The “Feedback” section of letters is like a rainbow — it’s a show of all colors of opinion; an excellent read.
The sins of Donald Trump are now known way beyond the heavens. So, how come he got elected before? According to Democrats, he ruined the country, if not the world. He added trillions of dollars to the national debt, too.
But the sins of others are also well known. President Joe Biden, like former President Barack Obama, is an excellent leader. Biden has had about 50 years of public service experience. So, why is inflation so high, crime so prevalent, and the southern border so porous? And, yes, Biden added trillions in debt, as well.
President of the United States is a no-win job. Let’s unite and work with our elected leaders.
They all have some good in them.
Dave Lal, Princeton Junction
Of course, the powerful love “the line”
When will the Star-Ledger and its associated NJ Advance Media newspapers return to balanced journalism? They continue to shill for “woke” Democrats.
Take former Assemblywoman Joan Quigley’s recent opinion column (“The ‘line’ helps voters find the candidates they want to support”), originally written for the Jersey Journal, for example.
Is it surprising that an influential Hudson County Democrat like Quigley would throw her support for the “line” system of listing primary candidates in a vertical row for all offices, which unfairly favors the candidate that party leaders have endorsed?
She admits that she personally benefitted from the process, and now wishes to voice her support for a system that has benefitted organization Democrats in this state for decades. Many of the rationalizations she gives are transparently self-serving.
Particularly amusing is Quigley’s contention that some candidates may object to this kind of favoritism because “they aren’t popular enough.”Precious.
Thank goodnessa federal judge has declared this unique-to-New-Jersey system unfair and illegal, at least for the June 4 Democratic primary.
Shame on the Star-Ledger for giving a platform to yet another self-aggrandizing Democratic aristocrat.
Bill Vivona, Bound Brook
Silly to argue over ballot layout
This whole kerfuffle over the “county line” on New Jersey election ballots is just plain silly. If someone is too dumb to find the name of their chosen candidate, no matter where it appears on the ballot, they’re not knowledgeable enough to be voting in the first place.
That’s the problem with our elections. Too many voters just don’t know what they’re doing. They vote Democrat or Republican because they come from a family of “Ds” or “Rs,” or because someone tells them to be a “D or an “R.” Just vote for the best candidate, period and, for goodness sake, know what you’re doing at the ballot box.
Moreover, the power of county political party leadership isn’t so much ballot placement as it is the ability to mobilize their voters on Election Day. That’s always going to give them a huge advantage over insurgents.
Rudy Larini, Somerset
Voter suppression agenda is not “hidden”
Letter writer Stuart Goss (“A hidden agenda at work?”) saw through some of the intentions of conservative Ramesh Ponnuru’s recent column. Ponnuru claimed to “double hate” both Joe Biden and Donald Trump to justify voting for neither, maybe sitting out the presidential vote or voting for a third party/write-in candidate.
Goss correctly points out such candidates were “spoilers in the past.”
Then Goss asked, is there “a hidden agenda here?”
It’s not hidden at all. The intentions are disinformation about Biden, ambivalence about Trump — the column barely mentions his faults — and a goal to discourage voting against Trump. Consider Ponnuru’s closing remarks: “Your vote is infinitesimally likely to affect the outcome of the election … There is no moral or political obligation to play along.”
Goss points out “that is the antithesis of democracy.” Right on!
The Trumpian agenda here is voter suppression. Another example is calling mail-in voting “a fraud,” a setup to challenge GOP election losses by dismissing predominantly Democratic mail-in ballots.
There’s a host of similar strategies. All these are indeed anti-democratic. I thank Goss for his letter.
Herb Johnson, Ewing
Share the MTA wealth to end the lawsuits
The is a simple solution to resolve multiple New Jersey lawsuits against the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s soon-to-begin congestion pricing, with a $15 fee for cars entering midtown Manhattan at peak hours:
The MTA should share some of the proceeds generated by fees that commuting Garden State residents will be paying.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber should offer NJ Transit, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Port Authority Trans-Hudson Transit (PATH trains) a fair share, 5% each, of this new revenue.
Share some of the$130 million destined for the Bronx and Staten Island to mitigate the environmental effects of diverted traffic with funding with Fort Lee and other New Jersey communities that will be similarly impacted by congestion pricing. This would still leave the MTA with 85% of the fee revenue for its subway lines, NYC Transit buses, the Staten Island Railway, MTA buses, and the Long Island and Metro North commuter railroads.
Sharing this revenue could help cover New Jersey’s portion of the Gateway Tunnel projects, the $10 billion rebuilding of the Port Authority 42nd Street Bus Terminal, and the $8 billion in planned Penn Station improvements.
Thousands of New Yorkers are reverse commuters who work in New Jersey or are riders to Garden State destinations such as schools, stadiums and Newark Liberty International Airport. They, too, use Penn Station, Port Authority bus terminals, PATH and NJ Transit, and will benefit from these capital investments.
Larry Penner, Great Neck, N.Y.
Editor’s note: The writer previously served as a director for the Federal Transit Administration’s Region 2 (New York) Office of Operations and Program Management.
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