Readers make their cases for Election Day choices

By Las Vegas Sun readers

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Election Day has inspired Las Vegas Sun readers for weeks, months even, to share their thoughts on the state of democracy and the qualifications of the candidates running for elected office in Nevada, as the state shares the spotlight this cycle with a few others considered pivotal to Democrats' and Republicans' chances to govern effectively and realize their visions for the country.

Readers from all over Nevada and across the country weighed in, flooding our email inbox and physical mail box with hundreds of letters — far too many to publish them all.

Some pitched their reasons for supporting specific candidates, while others expressed concern about the election process or party platforms.

Here is a sampling of those letters:

Nye County hurting its own voters

People like secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant has said that voting machines can be “flipped” to switch votes, a popular notion among election deniers, and one that former President Donald Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, described as “idiotic.”

Election denial came into existence when Black voters went to the polls in huge numbers in the 2020 presidential election. No candidate in recent history had questioned the validity of a presidential election like Trump has, and he continues to make the claim the election was stolen from him.

This appears to be a dog whistle about people of color voting, given recent voting restrictions and modifications of election processes in many southern states that have a huge voter turnout from the Black community. Given that, one has wonder why Nye County, which is 90% white, is getting caught up in this crazy election-denier lie and eating its own. It’s only stopping itself from being a legitimate place to cast a vote.

Dana Rideout, North Las Vegas

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Voting rights for me, not for thee

That’s a nice democracy you’ve got there; it would be a real shame if anything happened to it.

The latest sales pitch from Republican leadership is that we are a republic, not a democracy. So, some people should be excluded from voting. You know who.

Republicans reportedly pumped over $1 billion into just this year’s Senate races. The grand total for both parties for all races and issues is much larger.

Where all that dirty money came from is none of your business, per the reactionary conservatives of the U.S. Supreme Court. They decreed that money is speech and corporations are people. You no longer get to know who is manipulating your perceptions and feelings about things that have been treated with superficiality and crass bias, or who has exposed you to facts and ideas (or to false information and distorted beliefs). Republicans specialize in misleading, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and victim-hating ads. Did you see any white people as perpetrators in the ads about crime?

Polls show Republican gains. However, polls are missing millions of women, young people, poor people and minorities who are flocking to voting booths. So, how will the MAGA snowflakes react to losing? How many will attack, as the terrorist with a hammer did to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, thanks to right-wing propaganda? How many who have maligned the FBI will take their chances against agents? Stay tuned. Some will try.

Robert Elliott, Las Vegas

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GOP plans put Americans last

Big Energy and Big Pharma achieved their highest profits in decades by raising fuel and drug prices at rates that sustained and increased inflation. Republicans who claim to put America first seem unconcerned about this. But they have said what they intend to do if they gain legislative control:

• Repeal legislation that supports seniors by forcing drug companies to negotiate prescription prices with Medicare.

• Increase tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and reduce funding for IRS audits of their tax returns.

• Enact laws that selectively limit the right to vote and/or enable state legislatures to use allegations of voter fraud to override election results.

• Impose abortion bans, possibly with no consideration of rape or incest or the victim’s age, and impose legal risks for doctors who seek to terminate pregnancies that endanger women.

• Reduce aid to Ukraine, which can embolden Vladimir Putin to act militarily against NATO allies that we are committed to defend.

• Threaten to default on our nation’s debt in order to leverage their desire to reduce funding for Social Security and Medicare.

Do you think these intentions really put America first?

The next time you put your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance to the liberty and justice for all embodied in the American flag, ask yourself if you intend to vote, and if so, if you believe your vote will help you keep that pledge.

Mel Maron, Louisville, Ky.

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Election losses can change politicians' behavior

The midterm election includes crucial political races, such as governor, as well as races to determine Democratic or Republican control of the Senate and House. Some contests are scary close. Your vote counts.

One issue that leads well-informed voters to eliminate Republican candidates is the preservation of democracy. Democracy demands honesty and truthfulness, not radicalizing propaganda. However, the right-wing media and GOP leaders constantly spout partisan disinformation, hypocrisy and fearmongering.

Voters can’t trust candidates who give blind allegiance to their main leader, Donald Trump. This would-be autocrat violates our rule of law and compulsively lies.

Dishonest Republicans still deny Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Also, Trump tried to cheat by coercing Georgia officials to falsify the vote count. An a fitting, fair, new nickname for Trump would be the “Big Liar.”

In 2016, Trump said our nation was in crisis. He promised, “I alone can fix it.” Voters continue to wait to learn his and the no-solutions GOP’s plans. Trump failed in fiscal responsibility/economic stability for the majority of Americans. His one accomplishment was to cut taxes for the rich. Severely cutting the nation’s income doesn’t support small business or repair roads.

Your vote to achieve Democratic victories will tell Republican leaders and their enablers to clean up their acts if they ever want to win again.

Pam Price, Reno

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Choice is fascism or democracy

Fascism is a form of government run by one man or party that has complete control. Fascists control the population with strict laws and punishment. They control the economy and the media. Fascism uses propaganda to keep people believing what the party wants them to believe. It discourages immigration, dislikes foreigners, is racist and uses violence to maintain itself. Fascists despise democracy.

Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly through a system of representatives chosen by the people in free and fair elections. In other words, the citizens choose who governs them .

This election will be the most important of your life.

The GOP believes in fascism; every Trump-backed candidate wants to control who gets your vote .

It is your choice: democracy or fascism.

Joe Demarco, Jay. N.Y.

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Titus is a champion for Nevada

Now more than ever, we need to elect leaders who know first-hand the real-life impact of the policies they’re backing, and who know from experience what it takes to get things done — to benefit our communities and economy — in our nation’s capital.

That’s why I’m urging people to support Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., a fighter for families and a former professor at UNLV, in her congressional bid.

Titus is a committed public service pro — and proven fighter for Southern Nevada — with a clear record of results.

Conversely, her opponent, Mark Robertson, is an anti-abortion extremist. He supports the overturning of Roe v. Wade and applauded Texas’ drastic six-week abortion ban. He also opposes infrastructure investments that will create good-paying jobs in Nevada.

Brett Broesder, Milford, Conn.

The writer is the founding executive director of Democrats Serve, a national organization that helps Democratic candidates with public service backgrounds run for office and win elections.

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The safety net is on the ballot

What do you think are the most critical issues on the ballot this year?

If you list them out, you’d probably come up with reproductive rights, inflation, crime, the environment and respect for democracy, to name a few.

But, did you list the future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? These are programs that many Nevadans depend upon, and yet they’ve been discussed little, given their relevance.

When Nevada voters go to the polls they deserve to know that a vote for a Republican is a vote for cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. GOP leaders derisively call these programs “entitlements” but you’ve likely been paying taxes into them for your entire life, and you deserve to have access to them when you need them.

GOP leaders, including the would-be future speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, came out publicly in favor of these cuts and admitted that their plan to get them was to hold the U.S. economy hostage by destroying our country’s credit if they couldn’t get their way.

All this immiseration of normal Americans is just so they can afford yet more tax breaks for the billionaire friends.

When you go to vote, remember that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all on the ballot. If you want to protect them, vote for Democrats.

Mark Peckham, Las Vegas

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Politicians reflect values of their voters

Donald Trump and the GOP have learned that bluffing, bullying and lying goes over big with millions of voters. The only thing that would end hate speech from members of Congress is if Republicans lost big at the polls.

If the Republicans lost half of their House seats, the hate speech would stop the next day. Members of Congress will do whatever it takes to keep their high-paying jobs.

We would still have extremists, but members of Congress would not be inspiring them to violence.

Jim Riley, Las Vegas

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Senate race features stark contrast

Adam Laxalt, the Republican candidate for U.S. senator in Nevada, is a very poor choice for that position.

Although he was born in Nevada, Laxalt spent his college years and early careers outside of the state. He is opposed to abortion and gun regulation/safety. Having investments in, and receiving campaign contributions from, large oil and gas corporations, he is anti-environmental and actively opposes climate change mitigation and legislation. He opposes Obamacare, which has provided medical insurance for millions of Americans.

Laxalt is a sycophantic Trump lackey who believes in conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and is a proponent of former President Donald Trump’s big lie. Laxalt fought against early voting and mail-in voting. He received Trump’s endorsement, the kiss of death from a twice-impeached, pathological liar and autocrat shown to be a treasonous insurrectionist by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol. Even 14 members of his Laxalt's own family publicly oppose his candidacy and instead support his Democratic opponent.

The opposite of Laxalt, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., has been working hard for over five years as our senator to improve the lives of all Nevadans.

Gary Beckman, Las Vegas

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GOP gives us no reason to trust them

For the past two years, some Republicans and their leader have been garnering power from some of their white base by playing to and on their dreams and fears — dreams about the good times, when they had the upper hand in American society, and fears about less desirable changes in social standing.

Over and over again, it seems that those Republicans made those plays for power by suggesting that they were working hard for their base to realize their dreams and to allay their fears.

However, as it turned out, it those Republicans were working for themselves, and they used anti-democratic means and actions — declaring the 2020 election results unfair and stolen, attempting to block the peaceful transfer of power, contesting the election they clearly lost, hindering the right to vote for minorities, spouting hate and violent threats against those who opposed or exposed their deceptions, and inciting some of their loyal followers to inflict harm and pain on their enemies and innocent people — in their efforts to fleece their vulnerable base and gain more power and control over all Americans.

Given those past actions, it’s not reasonable to expect those Republicans will tell the truth and honor democratic principles in the future, when they have blatantly used lies and anti-democratic actions to achieve their goals. Their hateful and anti-democratic actions are blazing red flags of fateful power plays that must be thwarted by all other Americans, because they have shown no love for our democracy.

Fred Underwood, Henderson

Your right to vote is sacred

I implore my fellow citizens to vote in the midterm elections not only because it is an important civic duty but also because the late John Lewis, who worked so diligently to secure voting rights for all Americans, referred to voting as a precious and sacred right.

And what does it say about those who so easily dismiss their civic duty to vote?

Former President Donald Trump was an unknown commodity in some ways prior to 2016, having never worked in the public sector. After four years as president, we learned of his penchant for crime and his incompetence, which led to two impeachments. We also learned post-presidency of Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, his full involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection and his Trump Organization’s gouging the nation by charging five times the government per diem amount for Secret Service agents' accommodations at Trump properties.

Michelle Obama said that “being president doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.”

So why do candidates like Adam Laxalt, who is running for U.S. Senate, and Joe Lombardo, who is running for governor, still support and embrace Trump? Is this the kind of judgment you want in a senator or governor?

Plato recognized that failing to vote results in being governed by inferiors, and former U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota said, “Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.”

Don’t surrender and don’t accept governance by inferiors. Please vote.

Tom Harper, Las Vegas

Democrats fight for the working class

As we get ready to vote, I hope that we all remember the party that actually advocates and promotes critical programs, such as affordable health care, keeping our Social Security benefits that we paid for many years, and tax relief for those of us who do not make hundreds of thousands in income every year.

We want to matter after the election and history indicates what the Democrats have fought to make possible. We need sincere effort and integrity, not just desperate promises right now for our vote.

Dori Vasquez, St. George, Utah