Trump indictments proper; readers praise defeat of Issue 1 | Voice of the People

Trump indictment proper

Hopefully, Aug. 1, 2023, will be remembered as the corrective response to Jan. 6, 2021.

The indictment of Donald J. Trump is the necessary response to his attempted coup against America. The indictment revisits the story laid bare by the congressional January 6 Committee. It’s clear what happened on Jan. 6 was the culmination of a many-faceted plot to overturn the legitimate results of the November 2020 election, instigated by Trump and carried out by him and his lackeys.

The indictment is vital to establish basic accountability for the crimes Trump and his co-conspirators committed and to reinforce the basic principle that nobody is above the law.

Trump’s coup attempt did not occur in a vacuum. It was a product of a sustained assault against democracy preceding Trump’s election, intensified by Trump and MAGA forces during the Trump regime, and continuing today.

Aug. 1 was a grave day for America, but it must reinforce the commitment of freedom-loving Americans to democracy and the rule of law. That will require not just supporting this prosecution, but recommitting ourselves to protecting, defending and advancing our democracy from the many threats it still faces.

Suellen Roberts, Fairlawn

GOP wrong on every front

Four indictments and 91 counts for former President Trump. Just about everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. Are the Republican Party and Trump’s supporters stupid?

Do you really want someone in the Oval Office that idolizes Russian leader Vladimir Putin and wants to be just like him? At least they should remember what happened with Jim Jones’ followers at the Jonestown Massacre.

Republicans are upset with President Joe Biden’s policies working, bringing down inflation and lifting the job market to an all-time high, not to mention his war on global warming. Now the Republicans want to impeach our president for loving his son.

Hunter Biden had a deal in place to pay for his indiscretions, but Republicans were not happy with it. How much more time and money are they going to spend to find something that’s not there? You would think the House Republicans should work with the president to get global warming under control, but, no, they do not believe in global warming. They want to keep the oil and coal companies, and the world be damned.

This should be a wake-up call for all voting citizens: Vote Democrat next election!

John C. Stouffer Jr., Akron

The people have spoken

With the defeat of Issue 1, the people of Ohio have affirmed the right and necessity of having a voice on issues the state legislature fails to address. The speculation and scare tactics by supporters of Issue 1 did not work.

The attempted end run to increase the required vote percentage to pass a citizen initiative by placing it on the ballot in August was not lost to voters. In first prohibiting and then immediately breaking its new law on not holding special issue elections, the Ohio legislature exposed its cynical intent to stack the deck in its favor.

The citizen initiative was added to our constitution 111 years ago in response to rampant legislative corruption. It is still needed to restrain legislative overreach.

The people have spoken and their message is a resounding no. We won’t hand over this important right to a legislative body that can’t be trusted to follow the will of the people.

Laurie CurfmanPresident of the League of Women Voters of the Akron Area

Thanking Ohio voters

I wanted to write and say thank you to every Ohioan who came together and voted no on Aug. 8 to defeat the anti-choice Issue 1 amendment and to the press for covering this important issue.

Abortion rights supporters like myself, and our allies, came together to defeat Issue 1, and to protect the idea of one person, one vote, which is a right every Ohioan had for more than 100 years.

It is inspiring to see so many diverse organizations, around 200, that came together to stop Issue 1, including abortion rights groups, environmental, gun control, health care workers, LGBTQ+, minority groups, secular and religious groups, first responders, educational groups, musicians, voting rights groups and so many more.

Please continue this bipartisan collaboration, and remember to vote yes this November for the constitutional amendment called “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety.” The right to bodily autonomy includes abortion access, contraception, miscarriage care, fertility treatment, etc., and this amendment will support these reproductive choices, because health care is a choice and a basic civil right.

Nancy Dollard, Uniontown

LaRose rant amusing

I admit that I am quite amused by the tantrum by Secretary of State Frank LaRose regarding the defeat of Issue 1. In typical extremist style, he’s predicting all sorts of fatal calamity for the state because voters refused to relinquish our power to a party that remains out of touch with its constituents.

He claims we’ll see amendments that will prevent citizens from protecting their families, force job-killing wage mandates on small businesses, remove parents from their child’s life-altering medical procedures, and more, even though no such proposals are in the works.

It’s just more of the same tired, dishonest scare tactics for which his party has become famous. Rant away, Mr. LaRose. Issue 1 fails, democracy prevails!

Tim Martin, Uniontown

Conservative is wrong label for many

In all versions of the media that I consume, print, radio, TV and the occasional online article, I am stymied by the use of the term “conservative” for far-right factions of the political spectrum.

Conservatives have historically been in favor of less government interference in people’s lives, whereas today many people being referred to as conservative want to interfere with decisions that should be made between a doctor and a patient, be that about abortion or gender-related medical decisions.

Many so-called conservatives want the government to be involved in banning books and what university professors are allowed to teach their adult students. These are not conservative proposals. They are fascist proposals. Hitler's Nazi regime banned books and silenced university professors.

So, I ask that the media refer to the people who promote such proposals as right-wing extremists. There is nothing conservative about them. Please call them what they are.

Julie Ainslie, Akron

Does Electoral College violate our rights?

One of Jack Smith’s indictments of former President Donald J. Trump and his associates for attempting to overturn the 2020 election is Title 18, United States Code, Section 241. This law, called the “Conspiracy Against Rights,” makes it a crime for a group to deny one’s vote to be counted.

In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Al Gore won the popular vote by 543,895, but lost the presidency to George W. Bush because of the Electoral College. Again, the same thing happened in 2016 with Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote by 2,868,686 and losing the presidency to Trump because of the Electoral College.

The denial of 543,895 votes to be counted in 2000 and 2,868,686 votes to be counted in 2016 seems to be a violation of the federal law associated with “denying one’s vote to be counted.”

Almost all U.S. federal, state and local elections are settled by majority vote. Most other countries elect their leaders using this same concept.

The denial of one’s vote to be counted in 2000 and 2016 is unfortunate. In the future if a similar situation would occur, could or should the courts force the Electoral College to honor the popular vote outcome?

Jack and Rebecca Bayonnet, Akron

It’s still not a fair playing field

Even after Issue 1 failed, we citizens are left working with one hand tied behind our backs.

While the extremist legislators have the power in a gerrymandered legislature to simply put anything on the ballot, we citizens must put forth a year’s worth of energy and tons of money to get through the labyrinth of getting the legal language written and accepted and then the herculean effort of finding enough volunteers to collect 700,000 signatures and getting them accepted in order to make that same ballot.

And then we are even with them when it comes to getting our issues passed — except that they have not yet spent a cent up to this point.

Janice Oakley, Sagamore Hills

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Trump indictments proper; readers praise defeat of Issue 1