Readers Write: Outstate voters for Harris, Trump’s rambling

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

I am an outstate voter living in lake country, and I am voting for Kamala Harris. There are plenty of us around, but you wouldn’t know that by the election coverage and commentaries published that play off the rural/urban divide. In Harris, I see someone who has defended her fellow Americans her entire career and is actually the law-and-order candidate. She is truthful and direct. She is the only candidate who trusts women and supports personal freedom. There are many reasons to not vote for former President Donald Trump, including his fixed pattern of putting self-interest over others, the most recent being his lies and disinformation that caused chaos that hurt the victims of major hurricanes in his attempt at political gain. Trump has a pathological personality and character that is deeply flawed and unfit for the presidency of the United States, a constitutional republic where the Constitution and ideals it represents are to be defended and protected for all, not for the person sitting in the Oval Office. We already saw the Trump show, and it did not end well on Jan. 6, 2021. The country was in disarray in 2020 under Trump’s lack of leadership — that is why he lost the election. But Trump and some Republicans have tried to rewrite that history with a steady flow of disinformation. But there are many credible reasons to vote for Harris, not just against Trump.

Harris demonstrates a toughness and directness we need in a president. In her career and in her campaign, she maintains a focus on others, not herself. She consistently talks about the needs of the American people, not her personal grievances. She has been embraced by Americans from all backgrounds, including some conservatives who recognize the need for unity instead of the chaos and disregard for the Constitution Trump has brought. Harris has put forth solid proposals to grow the middle class and support families, while cutting tax breaks currently received by the billionaire class. A simple Google search will reveal the evidence that the nation experienced greater job and economic growth in 2021-2024 compared with 2017-2020. That is not socialism.

On immigration, Harris is the only candidate seeking a bipartisan immigration policy with solutions that actually fix the problems. She doesn’t sow fear and hate. Instead, she is pragmatic in identifying actual problems and working toward practical solutions. Neither Trump or Biden (who as presidents had authority, unlike Harris as vice president) were successful in fixing our immigration policy or securing the border, partly due to Republicans in Congress who have blocked recent bipartisan legislation. It is time for a change with a president who puts the American people above self or party, who seeks solutions from all sides. There is only one candidate in this race who has demonstrated that ability, and that is Kamala Harris. This is why I will vote for her.

Jennifer Nash-Wright, Fifty Lakes, Minn.

•••

The most important duty of the president of the United States is to ensure the safety of citizens. Foreign policy is a critical part of that responsibility. The Democrats and their media supporters have resorted to gaslighting the public on their record. Some examples: Barack Obama blinking when Russia annexed Crimea and when Syria crossed his red line. Joe Biden relaxing Iranian sanctions imposed by Donald Trump and reversing the terrorist designation of the Houthis in 2021. [Opinion editor’s note: The Biden administration redesignated the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in January.] The politically motived disaster of the Afghanistan withdrawal and forcing Ukraine to have to beg for critical weaponry.

All these policies have emboldened and empowered Russia and Iran to launch their military offenses under Democratic administrations.

Robert Didrikson, Hastings

•••

In light of Thursday’s article about Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking (“After 7 weeks, Biden and Netanyahu talk”) and Wednesday’s evidence-free counterpoint (“The case for choosing a Trump-Vance administration,” Strib Voices), two more actions taken by Trump during his presidency deserve mention. First, Trump unilaterally moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, apparently without gaining anything in return. From a Star Tribune editorial published Dec. 14, 2017, “The decision will embolden Palestinian hard-liners, including Hamas, which Israel, the U.S. and the European Union rightly consider a terrorist group. It also will weaken the more moderate Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. So the reconciliation between the two factions required for any eventual peace process will be even more difficult to achieve.” Second, he unilaterally withdrew from the multinational nuclear agreement with Iran that led to Iran being able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb in a matter of weeks or days. Of course, tensions in the Mideast existed long before the embassy move and withdrawing from the agreement, but Trump threw gas on the fire and added oxygen. We now have a war in Israel that was started by an emboldened Hamas and is expanding toward a potentially nuclear-armed Iran. As Biden and Harris try to stop this human tragedy, Trump is fanning the flames and casting blame on others. Voters do have a clear choice in the upcoming election: Return to the incompetence, gaslighting and chaos of Trump or move forward with Harris.

Kyle Nelson, Minneapolis

The former president recently spoke at the Detroit Economic Club, and, as he so often has in the past few years, he sounded demented. Donald Trump veered off topic, mispronounced words, was at times incoherent and often made no sense whatsoever. He also managed to disparage the very city he was speaking in. He said, “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if [Harris is] your president” — clearly not intending it as a compliment for either the candidate or the city.

Here is a brief word-for-word excerpt from Trump’s Detroit speech: “This isn’t like Elon with his rocket ships that land within 12 inches on the moon where they wanted to land. Or he gets the engines back, that was the first I realized — I said: ‘Who the hell did that?’ I saw engines about three, four years ago. These things were coming — cylinders, no wings, no nothing — and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace with a circle. Boom. Reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have, right? He’d have eight circles and he couldn’t fill ‘em up. But then I heard he beat us with the popular vote. I don’t know, I don’t know — couldn’t fill up the eight circles. I always loved those circles, they were so beautiful. They were so beautiful to look at. In fact the person that did them — that was the best thing about his — the level of that circle was great. But they couldn’t get people, so they used to have the press stand in those circles, because they couldn’t get the people. Then I heard we lost ...”

Like most of his recent speeches it goes on — seemingly endlessly. And like most of Trump’s speeches it is dark, full of grievances and hard to follow. If a relative or someone in my immediate family sounded like Trump does these days, I would insist they seek medical help. Doesn’t the press have a responsibility to sound the alarm and let the public know how bad the situation has gotten?

Michael Farnsworth, Minneapolis