Letters to the Editor | Aug. 21, 2025

I wonder if state Treasurer Stacy Garrity recognizes that she is running for the Republican nomination for governor in purple Pennsylvania rather than red Alabama or Mississippi.

Garrity is a Donald Trump cheerleader who shamefully perpetuated the lie that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election. That lie is what brought about the violence against the heroic police officers who were performing their jobs at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many people died as a result of what took place on that awful day, including officers who subsequently took their own lives, and some of Trump’s minions.

If Garrity should secure the Republican nomination, her race against Gov. Josh Shapiro will be a battle of two candidates who could not be more different. I would be eager to see how her position plays in a state that elected a decent, honorable, Democratic centrist leader in Shapiro, who remains popular with state voters.

I would hope and expect that in advance of the gubernatorial election next year, Garrity will be consistently battered on the airwaves with her own record.

Oren Spiegler, Peters Township

Let them vote, have elections. Elections don’t matter; who counts the votes is what matters, and I count the votes. Words to that effect — and their implementation — are partly how Josef Stalin remained a dictator for so long. Donald Trump has a private meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, comes home, and announces he is attacking mail-in voting and voting machines. Looks like Putin explained to the dithering Donald how to stay in office.

Herm Boehm, Sebastian, Fla.

If President Donald Trump believed his policies and behavior in office were popular, he would attempt to expand the vote rather than suppress it, as he is trying to do now. For those who are worried about creeping autocracy in this country, voter suppression is the five-alarm fire that will make it happen.

Trump’s cabinet can send secret police to Washington, they can keep the Epstein files under wraps, and they will stand by as their Dear Leader attempts to sell out Ukraine on behalf of Vladimir Putin. There is one thing his cabinet can never do without losing the support of their president: They can never say he lost the 2020 election, which he clearly lost. They will also all stand behind him as he tries to steal the midterms. Trump clearly wants to be a dictator. Destroying the integrity of the midterm elections will make it happen.

Elliott Miller, Bala Cynwyd

With all the news about federal law enforcement officers taking over Washington, D.C., and the Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meeting, the Epstein case has vanished from the news. Just what Trump wanted.

Ed Freimuth, Middletown

Every day, the headlines tell a chilling story: Penn halts programs honoring Black law grad. Trump administration asks high court to lift ICE raid restrictions. How Trump plans to hold migrants at military bases.

Each headline chronicles this administration’s ongoing efforts to dehumanize, harm, and demoralize people; to protect proud white supremacists and erase history; to strip benefits and restrict access to opportunity for working people — and the list goes on.

This is fascism. It is not unprecedented in the world, but it is unprecedented in this country at this scale. The playbook is old: use racism to divide us, throw vulnerable groups under the bus (for now, because they’ll be after you next), and distract us from uniting to demand the just, equitable world we all deserve.

When this administration strips away trans rights and healthcare, it is testing how much we will allow — before stripping more away from more groups. When we sit idly by while they target one community, it is only the prelude to the next attack.

But we can fight back. Those not in the crosshairs now must be the first to stand with those who are. Racism and fascism will come for us all. We must fight back — our humanity depends on it.

Carrie Rathmann, Philadelphia

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