Don’t hold mistakes against teens (within reason)
Re: “The perils of politicizing adolescence,” Sept. 28 column
Now we know Krista Kafer will never be nominated for the Supreme Court. But to her point, I do think there can be some dangers to thinking that stupid actions and poor choices as teenagers should be held against individuals into adulthood — poor choices is how one becomes a better adult.
But, there are some things to consider with this situation.
First, the complaint against Kavanaugh is assault … not a minor issue. Then there are the substantial background issues — first the obvious fact of a stolen Supreme Court seat by the Republicans last year — denying a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee.
And of course there is the man who nominated Kavanaugh. Trump has created a poisoned atmosphere of abuse of power, abuse of women, abuse of opposition … this is the foundation that this nomination is built upon.
In this Era of President DonaldTrump, itap no wonder that this nomination has gotten ugly. If it had not been Kavanaugh’s teenage years, it likely would have been something else.
Dallas Cox, Lakewood
Krista Kafer’s column in Friday’s Denver Post on politicizing adolescence merely confirms my belief that she is your best opinion writer. She is consistently insightful, intelligent and sensible without ever resorting to hyperbole.
William C. Rense, Estes Park
Krista Kafer is right to point out that we should and do treat teenagers differently under the law than adults due to teens’ underdeveloped capacities. But that doesn’t mean they are completely absolved either. In the case of Brett Kavanuagh, if the accusations against him are true, we can still judge him with consideration of his age at the time of his behavior. More importantly, if the accusations are true, we can also judge him as a fifty-three-year-old supreme court nominee who has lied to us.
Valerie Klemme, Louisville
Not a tax cut for everyone
Re: “GOP stunned by tax cut response,” Sept. 25 commentary
Paul Waldman’s essay “GOP stunned by tax cut response” is entirely misleading. He argues that the tax cuts enacted for 2018 benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
As a wealthy retiree, I can tell you that taxes on people such as myself are significantly higher for 2018 vs. 2017, about 50 percent in my case. However, if you are a person of moderate income that is renting, you benefit by having the standard deduction raised and your tax rate decreased, resulting in a lower tax bill.
Corporations certainly benefit as their tax rates were substantially lowered. The stated purpose of this lowering was to eliminate the incentive for corporations to relocate operations outside of the USA and to make it less costly for them to bring back to the USA large amounts of cash held off-shore. Itap too early to pass judgement on this action.
If your goal is to heap scorn on the Republican congress, then direct the scorn at the misleading nature of calling the 2018 tax changes a “tax cut”. It has not been a tax cut for everybody.
John Norsworthy, Colorado Springs
Leftism vs. liberalism
There is a misconception that the Democratic Party is the home for liberals. Sadly, the Democratic Party is anything but liberal. Liberalism demands freedom of thought and speech. The Democratic Party is controlled by those who support the squelching of free speech. The Democratic Party is the party of identity politics, hate speech, safe spaces, trigger warnings, and sleazy allegations. The Democratic Party puts you into a group and if you don’t think, speak, and vote the “correct” way for your group, you are publicly attacked, lied about, and ostracized. The Democratic Party is the party of leftism, not liberalism, and leftism is destroying liberty in the western world. If you consider yourself a liberal and you disagree with me, do some research for yourself. There are many liberals who have rejected leftism who publish online, and they are routinely attacked for their divergence from the groupthink.
Kurtis Cecil, Lakewood
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