One joy of reading and participating in the Chaska Herald opinion pages for 45 years is exposure to a wide range of views. The arguments used to be more civil and fact-based though. People cared more about how candidates would affect the economy.
Now there seems to be a danger of losing our democracy because people can’t see (or don’t care) that Donald Trump is a self-centered person who lies about 70% of the time according to fact-checking studies. We need to speak up.
My political views changed from the Republican evangelical Christian views of my parents to the progressive and science-based views I hold now. I still have great respect for my parents’ memory, and wonder if they could have become so nasty and hateful if they were still alive. We parted as friends who shared love and respect.
Carver County is wealthy and often supports Republican candidates, but this is a time when I hope they think about whether they wish to be led by a president or ruled by a king. A letter writer two weeks ago felt that the New York Times is not a good news source. I believe he would prefer Donald Trump’s tweets or Rupert Murdoch’s “news” that is checked for ideology rather than facts.
This lets us grow blind to the root causes of social ills. It becomes possible to talk about downtown riots with no mention of George Floyd or poverty or out-state arsonists. One can say that the last 5,000 votes in Alabama “materialized,” even though those votes were recounted and Republican votes were not challenged in the same way.
