Dear Editor:
There are a lot of confusing stories going around these days. Republicans say one thing, Democrats another. How’s a voter supposed to figure out the truth? You can start by looking at the recent Republican ads. Pro-gun, pro-God, and pro-life.
Let’s start with pro-gun. For 20 years the Republicans have been claiming the Democrats want to take our guns. While Obama was President no West Virginians lost their guns unless they broke the law. The Democrats have never wanted honest folk’s guns; they like to hunt, too. What they want is to keep automatic weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill, and people who have a criminal background. Why don’t the Republicans want that?
Now look at pro-God. In recent years our District has had two Democratic Senators who are pastors, and Stephen Baldwin is still going the 2nd mile for all of us. On Sundays our church pews are filled with faithful Democrats and Republicans.
As for pro-life, even the President has said that he is for abortion if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the mother’s life is in mortal danger. Democrats are not all pro-life or pro-choice, but they do support social programs for those children and families who need help.
The real failure of Republicans is what they offer our children and their families. In the last couple of years food stamps (SNAP) and children’s health insurance have been drastically cut for our poor and working families. Obamacare serves about 184,000 West Virginians, but it is being whittled away by the President’s administration. They have a case in front of the Supreme Court to do away with Obamacare, and our state has joined in the lawsuit. Yet almost four years in, there is no Republican replacement for this health insurance.
Now why would Republicans want to eliminate our people’s health insurance? Does anyone think this makes sense at any time, let alone in the middle of a killing virus?
West Virginian Republicans have held the majority in our Congress since 2014. So, I would like to know why don’t we have clean water laws that protect our creeks and rivers? Why don’t we have substantial sums of money to retrain our unemployed miners and other hard working folks? Why do our school teachers have to strike to get a living wage? Why do the big corporations still get large tax breaks while we continue to pay our taxes? The Democrats are already working on these issues, but it is hard to make changes in a Republican Congress.
Yes, members of both parties are pro-life, pro-God, and pro-gun. Let’s stop the confusion, and ask this year’s candidates what they will do to work on our big problems instead of giving us slogans.
Nan Issenberg
Lewisburg
