Mailbag: GOP sank to new lows with Katrina Foley smears

While I applaud the selection of Democrat Dave Min to go against GOP incumbent John Moorlach for the state Senate in the 37th District (mine), I am disgusted that a deliberate effort to smear Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley, Min’s Democrat opponent in the primary, may have been successful.

I am also disgusted that Moorlach and his special-interest assassins got the match-up they were looking for. Moorlach and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves, but the GOP has gone beyond shame this campaign season.

Given the take-down of Foley, will the same sordid special interests that attacked Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) in his winning 2018 Congressional bid come out of the woodwork to support Republican challenger Michelle Steel, a county supervisor? Will she allow or encourage it?

It is sad to see one major political party sink so low. It is sad that desperation has driven Republicans to take the low road instead of battling honorably on ideas and issues.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

This is a time for everyone, no matter their political stripe, to pull together

Adrian Cronauer, the inspiration for “Good Morning Vietnam,” once said, “Our flag is not just one of many political points of view. Rather, the flag is a symbol of our national unity.”

Often people assert, “Let’s unify our nation.” That’s a great idea, and I’m 100% behind it. People say those four words on social media, TV, in newspapers and such. Some truly believe it; others clearly not so much.

As a relatively new young voter, many of us were out recently exercising our right to vote. Many of my peers were showing off that little “I voted sticker” to all their followers on Instagram.

But in those posts, they present a message that screams the opposite of unity. They tell people: “ ... If you didn’t vote for the person I voted for, I don’t need you anywhere near me.”

They tell half the nation to kick rocks because they may have an opposite opinion. That’s not a message of unity; that’s one of division.

In school and at work I find myself in a situation where I’m with people I don’t know particularly well. I have the opportunity to sit and listen to many people.

Generally, it’s when politics become the subject, you hear a healthy dose of trash talk about the leaders of the opposite side and eventually they turn their fangs on the people who associate with one party.

“I never want to associate with someone like that,” they say. “I would end the friendship with someone if I found out they were [of] the opposite party.”

If this type of attitude continues among the American people, I fear history will repeat itself. This nation fought a war because of animosity and hate. We need to respect people’s right to choose whom they vote for and what they believe.

I am a 23-year-old man who is grateful to be an American. I am seemingly conservative in my ideals. I propose we stop the tribalism and start listening and maybe learning. We don’t have to agree on every subject to listen and be respectful.

This is the first letter I have ever submitted to a news source. My hope is we all respect what the American flag symbolizes.

Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Josh Debernarde
Costa Mesa

We need a stronger safety net — now

From retirement accounts to commerce to our interpersonal relationships, the coronavirus is infecting many dimensions of our lives.

It’s exacerbating xenophobia, loneliness and hoarding behaviors. Face it (from a safe distance, of course), we’re all in this together.

To use a back-in-the-day metaphor, we are all crew members on spaceship Earth. It’s time to implement a safety net for all our crew members.

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang thoughtfully proposed a basic universal income. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) advocates Medicare-for-all. Enhanced social supports (few dare call it socialism) will inoculate us from many of the fears with which we are now confronted.

Let’s get it done. Time’s a wasting.

Ben Miles
Huntington Beach

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