Letters to the editor

Iowa’s infatuation with Ted Cruz

I just cannot contain my anger at the Iowa religious right’s gullibility when it comes to Ted Cruz. Cruz is a senator from Texas, where ethanol is against the law, and he is telling Iowans, mostly the farmers who grow corn (the essential ingredient for ethanol) to be comfortable with losing their tax credits. He seems to see Iowans as hicks that aren’t even connected to the Internet.

Not only this, they are comfortable with him denying that his rhetoric has nothing to do with the attack on Planned Parenthood because he knows that history and religion diverge so much in material fact. Cruz’s rhetoric is reflective of that heard in Germany between 1919 and 1933, which eventually led to World War II and the death of millions of people.

You can say that this is America; it can’t happen here, but wait — it has already begun. Free speech does not include shouting “fire” in a crowded theater. And denying what you were for before you were against and denying what came out of your own mouth — does not play very well in the hackneyed 21/7 news cycle.

The original intent of the Founders was for America to be a democracy, not a theocracy — else they would not have written a secular Constitution.

Cruz, like Elmer Gantry, has seduced the self-righteous “leading them like weak women into sin.” The sin is his intention, like that of ISIS, is to destroy the federal government and all that it stands for.

We’ve seen his act in the 1930s in the Weimar Republic.

Mary Gravitt

Four critical problems that require a bipartisan approach

Dear Sens. Ernst and Grassley:

This is to request that you co-sponsor Senate Resolution 199. S. Res. 199 requests the Senate to debate, across-the-aisle, and adopt policy solutions in resolving to: 1) balance the federal budget by 2030, 2) secure Medicare & Social Security for the next 75 years, 3) make the United States energy secure by 2024, and 4) create 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years.

As you well know, Iowa Reps. Young, Blum and Loebsack have co-sponsored House Resolution 207, the No Labels National Strategic Agenda companion to S. Res. 199. If S. Res. 199 and H. Res. 207 were to be passed, it would represent the first time Congress has adopted a specific bipartisan methodology for solving the nation’s most core crucial problems.

Just like President Ronald Reagan & House Speaker Tip O’Neill worked across party lines in the 1980s to reform the tax code & protect Social Security, and President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich put aside differences in the 1990s to balance the budget in four-consecutive years, we expect you two to demonstrate to Iowans and the nation your problem-solving bipartisan leadership capability.

A super majority of Republicans, Democrats, and independents support the bipartisan resolution of these four problems that, left unresolved, threaten the future prosperity and security of our nation.

We look forward to your explicit support of S. Res. 199. Thank you for representing Iowa’s proud 3.1 million citizens and working on behalf of 318 million Americans.

On behalf of Iowa’s 5,299 supporters of the nonpartisan and not-for-profit `No Labels’

Kerry Cathcart, Iowa District 2 Leader, Coralville

Emily Chiochon, Iowa District 4 Leader, Lake Park

Steven B. Corbin, Iowa District 1 Leader, Cedar Falls

Emily Cox, University of Northern Iowa No Labels Chapter President, Cedar Falls

John H. Fraser, Iowa District 2 Leader, Iowa City

Joel Greer, Iowa District 1 Leader, Marshalltown

Doris J. Kelley, Iowa District 1 Leader, Cedar Falls

James Lang, Iowa District 2 Leader, West Branch

Norm Nichols, Iowa District 2 Leader, De Witt

Stacy Nichols-Byll, Iowa District 1 Leader, Cedar Falls

Sehseh Sanan, University of Iowa No Labels Chapter President, Iowa City