Nikki Haley: How will you explain endorsement of Trump to your children and ours? | Opinion

How to explain?

Nikki, Nikki, Nikki.

When you stood up to Donald Trump, I was pleased and impressed and I voted for you in the recent South Carolina primary.

This week, I was devastated to read that you have lowered your standards so much that you said you would vote for Trump in the fall.

You know what Trump thinks of you, your husband and your marriage. He has made that clear.

You know he has been found liable for sexual assault. You know he is an adulterer, a grifter, a liar and a cheater who makes a practice of not paying his bills. You know he is a business failure who lost the last election.

How low can your standards be to proclaim that you will vote for this man?

How will you explain this horrible choice to your children and all of the children of South Carolina?

Al Muench, Bluffton

Stop the deluge

The Biden Administration is waking up to a harsh reality of its own making: in the name of saving the climate, they’ve driven US manufacturing into the arms of China’s warm, coal-fired embrace.

And we can’t blame them.

China knew to pursue green technologies, because they knew we’d jump through hell and high water if it meant rejoining feel-good agreements like the Paris Accords.

Luckily, Republicans have an opportunity to deliver clarity on the climate issue: make polluters like China play by the rules.

Make them pay for the costs of labor and environmental compliance that they otherwise face in a true market economy.

For too long, we’ve been complacent in letting China deluge our shores with cheap, pollution-laden goods.

Politicians pointed to the price tags on these items and made it seem like we won. Yet, the condition of our workforce, environment, supply chains and global standing clearly indicate the opposite.

So, the key question is this: will Congress stand with Senator Graham, former President and presidential candidate Trump and the American worker, or are they with the Chinese Communist Party? That is how clear this issue should be.

Jay Lester, Inman

No nuclear weapons

New nuclear proliferation by the Biden administration puts everyone at risk for Armageddon.

The recent subcritical nuclear test conducted by the United States in Nevada is more than alarming, it is morally reprehensible.

The fact that President Biden plans to increase the frequency of these subcritical experiments when he knows that the use of nuclear weapons destroys the environment, is indiscriminate in their destruction and denies the unity of mankind says he doesn’t value our world and the spirit of love that inhabits it.

We must turn from our narrow exclusionary views and embrace a more inclusive one or our fate will be continually tied to hatred and fear.

In addition, these tests will further accelerate the nuclear arms race. What kind of future are we creating for our people and the world?

It is time to do away with all tests that contribute to maintaining or developing nuclear weapons and focus on how to create and embrace a more peaceful, loving world.

Cassandra Fralix, Lexington

Future debt

In the months leading up to the November elections, I expect to hear Republican candidates and spokespersons use terms like “liberal budget-busters” and “tax-and-spend Democrats.” Here are some facts to remember:

(1) the last time the U.S. had a balanced federal budget was under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat;

(2) the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Trump in December 2017 has added a trillion dollars to our national debt with negligible effects on job-creation.

Another fact is that neither party is committed to pursuing a balanced budget.

Instead, our legislators are committed to pursuing our votes by providing us with the services we want without requiring us to pay the full cost of those services through our taxes.

I’m so sorry that our children and grandchildren will be saddled by the national debt my generation has created.

Andrew Gowan, W. Columbia

Protests unsettling

Recently we have seen outbursts by college kids regarding the Israeli-Palestinian War.

First of all, the majority of our future leaders now in college have no idea where these countries are. History is a lost art anymore in college.

I believe in a right to protest and remember when student protests against Vietnam helped end that war, but after a few days, some of these gutless college administrators today let the students stop graduations, final exams, etc.

This should not have happened.

Have the police come in and arrest the kids who are much more violent than in the past. Destroying property in buildings is not protesting.

Arrest the kids who do this damage. File a complaint.

Then when it comes time to get a job, explain to mom and pop that their child’s court record has shown up and that good companies don’t want to hire troublemakers.

This is the real world we live in now. And it’s getting worse.

Pat Clark, Columbia