Emptying the mailbox of opinions on candidates for president, state Senate (Your Letters)

Editor’s note: The deadline for submitting letters related to the 2024 election has passed.
To the Editor:
Lately I read the letters to the editor to see the lengths some people will go to rationalize their support for a man who tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election. I see that Michael Russo in his letter of Oct. 13, 2024, complains that other writers linked former President Donald Trump with Project 2025 even though he has disavowed it.
I would remind Russo that the fact-challenged Trump has been all over the map on several issues, most famously on abortion. His stance changes almost daily given his audience and which way the political winds are blowing. And please remember one of the architects of Project 2025 is his advisor Stephen Miller, who should worry anyone who values fairness and democratic principles.
Bob Dougherty
Syracuse
To the Editor:
Progress for all New Yorkers has never been more important, and this year, progress is on the ballot. The Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (“WBASNY”) urges you to flip your ballot and vote yes on Proposition 1 to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) into the New York state Constitution.
As president of WBASNY, the largest women’s bar association in the United States, and a litigator, I have heard from our members and seen firsthand the impact of sex and gender bias that has been pervasive in our society. Discrimination affects many areas of life, including salaries, education, housing and employment. From different outcomes for women and children in court to the barriers placed before clients simply because of who they are, the discriminatory policies, behaviors, and practices we see perpetuate disadvantages for certain people.
Voting for the New York Equal Rights Amendment will enshrine equal protections in the New York state Constitution. There are many myths about the ERA. But on its basic level it will provide protections in New York’s constitution for women and other protected classes already recognized under the New York Human Rights Law such as national origin, ethnicity, disability and age. This constitutional amendment will ensure that the important laws protecting New Yorkers from discrimination will no longer be subject to the whims of the legislature. New York would join 29 other states that already have ERA’s in their constitutions.
As an organization comprising attorneys, judges, educators and others in the legal profession, WBASNY has held, and will continue to hold, information sessions to provide New York voters with the necessary information to make an informed decision at the ballot box. WBASNY encourages New Yorkers to flip their ballots and vote yes on Proposition 1.
Marea L. Wachsman, Esq.
President
Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York
New York City
To the Editor:
Kamala Harris was more or less appointed by Joe Biden to run in his stead after his Democratic Party “friends” shot his election campaign in the foot. No party delegates had a chance to express their vote for alternative candidates.
Harris promises a “new way forward” with joy for all but keeps policy and platform specifics a secret. Her left-wing California political upbringing speaks volumes about her ideology (and what path her so-called “way forward” might take). California is buried in public debt, crime, illegal drug use, homelessness and undocumented immigrants.
Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is prone, at times, to making silly, bizarre statements, of questionable accuracy. He expresses a puzzling admiration for some authoritarian dictators. He boasts beyond his ability to deliver. He does not have a presidential demeanor.
What we have, in the coming election on Nov. 5, is the failure of both the Democratic and Republican parties to deliver a candidate worthy of the presidency of this once great country.
Gary Brown
Liverpool
To the Editor:
When Donald Trump ran in 2016, I asked, “How bad could it be?” I had researched him. I knew his track record of racism, failed businesses, unpaid loans, bankruptcies, stiffing small businesses, abuse of women, his racist “birtherism” claim and other examples that should have deemed him unfit to be president. But he won. And then I really found out “how bad it could be.”
Trump’s leadership test was Covid and he failed, miserably. He was far more concerned with his personal image than he was with saving lives. He had a (recorded) conversation in February 2020 with author Bob Woodward and he told Woodward how deadly Covid was and how it was so easily transmitted but chose not to share that information with the rest of us. Over 400,000 Americans died during his term in a large part due to misinformation, aid withheld and given based on politics rather than need, lots of lies, and plain and simple incompetent leadership. Hundreds of thousands of others were infected. Remember when he didn’t want to let Americans off a cruise ship full of Covid-sick people to get medical care because they would “hurt his numbers”? Remember his suggestion that maybe injecting bleach might work because he heard that bleach killed Covid germs? Remember his saying Covid was a hoax? Thousands died needlessly.
The way he handled the Covid crisis told us who he was. And now, his response to the crises of Hurricanes Helene and Milton shows us that he hasn’t changed one bit. He is turning tragedies for millions into a campaign issue, doling out false information, doing harm to Americans in the hopes of promoting himself. Falsely telling people desperate for help that there is none. Making chaos. This is not a leader. Did we not learn last time? If your memory needs refreshing, google images of refrigerated trucks stacked with body bags. Google videos of the violent attack on law enforcement officers on Jan. 6, 2021, as they tried to defend our U.S. Capitol.
My memories of those four years, from his dark and depressing inauguration speech to his violent exit, leave me filled with dread of another four years.
Susan Eilenberg
Rome
To the Editor:
Undecided, really?
Many so-called “undecided voters” say they need to know more about Vice President Kamala Harris. Apparently, many of these voters believe this is a normal election about policy differences. In actuality, this election is about something more fundamental – the survival of a democracy.
Space doesn’t allow for a comprehensive listing of actions and behaviors of Donald Trump’s that should disqualify anyone from running for any office, regardless of opponents. But here’s a shortlist:
1. Trump is a convicted felon.
2. Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse.
3. Trump University was shut down for fraud.
4. Trump’s foundation was shut down for fraud.
5. Trump is federally charged with misuse of classified documents, which he stored in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom and then lied about them.
6. Trump tried to overturn an election.
7. Trump viewed the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol while law enforcement officers were being injured and killed and his vice president threatened with hanging — and did nothing to stop it.
8. Trump continues to lie about the 2020 election, even though he’s long been aware it wasn’t stolen and there’s zero evidence of the same.
What more do you “undecided” voters need to know about Harris? This election is about an authoritarian junta vs democratic government. You need to learn more about what this election is really about.
I understand that being self-identified as undecided is considered a sign of social/political elitism by these same voters. It’s not. Figure out what’s truly at stake.
Kenzie Miller
Syracuse
To the Editor:
The editorial board’s Oct. 22 endorsement of Nick Paro, rather than Chris Ryan, for the New York state Senate District 50 is puzzling. You explained it was the “strength of advocacy for his constituents” and Paro’s “specific agenda.”
In his five years of elected experience Paro advocated for the 33,300 people in the Town of Salina. Ryan, in 19 years of elected experience, advocated for his constituents in the town of Geddes for six years, and approximately 28,000 people in Onondaga County Legislative District 8 for 13 years. As the Democratic caucus leader, Ryan weighs what is best for the 477,000 people of Onondaga County. Ryan clearly has the stronger and longer track record of advocating for his constituents, making him the one best suited to serve the 300,000 constituents of SD-50.
Your second reason for endorsing Paro over Ryan was because of Paro’s “specific” agenda. Paro’s website includes his 32 policy promises. It is a brainstorm list without specifics. Serious policy proposals would detail how his tax cuts would decrease state revenue and propose the cuts in programs and services he would advocate.
As a member of the Democratic majority party in the state Senate, Ryan will be best positioned to negotiate with Downstate elected officials to pass laws and send funds home to implement our transformative plans. Ryan’s oversight of the county’s $1.6 billion budget compares favorably to Paro’s management of an $8 million budget.
Vote Ryan — the only candidate who has succeeded in working on a bipartisan basis.
Casey Cleary-Hammarstedt
Fayetteville
To the Editor:
As a long time Post-Standard, Herald-Journal and now syracuse.com subscriber, I must respectfully disagree with your editorial board’s endorsement of Nick Paro for state Senate District 50. In your endorsement, you state both candidates are well qualified. I say one candidate is more highly qualified, more knowledgeable and more willing to cross the aisle to the benefit of Oswego and Onondaga counties in the New York state Senate.
This candidate needs the qualifications of compassion, empathy, caring, love of community. The constituents of the 50th Senate District deserve a positive, not a negative, candidate. This district needs a working-class hero with the experience necessary to get positive results for the 50th Senate District.
The candidate that possesses these qualifications is Chris Ryan.
Ricky Noreault
Fulton