Letters to the editor Jan. 9

Open exchange of ideas

Throughout four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, a danger has been exposed that should concern every American no matter what political stripe you are. In their hatred of a president, the news media and the tech companies have exposed themselves to be the self appointed arbiters of truth.

Our entire system is based on the open exchange of ideas in which all arguments, good or bad, are allowed to be brought forth and judged on their merits. Sadly, this is no longer happening in America. Our news media, who used to pride themselves on reporting unbiased facts, doesn’t even try to hide their bias. Worse yet, they have taken it upon themselves to decide what ideas are safe for the American public to hear. Never before have I witnessed the news media cut away from a presidential address or refuse to air it completely. Never before have tech companies decided that the public should not be exposed to what the president has to say. This is a slap in the face to every single American. They are taking away your ability to use critical thinking to arrive at your own opinion and instead forming the opinion for you.

There was a time that the media would cover the news by interviewing people on both sides of an argument. Is this what you see today when you turn on your television or computer? If not, then you’re watching propaganda, not news. The end result of this, whether you are conservative or liberal, is that you are no longer a free and independent citizen, but merely a useful idiot being spoon fed a narrative.

—Neil Creighton, Kalispell

Black-hat Republicans

I’m a third-generation Montana native and a staunchly independent voter. I’ve been appalled at the constant efforts to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law over the past four years. Since the November election however, I’ve seen many Republicans take off their red MAGA caps and don black hats instead as they followed Donald Trump down the road to the attempted coup.

Senator Steve Daines put on a black hat and he went into the joint session of Congress wearing that black hat — announcing he would object to electoral college votes from states Trump falsely claims stole his landslide victory. However, when a violent insurrectionist black-hat mob stormed the Capitol and ransacked offices, Daines took his black hat off.

Daines apparently prefers to go hat-less now.

Newly elected Matt Rosendale, while decrying mob violence, continues to proudly wear his black hat though.

It seems that the only member of the Montana delegation to Washington who wears a white hat anymore is Sen. Jon Tester.

Thank you, Sen. Tester, for standing up for the Constitution, for the states’ right to hold fair and democratic elections (as courts have ruled), and standing for the peaceful transition of power in our constitutional republic.

—Hal Schmid, Arlee

Response to the non-rational liberal left

In response to Jay Adam’s letter (Dec. 20), I must say: Jay, get a grip and come into the light of day. It’s obvious you are spending way too much time watching the propaganda spewing out of MSNBC. It’s also obvious from childish comments like “Twitter in chief” you are still suffering from a bad case of Trump derangement syndrome.

Why heal anything? It’s old Joe who has been talking about how he was going to heal the country. My letter just details why he can’t do it with the attitude he has right now. It’s a rational discussion that’s legitimate, rather than the emotional yelling you obviously prefer.

You seem to ignore the fact of how badly the far-left press treated President Trump, conservatives and the presidency itself. That certainly didn’t happen when Obama was in office.

Relative to McConnell, to resist, in a respectful way, is the right and duty of a Senate or a House of different political persuasion. Insults, lies and behavior which destroys the respect for the presidency and/or other political viewpoints just leads to more rancor and division.

Relative to Covid, I haven’t written a letter in quite some time although a study of the statistics from the state of Montana show many positive trends. For instance, for those under 30 out of 36,794 cases there has only been one death. Similarly, under 40 with 46,742 cases there’s only been 11 deaths. These numbers are not debatable unless you don’t trust our state health department. Those same statistics show that 80% of the people dying with (not from) Covid had pre-existing conditions. As of this writing, that means only 173 people had actually died in our state from just Covid alone.

I just wish our paper would print the chart from our state health department illuminating these figures so people would have the full information necessary to make their own personal decisions.

Jay’s letter is emblematic of the emotional and non-rational liberal left. It’s hard to have a discussion with anyone who sounds like teenage girls having a catfight.

My advice? Engage the rational side of your brain (and quit listening to MSNBC).

—Mark Agather, Kalispell

Let’s restore sanity

Normally I ignore letters from people like David Myrowitz (Dec. 31) but this time I won’t. The “election fraud” he claims was certified in all 50 states and in some states, like Georgia, three times, by Democrats and Republicans. Our elections are the cornerstone of our democracy and to support the claims of Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump is has shown in 50 court cases to be fraudulent. Trump didn’t win despite gutting our postal service, supporting voter suppression, and Russian interference. He lost by more than 7 million votes. Live with it.

You talk about BLM and ANTIFA, but the only people I see carrying guns while threatening death and destruction to government employees (including governors) and their children are MAGA supporters. How sad that your version of democracy looks a whole lot like autocracy. This is scarily like Russia after the democratic revolution. Eventually we see Russia evolve to a Putin-led autocracy enforced by the radical right. Russia is much poorer for this.

Trump gutted most government agencies from the Forest Service, USDA food inspection, Post Office, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, the U.S. Military command, the list goes on and on.

Some dilution of rules and laws I agree with. Taking us out of world leadership, I do not. Biden’s job will be to restore sanity to our country and the world.

Will there be liberals in high places? Undoubtedly, but he will essentially be building from scratch with proven people. Will he listen to the very far left like AOC? It’s doubtful she will have an impact, but she is entitled to express her opinion.

I just don’t understand why all these “Republican” Congressmen back Trump. I have joined the Republicans in the Lincoln Project because they are the reasonable, moderate Republicans I remember from Eisenhauer through Nixon.

While, yes the liberals may own most of the media (not sure that’s true), 90% of our wealth is owned by conservatives and conservative radicals. If you think they will allow the Chinese Yuan to become the reserve currency, you are sadly mistaken.

—Duane Johnson, Bigfork

Spoke too soon

After the election was called for Biden by the media, you published my letter to the editor that our long national nightmare, and international embarrassment, was over.

I spoke too soon.

—Thomas Tornow, Whitefish

Are we great again yet?

When Matt Rosendale cast his vote against accepting the Electoral College votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, even after the insurrection at the nation’s Capitol, he showed himself to be a cynical coward who believes voters should not be allowed to choose who governs their country.

Senator Romney, a true statesman, was right. It’s time to tell the American people the truth. Joe Biden legitimately won the presidential election. It was not stolen from Trump. The election was not rigged. Trump lost.

Instead, Rosendale showed his approval of the assault on our democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law. By his vote, Rosendale supported sedition. This is a slap in the face of patriotic Montanans.

In the meantime, Trump is still extremely dangerous to America as long as he remains in office. How much more American carnage needs to happen? Going forward, Rosendale should support the invocation of the 25th Amendment, or support another House impeachment of Trump. Senator Daines needs to support a Trump conviction of such a House impeachment.

Trump needs to be removed from office as soon as possible — before something worse happens.

—Carol DiNolfo, Bigfork