Brace yourself! Nov. 5 will be a dangerous day for United States

Nov. 5 will be a dangerous day

Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney are two Republican politicians who have more guts than most of their fellow male Republican politicians such as J.D. Vance, who before deciding to run for the Senate, bad mouthed Donald Trump.

After he decided to run, he wanted Trump's help and fawned all over him. We need politicians who have integrity to stick to their convictions.

I called J.D. Vance a cheap punk, Mike DeWine a spineless jellyfish. Festival got punished.

If Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are the nominees for the 2024 presidential election, Nov. 5 will be the most dangerous date for the country since April 12, 1861.

It's sad that both parties have the type of delegates who selected these nominees. It's a sad commentary that there are these types of people voting who control the destiny of this country.

Charlie M. Miller, West Jefferson

Deadbeats weasel out of promises

Under a new Trump administration, the motto for the United States can be changed to “We don’t have your back."

Based on discussions from his prior administration, he just wants to cede the safety of the west to these smaller countries and back out of a mutual defense agreement, despite 75 years of relative European peace.

Ask Neville Chamberlain how appeasement worked with the Nazis in WWII. Trump's position is more than isolationism but also about all of us vs the global community and that only 'losers and suckers' sacrifice for the greater good.

Trying to distill it down to the fact that Europe is just full of 'deadbeats' is ironic in that former president Trump was the focus of more than 60 lawsuits and judgments against him for nonpayment of monies owed.

From the archives: Neville Chamberlain's experience foreboding

The 2% of the GDP goal to spend on defense is a goal and not a requirement. This would merely be an attempt to weasel out of our promise. Should we be surprised?

Steven R. Schneir, Gahanna

$50 minimum wage?

Rep. Barbara Lee is running for the California senate and proposes a federal $50 minimum wage. She says she ran a business for 11 years. What happened to that business and how much did she pay her entry-level employees?

Dennis Singleton, Dayton

Fascists don't like democracy, love chaos

With the upcoming presidential election it seems like a good time to ask and try to answer the question what is a fascist?

Put simply it is a person who wants minority — rule government, one in which the race, religion, or socio-economic status of that person or group dominates. Of course in a democracy the majority would resist this by voting against any candidate and party with this goal.

Consequently, fascists don't like democracy. They will try to weaken it by generating chaos through lying, cheating, distraction and division. Fascists find chaos useful.

During the 12-year rule of the fascist Nazis in Germany nearly 7 million German citizens died, military and civilian, by allied bombing and government atrocities against its own people. Ultimately Adolf Hitler's War resulted in the deaths of 75 million people worldwide, 85% on the allied side including more than 400,000 American military. The lesson is clear; fascists must be resisted.

More: Biden convenes top congressional leaders to avert government shutdown, pass Ukraine aid

It may be awhile before we know how many deaths the fascist Vladimir Putin is responsible for but we can bet it's millions. Since 2014 he has been attacking and indiscriminately killing women and children in much smaller Ukraine, to steal their land.

Aid to Ukraine from the U.S. and its allies is the only reason Putin has not been successful.

Donald Trump and his Republican supporters are holding up U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Is it really their intention to support a fascist murderer against a democratic neighbor? Trump has invited Putin to attack NATO countries, our allies. Did he really just say that? Fascists, whether foreign or home-grown, MUST be resisted.

Richard Back, New Albany

We can't put the sports betting genie back in the bottle

I applaud Amanda Blackford and Derek Longmeier's Feb. 14 guest column “Many Ohioans are at-risk gamblers, losing big is easy."

They point out the magnitude of the problem in terms of the number of people affected and the negative effect on the bettor and their families; while providing important info on various support organizations for those facing gambling addiction.

More: When we pretend destructive gambling in Ohio doesn't exist, the problem only gets worse

Unfortunately, because the media and professional sports organizations profit from advertising and promote sports betting, we are sure to see it become an ever-increasing part of all our lives with the resultant negative effect on our society.

The positive effect to the state from sports betting is much like the meager returns our lottery provides for education. This is similar to the questionable benefits from other issues that mostly benefit those directly involved, like sports stadiums and tax breaks for new businesses and housing, with their inflated projections of new employment and economic activity.

We can’t put the genie back in the bottle; but we can be more discerning when offering incentives to private entities.

It is therefore so ironic that our state legislatures, dominated by one party’s gerrymandered successes, can act so quickly and decisively to enact legislation allowing for sports betting, but cannot emerge from the quagmire of partisanship to enact state supreme court mandated revisions to our funding of education and the manner in which voting district boundaries are chosen.

Joe Barmess, Pataskala

Public money for public schools. Period.

Re "DeMora's column proof Democrats care more about unions than kids," Feb. 21: State Sen. Andrew Brenner states that teacher associations are “more interested in funding the radical ideology of the far left, while vilifying parents who speak out about it” than educating our children."

Brenner is the chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee. He claims that we would save money by funding private education with state tax dollars since vouchers are half as much as the average per pupil expenditure in public schools. Republicans seem to argue that our public schools are inadequate so we should help fund private schools by paying for parent’s choice to use an alternative to the public schools.

More: Columbus schools has millions. Senator lying on Republicans to feed money to school union.

We cannot afford to fund both public and private schools. We shouldn't anyway. Public money for public schools. Period.

Joe H. Carr, Columbus

Tell them to support students at every level

Our founders believed that public education was crucial to a healthy and free society. When founding new communities, they established schools as soon as possible.

Sadly, public education is now threatened in many ways.

One of the greatest threats is underfunding. According to the National Education Association, funding has declined by $13 billion (adjusted for inflation) due to the deep cuts and funding caps imposed.

We must reverse this tragic trajectory — in particular, increase funding for high-poverty schools through Title I, in children with disabilities through IDEA, and in full-service community schools.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson have agreed to top lines for the fiscal year 2024 budget set last spring, during negotiations to raise the debt ceiling that culminated in passage of the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Nondefense discretionary funding is expected to be about what it was in fiscal year 2023. How much goes to education hasn’t been determined.

Contemplating further cuts is unconscionable.

And cuts proposed by the House GOP would hurt the students most in need.

Please tell your members of Congress to increase support for students in every community at every level: early education, higher education, adult education, and workforce development.

Susan Gallagher, Akron

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: If Trump is reelected, 'We don’t have your back' will be US motto