Democrats are to blame for rural Missouri’s woes? Republicans hold the purse strings

Cash handlers

I would like to answer a question posed in a Sept 2 letter to the editor under the subheadline “Few achievements.” (6A)

The author writes: “Missouri is flush with federal cash but won’t spend it to help those in rural areas. Do the people who live there know this?”

Yes, I do know this. I am curious why the writer sees the issue in terms of political party. As far as I am aware, elected officials are supposed to work for everybody — not just those who voted for them. It is equally the responsibility of the Republican Party to look out for the best interests of their constituents in all districts.

I understand the aim of the letter was to shame the state Democratic Party leaders for having a fundraiser in which the proceeds will not be available in time to help them assist voters in making informed decisions.

The letter concludes: “So what have Missouri’s Democratic leaders accomplished? Very little besides collecting checks.”

The same can be said for the Republican Party. Its members are not absolved from responsibility. What are they doing with that cash our state is flush with to address these issues in real time?

- Lee Ann Ferguson, Rich Hill, Missouri

Founders’ words

I recently streamed a TV drama called “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” depicting the American Revolutionary War. It compelled me to do more research into this watershed event.

In so doing, I came across this quote Alexander Hamilton sent with a letter to President George Washington:

“When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits — despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’”

So the story goes, Hamilton intended these words to describe demagogues. I think he was spot on.

- Douglas Washburn, Lenexa

No disgrace

President Joe Biden’s Sept. 2 speech at Independence Hall has clearly angered many whom Biden labeled as “MAGA Republicans.” He noted: “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

A typical MAGA response came from Missouri’s Sen. Josh Hawley: “Joe Biden’s hate-filled and menacing rhetoric tonight was disgraceful. His behavior is increasingly erratic. And his threats against half the country — his fellow citizens — are dangerous.”

We can all determine whether the democratic foundations of our country are in trouble. I wish Hawley, and all those who agree with him, to answer two questions:

▪ Was the 2020 election free and fair?

▪ Were the events of Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the certification of the 2020 election an insurrection or “legitimate political discourse” (the language in a Republican National Committee resolution)?

If a large number of our fellow citizens don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair, and if they further believe Jan. 6 was “legitimate political discourse,” it is not hate-filled and disgraceful to warn that the democratic foundations of our country are in very serious danger of being destroyed.

- Robert Yates, Kansas City

History’s lesson

Who represents white Christian nationalism today? And who did in the past, and what was its outcome?

I think we know.

- John Lancaster, Plattsburg, Missouri

Hungry children

I cannot understand why Missouri is the only state that prevents low-income kids who participate in federal summer meal programs from taking the food off the distribution site. (Sept. 4, 20A, “Short take: Poor parents steal kids’ lunches?”

No one should go hungry. I believe any caring parent would go hungry before taking food from his or her child. There is no excuse for this.

- Ida Swoope-Madlock, Kansas City