No excuses for Young Republicans

Shame on Vice President JD Vance for dismissing the crass and hateful rhetoric of the young Republican “leaders.” He says that the stupid things he did as a teenager didn’t get on the internet, so I guess they were OK. It is never OK to think rape is a joke or to glorify racism and fascism. And it is never OK to belittle the sacrifices of patriots like John McCain. Never.

The Catholic Church that I grew up in defines the age of reason (the age at which a person knows right from wrong) as 7 years old. These Young Republicans certainly were old enough to know right from wrong, and they chose wrong. And JD Vance, at age 41, certainly knows right from wrong, and chooses to speak and act the way he does. Shame on him.

I’m grateful that some Republicans in leadership positions are “clutching their pearls” like I am, and condemning these hate-filled so-called leaders.

Lyn Kucij

Schenectady

Citizens can’t just sit on the sidelines

The right wing takeover of our country — and much of the developed world — has changed the calculus for the individual citizen.

The clamping down has begun. Repression is the order of the day. ICE’s grotesque behavior is a first order tactic in a strategy of intimidation.

We must cast aside all allusions and put the matter straight. We are not “losing our democracy.” It slipped away long ago under the shadow of finance capital. Intellectual appeals to preserve it conceal hidden support and are, in fact, reactionary. Thankfully, that approach seems doomed to fail.

Nobody feels democracy in their bones. What we feel, what all humans feel deep down, is a thirst for freedom.........

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