Letters: Texas Democrats can’t fight, so Greg Abbott should punish them

Can’t fight, so just go get on a flight?

The Democrats are at it again, running from a fight. (July 13, 1A, “Texas Democrats flee to DC to stop vote on voter restriction bills”) A small private jet to Washington, D.C., according to one flight service, can cost $17,000. So, who’s paying for that? I’d like to know, wouldn’t you?

- Vince Bonano, Fort Worth

Abbott should punish Democrats

The behavior of the Democrats who left Texas to avoid voting on the election bill is unacceptable. When they return, the governor needs to do whatever is in his power to hold them accountable.

- Thomas Purgason, Arlington

What needs real work in Texas

Once you can justify the filibuster in the U.S. Senate that effectively holds consideration of significant legislation to a majority of Americans, we can start discussing why Texas Democratic House members found it necessary to leave the state to block voter suppression bills that Gov. Greg Abbott is fixated on. Those bills look innocuous only if you are a young or middle-aged white man who can  set his own schedule.

Perhaps our governor could entice the legislators back if he looked for a way to fix our broken utility grid instead.

- Marcia Slaven, Arlington

Edwards was an American original

I was sad to read that former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards died. I first heard of Edwards in my younger days in Kansas. Few people know even their own governors, but Edwards was a nationally known figure. He had a quick wit and charisma. He seemed to know everybody from John F. Kennedy to movie stars to musicians.

Edwards wasn’t an angel. He served prison time in Fort Worth on corruption charges, and he once married a woman 51 years younger than he.

Edwin Edwards wasn’t a perfect governor, but he made politics fun.

- James A. Marples, Longview

Foreign billionaires are the problem

Why doesn’t America admit that our immigration problem is caused by greedy billionaires draining money from Central and South America, allowing a few to live in palaces while the populace starves? And just who is taking over America? Many of our service stations and motels are owned by foreign millionaires or billionaires. Foreigners are gobbling up our real estate.

- Gary B. Hicks, Forest Hill

Trump did right at the border

The July 10 front-page story, “Patrick praises Trump, rails against Biden, Dems at CPAC,” quotes League of United Latin American Citizens President Domingo Garcia calling what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said about U.S. border policy “a Texas-sized, big whopper of a lie.” You then quote him criticizing Patrick for not being concerned about the “children in cages” while Donald Trump was president.

Perhaps Garcia doesn’t realize that President Barack Obama’s administration built those cages, not the Trump administration. That administration greatly curtailed illegal border crossings.

Perhaps Garcia should quote the people crossing our border illegally who have said they are coming now because Joe Biden is president.

- Valerie Jo Remley, Colleyville

He trusts those checks coming in

Someone I know recently said he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine because “I don’t trust the government.” That’s the same government that puts a Social Security check in his bank account each month and funds his Medicare.

- Jack Ramsey, Roanoke

This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Texas Democrats can’t fight, so Greg Abbott should punish them."