Dems let ‘fairness’ get in the way

The rollicking America of my youth where one made his way by wits and sweat equity is evolving into a much less adventuresome place, a collectivist safe house, where trophies are awarded for nothing more than showing up. We are not at the point yet where study and nose-to-the-grindstone ethic is completely disdained, but the idea that individual differences leading to distinct stratification must be subsumed by a gray sameness, all in service of fairness, is rising rapidly, leastways in progressive precincts. Fairness irrespective of effort augurs to replace the politics of personal identity, now that so many Americans are no longer satisfied by equal opportunity alone. Democrats codified this approach when President Barack Obama said he would pursue tax policies that diminished federal revenues if they appeared to increase fairness, he being the arbiter of what is fair.

The Notorious RBS — Rantin’ Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — offers absolution for our personal failures by blaming them not on our slack effort, but rather on the very wealthy who have rigged America. It’s the old class warfare dressed up with the idea that the financially successful have done something wrong, that they must pay for understanding the rules and adhering to them, must pay for staying in school, laboring over many years while delaying gratification, obeying the law and accepting time-honored verities that are no longer cool in the new postmodern progressive age.

{mosads}The liberal solution, to increase spending and regulation — the former fueled by higher taxes — will inhibit economic vitality, but will serve the pursuit of fairness and will attract votes, a far easier sell than the Trump belief that a rising economic tide following in the wake of lower taxes, fewer regulations and, in his judgment, newly rationalized trade policies is the answer.

Democrats, willing to hobble economic growth in return for the chimera of fairness, are trading vitality for votes, a productive exchange for those more interested in power and patronage than in resurrecting an economically healthy America.

From Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati, Ohio

Carry-overs damaging Trump

You’re a good man, Mr. Trump – but it is still my opinion that the carry-overs from the last administration have infested and infected your own administration!

It is also my fervent belief that these people are disruptors who are hell-bent on turning everything that you attempt to accomplish into a dismal disaster, and this in order to enhance the chances of making your tenure as POTUS as lackluster as is possible.

Any man (or woman) of great responsibility is, after all, only as good and productive as those whom they gather around them. In my opinion again, it is never a question of political party alone, but rather, it is a matter of being “An American First”!

From H. Rick Tavares, Campo, Calif.

Republicans: Work with Dems

President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) should work with Democrats to pass a public option. They’ll go down in history as the three most responsible for transforming America’s healthcare system into truly what is best for the American people. God knows, they’ve given Republicans more than enough time and opportunities to do something only to be left politically embarrassed every time. Imagine the legacy not to mention political capital each would receive from the American people.

This kind of leadership needed and shown by only three Republicans already at their political peaks would be in line with making America great again.

From Ian Keough, Toronto, Canada