Letters to the Editor: Republicans disgraced themselves during Biden’s State of the Union
To the editor: This is what the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union speech should have been:
“We have our political disagreements with the president, but they don’t amount to a knoll of legumes compared to what is underway in Ukraine. President Biden is our commander in chief, leading our NATO partners in responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of our European ally.
“We need to take on tyranny over there, so we don’t have to beat back better autocracy over here. We need a united front fighting fascism in favor of freedom. We need to rise above our stateside societal struggles and come together as one — not Republicans, Democrats or independents, but Americans, putting down Putin, and siding with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“God bless you, God bless America, and God bless Ukraine.”
Bill Freeman, Los Angeles
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To the editor: As he addressed Congress, the nation and the world, Biden demonstrated leadership by promoting unity.
What we saw and heard on one side of the aisle was booing and heckling by some Republicans. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds gave a mean-spirited Republican response to the speech.
The Republicans under the influence of former President Trump have defied Biden’s calls for a spirit of unity and compromise to replace an unbridled quest for political power.
Visible on the wall of the House of Representatives chamber was a portrait of George Washington, the first president, thought of as the role model for all his successors. Sadly, the Republicans now renounce Washington’s advice, given in his farewell address, to subordinate sectional jealousies to common national interests.
Right now, the problem is not capable leadership. It is a failure of followership.
Stephen Sloane, Lomita
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To the editor: During the section of Biden’s speech calling for a new war on cancer, when he noted his son Beau had died of it, some assembled members of the GOP actually heckled him.
They disrespected the memory of a young man who served his country and left behind a grieving family. Tell me how one finds unity with people like that.
Melissa Verdugo, Rancho Palos Verdes
