Panetta does listen to opposing opinions

Peter Klotz-Chamberlin in his July 16 letter wants supporters of Israel to contact Rep. Jimmy Panetta because people like him do not have access to him. I am sure that Panetta has read his Letter to the Editor. Just because a public official does not agree with you does not mean that they are not listening to you. Klotz-Chamberlin has presented his views to Panetta publicly and should not be complaining about access.

— J.D. Maltzman, Redwood City

Trump already shifting to sabotaging next election

After losing in 2020, Trump and the GOP launched 60 failed lawsuits. Now they’ve shifted to pre-election sabotage: at least 33 voter suppression laws in 19 states, hundreds more proposed. They’ve criminalized handing out water in long lines, purged voter rolls, and empowered partisan poll watchers. Who gets to vote and who counts are the real battlegrounds now.

Trump called the Jan. 6 rioters “patriots,” pardoned over 1,000 of them, and promised to fill the government and military with personal loyalists. His Schedule F executive order would replace nonpartisan civil servants with MAGA patronage. He’s already said he only wants “generals who do what I tell them.”

Meanwhile, the courts are wobbling, and JD Vance quotes Andrew Jackson: “Now let (the Court) enforce it.”

This isn’t conservative policy, it’s autocracy with a red baseball hat. If elections still happen, they’ll be rigged from the inside out.

Democracy doesn’t die in darkness. It dies in plain sight, chanting “USA.”

— Don Monkerud, Santa Cruz

National Ice Cream Day – choose an alternative

It’s funny how our government held a big press conference for National Ice Cream Day, with officials praising ice cream like it’s a health food. They don’t mention how the saturated fat and sugar fit into RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” plan. Instead, they celebrated removing oil-based dyes from food. Maybe the food dye lobby isn’t as generous with campaign contributions as dairy.

As a concerned citizen, I can’t help but think about the cows — gentle mothers whose babies are taken so we can have their milk turned into ice cream and other dairy products. The good news? We don’t need to choose between enjoying ice cream and being kind to animals.

There are countless plant-based ice cream options that are better for your health, better for the planet, and — best of all — they don’t harm animals.

— Preston Daniels, Santa Cruz

Psychedelics: Now MAGA needing to escape reality

I was glad to see the article about RFK Jr. pushing to approve the use of psychedelic drugs. I feel now that I can rest easy because I’ve seen everything come full circle. It used to be the New Left that required mind-altering drugs to make their utopia seem possible. Now it’s MAGA that needs to escape reality.

I confess that between the tariffs and deporting the farmworkers and eliminating FEMA and his cryptocurrencies, I can’t figure out what the heck Trump thinks he’s doing. I was hoping that these Epstein files might explain it all but now that’s not happening. So, yeah, some mushrooms sound pretty good.

— John Fay, Santa Cruz

Setting the record straight about Democrats

In a July 13 letter, the author opines “all the Democrats can do is constantly filling the air waves with their lies.” She then goes on to spread some MAGA lies that bear rebuttal.

So, let’s set the record straight. She asks, “Why do Democrats …

“Want to give illegal aliens the right to vote?”

We do not want that since the Constitution clearly states that only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections.

“Don’t care if American citizens have been cruelly murdered by illegals?”

We do care for law and justice, but you are way off the mark. Undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, according to multiple peer-reviewed studies and government analyses. A Texas-based study found that the homicide arrest rate for undocumented immigrants was 1.9 per 100,000. For U.S.-born citizens, it was 4.8 per 100,000.

Finally, to the author, my remedy is to open your eyes and get your facts from other sources than the ultra-right-wing echo chambers such as Fox News.

— Peter Gibson, Soquel