Letters to the editor: Preview of how Mike Gibbons, Josh Mandel would behave if elected

Gibbons-Mandel spat is revealing

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel should be thanked for tearing off the last delusional remnant of cover to finally and unequivocally understand and admit what the Republican Party has become.

Their display of trading insults and going toe-to-toe and being physically separated on March 18 gives us a pretty good idea of how they would act in Washington. They haven’t mastered the muted venality of Sen. Rob Portman or Gov. Mike DeWine and other national Republicans and don’t seem likely to ever do so.

But the Gahanna forum included two other Republican candidates and actually exposed what they are for. It is not “nothing,” as many critics claim. 

It is about whatever (and whomever, because that category never stops growing) “the libs” support, even if it completely contradicts their once-held “principles.” It is about fealty to a corrupt leader, one that looks to perceptions of the past and not the reality and opportunity of the future to set policy goals.

That’s it. Politics to the GOP is a zero-sum game of winners and losers — just see any of their ads. They fundamentally do not understand the concept of governing in a democratic-republic, that political opponents must become governing partners.

Candidates like these, loud and quiet, are proliferating around the nation and poisoning the very system of American governing.

The upcoming federal elections are not about policies, they are about if this nation will survive to become “a more perfect Union” for all — not just some — of our citizens.

If one of them is elected U.S. senator from Ohio, it will speak volumes about the people who support them. It already does about the people who openly do so or would consider it in the quiet anonymity of the voting booth.

Greg Brozeit, Fairlawn

Comfortable with Fox News, My Pillow

In regard to the March 20 letter “Fox network ought to cut negativity,” which criticizes Fox News for its “terrible bias” against the president: If the writer is able to recall events that occurred prior to February 2021, then he would be able to recall how our previous president was pummeled with criticism on a daily basis from CNN, ABC, CBS and MSNBC nonstop for four years. There was never a good word reported about our previous president, even though he kept illegal immigration in check; kept Putin in his place; kept gasoline prices down; and kept inflation down.

Now that we have a left-leaning president, the letter writer wants to cloak himself in righteousness and preach to us about freedom and democracy, while suggesting that Fox News should be shut down and stripped of its First Amendment rights.

If you are going to preach to us about freedom, democracy and who should and shouldn’t receive First Amendment rights, please realize first that all Americans have the same God-given rights, even those you disagree with. Including Fox News.

And everyone needs to try the “right-wing garbage” that sponsors Fox News. My Pillow and My Pillow Slippers are extremely comfortable.

Cynthia Mosko, Kent