GOP power politics wrong for pandemic

 

On Inauguration night, 2009, Sens. DeMint, Kyl and Coburn, and Reps. Cantor, McCarthy and Ryan met with other Republican Party leaders and plotted to do everything to stymie the new Democratic administration.

We are in the same situation now (“Biden and Senate might clash,” Nov. 12), and the Republicans are already showing that they will sacrifice our country in order to reassert their power.

Unlike 2009, here in 2020-21, we are in the midst of a tragic health crisis. A quarter-million Americans have already died from COVID-19, mainly due to Republican mismanagement. How many more will die because of Republican power politics?

Religions are above the law

 The day before Thanksgiving, the newly minted Religious Right majority on the U.S. Supreme Court went out of its way to declare that churches and synagogues can violate health regulations as a matter of religious freedom. The consequences to the rest of society do not bother those certain houses of worship nor the five Justices.
These religious groups choose to use questionable legal means to assert their power. But there are ways to stop them.
One is to take away their tax-free status. They should not be allowed to create an environment that is dangerous to us all.
The other is that their members not receive any form of governmental health support, e.g., hospitalization, nursing care, or Medicare, for health conditions brought on by their irresponsible behavior.
None of us should be paying because those individuals think they have religious privilege.