Southtown letters: Abortion politics, Trump divide electorate – Chicago Tribune

The headline of the Daily Southtown for Aug. 28 was “Orland Park minister to surrender.” Stephen Cliffgard Lee faces five separate criminal counts relating to attempted election fraud in Georgia. His attorney assures us that Lee is innocent, and we will await the outcome of the trial.

Whatever the legal outcome, while Lee is responsible for his own actions, the bigger question is how did the country get to this point? How was one person able to so easily fool so many people? Part of the problem is the role played by the conservative media in this country.

One major outlet has already paid out nearly $800 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion, a manufacturer of voting equipment, and that media outlet is facing more lawsuits.

That same media network all but admitted to lying about the 2020 election. Emails and other internal communications, plus the testimony from the owner of the network, showed that the network, and some on air personalities, deliberately promoted Trump’s baseless claims.

Because of this, hundreds of Americans have been charged, many convicted, and many more await trial.

Another part of the problem is that the GOP refuses to move past the lies about the 2020 election. For a brief period after Jan. 6, 2021, some GOP leaders condemned the actions, and inaction, of the former president, but that welcome burst of integrity did not last.

William Beaulieu, Oak Lawn

A friend recently pointed out that newspaper reports on President Biden often differ widely from those available on established, reputable online news sources. Her contention was that online reports provide a truer picture of Biden than newspaper reports that seem to paint a soft-pedaled, rosy version.

A perfect example: the president’s recent trip to Maui where he seemed to search for words, saying “the big island,” apparently forgetting the word “Maui.” Online stories/videos of his arrival, 13 days after the devastating fires began, clearly show he was met by protest signs, chants of “13 days” and even obscenities as his official convoy drove to the burned city of Lahaina.

Online reports (as I write this) list 115 confirmed deaths and at least 1,000 still unaccounted for. Biden’s speech, called “tone deaf” by some online writers, seemed to say he understood how Lahaina survivors felt because he once had a kitchen fire in his home, put out in 20 minutes by Delaware firemen.

Did you already read this unsettling information in a major Chicago-area paper? I read three and saw nary a word.

Christine Craven, Evergreen Park

The Republican debate proved one thing to me: Conservatives and abortion are like people up north and the Daily Southtown, they just don’t get it!

Abortion is the defining issue of our immediate time, period! Since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe, six red states have resoundingly voted to uphold a woman’s right to choose. The presumed red wave of the 2022 midterms never materialized because voters refused to allow the religious right to foist their antiquated biblical morality on people.

In April, Janet Protasiewicz a liberal from Wisconsin ran for Supreme Court justice on one issue only, abortion. In an election most pundits thought would be close, she trounced her conservative opponent by 11% giving Democrats a 4-3 majority for the first time in 15 years.

Recent polling from Gallop and Pew show that 61% of voters favor legalized abortion. For Christian conservatives who like biblical references, until you acknowledge the handwriting on the wall, you will continue losing elections and will only have yourselves to blame.

Wes Dickson, Orland Park

It’s so sad that there are Trump cult followers who are incapable of understanding and accepting the fact that the GOP needs to move on from narcissist Donald Trump and realize with the proved and supported evidence that his self-serving treasonous criminal enterprise is bad for the party, and get back to supporting a viable honest candidate like the George Bushes, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln were.

Richard Lange, Orland Park

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