Jobless, who didn’t have choice, need their checks

With all the complaints, comments and controversy regarding keeping government workers from furloughs, what about the silence of government as to the status getting the unemployed their checks?

This administration, most notably our governor, seems to be skirting the issue! Can somebody give the unemployed their due? They were not given a choice on furloughs and desperately need their unemployment benefits.

Willie Arakaki

Kahaluu

Electoral College helps, not hurts, Republicans

The Electoral College system was designed to give all states an equal say in the presidential elections by our Constitution. The 2020 election has shown that the Electoral College is no longer relevant.

The problem is that the elections now revolve around a handful of battleground states, and 38 states are basically irrelevant in the presidential elections.

Republicans in the House and Senate were objecting over several states’ close electoral votes won by Joe Biden. But the Republicans would have been killing the goose that laid the golden egg if the electoral system was abolished.

The truth is that Republicans have won only one presidential election by popular vote in the last 32 years (George W. Bush versus John Kerry in 2004).

The GOP’s only hope in winning future presidential elections is by maintaining the Electoral College. They were treading on dangerous ground.

Jon Shimamoto

Mililani

Cal Thomas is distorting Biden’s centrist positions

Referring to Cal Thomas’ Jan. 5 column, “Under Biden, centrism might emerge as radical-left agenda”: You can see this distortion by watching the recent commercials in Georgia that portray Democrats as radical socialists/ communists planning to take over America and completely change the country into a Venezuela.

Centrist positions that Joe Biden advocates: Shore up “Obamacare” (not “Medicare for All”), free community college for the needy (not $50,000 rebates), restore tax rates that existed before Donald Trump (no increase taxes for people making under $400,000), and pass a large infrastructure bill that has bipartisan support.

Thomas starts his column by insulting Biden about “how he garbles his thoughts and words,” but then is offended when Biden accepts an interview with The Wall Street Journal but not him.

There is no mention of the Department of Justice. Having the attorney general represent the country, not the president, seems like a solidly centrist position.

Jim Wolfe

Nuuanu

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