the reactor.” For those of the readership unfamiliar with the term, scramming the reactor is the method used to stop an uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction. Pulling the control rods avoids the consequences of a meltdown. We have reached that point in our politics with a president whose policies and pronouncements are fueling an uncontrolled chain reaction and constitutional meltdown. Neither the GOP-led House nor the blindly conservative Supreme Court are fulfilling their functions as the control rods, thus leaving it to the Senate Democrats to execute and continue this emergency shutdown. Government functions have temporarily ceased and will have to be restarted. However, the alternatives would certainly be worse even with the inevitable fallout. Consider the impact that a loss of health insurance subsidies alone will have on some families. The residual effects of this administration’s policies are toxic and have a half life that will span decades. Costs will surpass the nation’s current debt. If temporarily shutting down the government can forestall this disaster, then there is no other logical alternative. For the Democrats, this shutdown is the court of last recourse to shield our democracy from further autocratic contamination. John Mannarino, Virginia Beach The Union As a U.S. Senate candidate, Abraham Lincoln stated, “A house divided among itself cannot stand.” He was referring to slavery’s divisive effects on the Union. He warned of a coming crisis, its outcome to determine how the Union would thereafter be constituted. The crisis became the Civil War. Throughout the conflict, then-President Lincoln was guided by unshakable faith in the “self-evident truths” of natural law upon which the Union was founded. A crisis is again fomenting. Radicals on the left and extremists on the right are weaving webs of divisiveness. Their common objective is to debilitate the Union by supplanting peace and tranquility with violence and fear. To advance this ominous cause, they will employ any vilification: hate crimes, assassinations, combative opposition to law enforcement and defaming rhetoric. The crisis, not decisively confronted, could inflict damage on the Union as devastating as the iceberg that sank the Titanic. Lincoln defined the Union as: “that government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The people are presently tied in a Gordian knot. The divisive agenda of radicals and extremists, emboldened, will seethe until the knot is cut by bold and deliberate action. Severance requires the nexus of resolute executive leadership, collaborating legislative moderates, centrists and independents with state and local officials in tandem. Absent intervention, the crisis will surmount — the Union, its founding principles of government usurped, consigned pitiably to a bygone era for the people of posterity to acclaim, awe and yearn. Herb Kline, Virginia Beach Ballroom When considering the White House ballroom construction, these questions came to mind. How many lives could be saved if $300 million were allocated, instead, to humanitarian causes such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and Doctors Without Borders? How many U.S. citizens are struggling while funds are poured into an ego-driven folly? Will this episode resonate with voters as a blatant, unrepentant symbol of the Trump administration’s flouting of history, tradition, law and culture? Is this a “thumb in the eye” as we attempt to celebrate the values enshrined in the founding of our nation 250 years ago? Can anyone even imagine what might come next? Louis Wilson, Norfolk Misplaced If you think a low-income family buying food on SNAP, or food stamps, is stealing your money and not the billionaires with three homes, a yacht, private jet, golden bathroom fixtures, and Botox-filled faces, then you’re critiquing the wrong income bracket. Patrick Blake, Virginia Beach Election letters We are no longer accepting letters related to the Nov. 4 general election.
