Time to tackle real problems

Republicans’ historic night as it happened | Nov. 9

After all the name calling, bullying and grand standing, the voters have spoken. Personally, I don’t care what party got in where. All I want is for our government leaders to start doing their jobs. As far as I’m concerned, none of you are worth the weight of a toothpick if you’re only going to fight about it. You all seem to know what everyone else is doing wrong but never seem to have a plan or the wherewithal to make things right.

If you are at a loss as to what making things right entails, may I suggest you start by choosing any one of the following topics, lean across the aisle and work together until you get it right: economy, inflation, education, health care, environment, immigration, technology, industry, transportation, agriculture, child care, public safety, domestic terrorism, foreign relations or trade. There’s enough to keep you busy into the next millennium.

Forget party politics. We’re sick of it! We, the hard working American taxpaying citizens that pay your salary, deserve better. We need help. This is why we elected you to do the job … so do it!

Joan Wernert, Zephyrhills

Time to govern

Republicans’ historic night as it happened | Nov. 9

Now that the election is over and Florida Republicans are fully in charge, maybe they can drop the divisive culture war issues and all the phony anti-woke rhetoric and instead concentrate on solving the real problems of this state, such as the crisis in the insurance industry. I’m not optimistic, not while there are still dangerous school books to ban and LGBTQ rights left to trample.

William Serron, Dunedin

Centrist voters

America wants a centrist party — in theory at least | Column, Nov. 4

The column about centrist voters was spot on, but does not address why we can’t get more moderate candidates, or why an independent candidate always fails. In the majority of states, primaries are closed. Voters must be a registered member of a party to vote. Primaries have poor turnout, and most of those who do vote tend to be the more vocal far right or left. This means that a very small percentage of voters are choosing the candidates that the rest of us are stuck with.

Independent candidates are unlikely to win because they don’t have the political power or money of the machine behind the Democrats and Republicans. People are advised “don’t vote for the independent, it’s a wasted vote.” We need to change the system by opening primaries to all. Ranked choice voting has also been shown to move the needle to the middle. What we have now will continue to be a recipe for stagnation, animosity, incivility and even violence.

Karla Smith, Tampa

Climate changing

GOP Plans to Offer oil, gas and trees as climate fixes | Nov. 4

The GOP plan to fight climate change while expanding fossil fuel production is green washing, but at least it is an admission that climate change needs to be addressed. Even the climate provisions contained in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act are insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement goal to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius. The United Nations believes we are on track today for a warming of about 2.5 degrees Celsius, which is much better than a few years ago thanks to the advances in renewable energies and global focus. Though not apocalyptic, 2.5 degrees of warming will greatly increase the frequency of extreme weather events we are now experiencing and leave our children, grandchildren and future generations with a much more difficult and uncertain life.

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The majority of economists and climate experts say a fee on carbon fuels is needed to meet the 2 degree goals, but carbon pricing legislation, even when proceeds are returned back to consumers, has no chance of being passed in this Congress.

Planet earth has survived through much worst conditions, but the near ideal conditions that have allowed humans to evolve and prosper will degrade. Let’s hope the UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt from Nov. 6 through 18 can shake some sense into to us all.

John Parks, Crawfordville