Until Donald Trump became president, I had been voting but not paying attention

Failures continue to pile up

Many of President Donald Trump’s campaign staff members, fixers and cronies were investigated, charged, tried and found guilty of crimes for which they were sent to prison. Trump chose to ignore early warnings about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. He sowed chaos and dissent among the American people before the election, and he refuses, seven weeks later, to acknowledge his defeat and welcome the incoming president.

And now we learn there has been an abysmal failure by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to protect the U.S. from cyberattacks by a hostile foreign government. (Dec. 21, 6A, “Biden team vows sanctions against Russia for cyberattack”)

Did the Trump administration actually get anything right?

- Owen Daniel, Fort Worth

Help workers, not executives

Reading the article about American Airlines and the COVID-19 relief bill (Dec. 22, 5A, “Stimulus bill to bring back 17,500 workers at American Airlines”) makes me almost nauseated. If these companies are getting billions of dollars to bring back workers, that’s great. But, if that money is given to executives, it’s not. Please tell me why these people, already making millions a year, are entitled to more?

- Verdonna Durham, Fort Worth

This is a real emergency

As 3,000 American lives are lost daily to COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve learned that Russian hackers have breached many of our government agencies. (Dec. 18, 8A, “Cybersecurity agency calls hack a ‘grave’ risk”)

President Donald Trump remains silent on these issues, yet he rails about his election loss and attempts to overthrow our democracy. Trump shows his indifference to our country and has violated his oath of office. He should be removed from office immediately, instead of waiting until Jan. 20.

- J.W. Sullivan, Arlington

The swamp won this round

So, even President Donald Trump couldn’t change the insanity and stagnancy of the Washington, D.C., swamp. Americans are doomed by a political system that focuses on rewarding legislators and their special interests. How do we even start to change it? Implement term limits and stop special interest contributions and lobbying?

It’s not easy when the legislators who could change the system benefit from the way it is.

- Peter Stern, Driftwood

I had been asleep at the wheel

On Election Day 2016, I woke up from years of complacency. I had voted since I was of age and thought I just needed to show up at the polls. I found out how wrong that thinking could be.

President Donald Trump is against everything I believe in. He doesn’t care about us. He was up front about it, and people still voted for him. I volunteered with my local party to help in any way I was able. He might have been in office, but I was willing to do whatever I could to keep him from getting re-elected.

I didn’t realize our democracy was so fragile. We must do a better job and implement checks and balances to ensure a future president isn’t able to trample the Constitution.

- Frances Noakes, North Richland Hills

This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Until Donald Trump became president, I had been voting but not paying attention."