Community training has become critical

I find it disastrously ironic that the people of Texas gave their electoral votes to Donald Trump and are now suffering because he gutted federal organizations like the weather service and FEMA. Elect Trump and this is what you get. Maybe the fired USAID workers can bring back some packages when they return.

I recently heard the acronym YOYO: “You’re on your own.” It’s a good time to consider CERT training: Community Emergency Response Team. You’ll learn how to prepare for a disaster and how to help when one happens.

— Kris Sowolla, Los Gatos

Bipartisan legislation needed on climate

I’m saddened that the Big Beautiful Bill cut clean energy tax credits at nearly the same time that Texas was ravaged by floods. Climate disasters are getting worse, so it’s troubling to see the government taking steps backward. This is always the risk of partisan legislation, like the Inflation Reduction Act, which established the clean energy tax credits initially: When the other party takes power, they can simply undo the progress.

To make true progress, we need to pass bipartisan legislation. This is why I’m thankful to Sen. Alex Padilla, who recently introduced the Fix Our Forests Act, along with a Republican colleague. This bill will address many climate and wildfire issues. It’s not a perfect bill, but compromises must be made to pass long-lasting, bipartisan solutions to the climate crisis.

— Nicholas Robinson, Pacifica

Democratic Party hasn’t found winning message

I am concerned that the Democratic Party has yet to develop an approach to change the minds of those who do not like Donald Trump but like what the Democrats have to offer even less.

The majority of the country did not see an alternative to this human wrecking ball that addressed their concerns about conditions in the U.S. The Democrats have been unable to counter the ultra-right’s defining abortion and transgender issues as threats to the traditional family. They have been unable to offer a coherent immigration plan that brings reasonable control to our borders, that reduces the real stresses to states with large undocumented immigrant populations, and that acknowledges some issues with the foreign criminal element.

Waiting for people to hate Trump so much that they will vote Democratic is not a winning strategy.

— Larry Lauro, San Jose

Column inflates scope of Trump’s victory

Re: “Will political drift right last beyond 2024?” (July 8).

Dan Walters hates Gavin Newsom, Democrats in the Legislature and liberals. His one-note song grows tiresome, but his characterization of the 2024 election deserves refutation.

He claims that Donald Trump “walloped Kamala Harris.” Let’s look at the facts. Trump’s popular vote margin of 1.47% ranks as the fourth closest in the last 20 presidential elections since 1948. Put another way, the margin of victory for Trump was the 44th worst out of 51 presidential elections since 1824. The 229,766 vote difference combining the three swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would have swung the election to Harris if this relatively small number of voters had chosen Harris instead.

That’s what Walters calls a walloping. A little biased, are we?

— J. Dan Rothwell, Aptos