Readers Write: The budget bill, the Democrats’ future, Vance Boelter’s religiosity

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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July 1 was an extremely significant day in the United States Senate. Fifty members of that august body gave up any pretense that they were public servants and voted for a bill that they admitted was poorly crafted, mean-spirited and financially ruinous to the country. They supported this abomination because President Donald Trump snapped his fingers and demanded that his sycophants come to heel. They supported it because they were cowards and feared the wrath of a felon and man liable for sexual abuse.

In 1950, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith wrote “A Declaration of Conscience” as a way to oppose Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his bullying. Everyone should read that speech. Perhaps it will help us remember that once we had politicians who had courage and deserved our respect.

Timothy McLean, Blaine

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As the U.S. House races to pass the largest Medicaid cut in history, Minnesota’s rural representatives, including my congressman, Pete Stauber, are poised to do irreparable damage to every rural town in their districts. Hiding behind the false fantasy of “fraud and abuse,” they are not only going to rip health care from the working poor, children, the elderly and disabled, but will be crippling rural hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes through loss of revenue, uncompensated care when the uninsured show up at the emergency room and the flow of federal dollars that flow directly to hospitals and clinics. These facilities mean life or death to residents and rural communities.

In the nearby city of Cook, Minn., population just over 500, over 468 folks signed a petition to Stauber, begging him not to support this budget bill. Folks from the entire political spectrum are literally begging the person who supposedly works for them to not deal a death blow to their town. This concern hits every small town in Minnesota.

So, you ask yourself, why would these representatives do this to their constituents? This bill serves nobody but special interests and people like billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who just spent $50 million throwing a party in Venice. God knows Bezos needs more money. This bill is shameful, and the fact that it is supported by those whose salaries, health care and pensions we pay for despite constituents begging to be spared is truly sickening.

Kelly Dahl, Linden Grove Township, Minn.

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When legislators are targets of political violence and even assassination, we are naturally shocked and find it abhorrent and antithetical to a civilized, democratic society. But how should we feel when the actions of legislators could result in harm and/or death for millions of Americans? According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office of the budget bill just passed in the Senate, as many as 20 million Americans will lose Medicaid benefits, which are heavily relied on for basic health care. How many of them will die for lack of clinical and hospital care they previously had access to? Why shouldn’t the legislation be considered a direct cause of death? How can legislators not see themselves as being complicit in those resulting deaths?

Please be careful who you vote for, it is actually is a matter of life or death.

Bob Worrall, Roseville

It is time to set some new parameters for me to continue my lifelong membership in the Democratic Party. I cannot and will not support them unless it does the following:

I do not believe my abandoning the Democratic Party unless the preceding concerns are addressed will have any impact. I do believe unless the party addresses all or most of those concerns our country will continue down its crazy current path of becoming an authoritarian country rather than a democracy.

Stanley Hacker, Minneapolis

A June 28 letter to the editor criticizing religious people in the context of Vance Boelter is filled with disinformation. He wants this “paper to name the deadly threat posed by the deranged followers of apocalyptic ideologies.” One, he doesn’t tell this paper how to identify who is “deranged.” In this case it couldn’t have been done. Hamline University Violence Prevention Project Executive Director Jillian Peterson says Boelter doesn’t “fit any sort of profile or traditional warning signs.” Two, this paper reports that Boelter’s current church is completely opposed to everything he did, and that the school where he learned theology said, “We are absolutely aghast and horrified that a [Christ for the Nations Institute] alumnus is the suspect. This is not who we are. This is not what we teach. This is not what we model.” As for the letter writer’s comment criticizing a “nice church filled with those nice people all dressed up in nice clothes,” that describes the Basilica where former President Joe Biden attended the funeral of Rep. Melissa Hortman.

By the way, did you know that Hortman taught Sunday school?

Michael T. Ebnet, Edina

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In light of recent political violence in Minnesota, it was quite predictable pro-abortion activists would attempt to link a maniac’s deranged actions to an effective and peaceful pro-life movement. One local media reporter stood outside Planned Parenthood’s St. Paul location last week, referring to sidewalk counselors who were offering lifesaving, factual health information for mother and child, as “protesters,” while ignoring the lethal violence perpetrated on human lives daily at that one facility.

In more promising news, pro-lifers heralded the positive Supreme Court ruling Thursday that South Carolina has the power to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. Hopefully, this leads to more states defunding the abortion Goliath. All human life is a gift that must be protected and respected.

Joseph Engesser, Red Wing, Minn.

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I read the article about Boelter’s wife and was immediately struck by the choice of words “all-American family,” said by a friend quoted in the article. I don’t recall ever having read a story where a Black suspect’s family was characterized by word and example as “all-American” and this seems to be an example of implicit bias. I am in no way implying that Jenny Boelter had any involvement in her husband’s vile acts, but I don’t see how her extracurricular activities in high school have any bearing on this story. It strikes me as an attempt, intentional or not, to pre-emptively rehabilitate whatever negative conclusions people have formed to date. What we do know is that violent Christian extremism poses an increasing threat in this country and it appears that Vance Boelter did have some ties to that. It is this aspect of the story that merits more attention, and we would do well to focus there.

Shannon O’Brien, Minneapolis