Letters to the Editor: Zeldin 10.20.16

High-Dudgeon Standard

Springs

October 15, 2016

Dear David:

With a mix of amusement and pique, I read your most recent slanted editorial wherein you rip our Congressman, Lee Zeldin, for not repudiating Donald Trump and his many all-too-human foibles. According to you, Congressman Zeldin comes up short in the rebuking department and he should immediately fall on his own sword as payment for this huge mistake.

I look forward to seeing you write a similar editorial wherein you demand that Ms. Anna Throne-Holst (Congressman Zeldin’s challenger) is equally held to your high standards, and that you demand she refuse to support Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate because Mrs. Clinton allowed a U.S. ambassador to die with three other Americans in the worst imaginable circumstances, or because Mrs. Clinton not only enabled her husband’s numerous infidelities but she then acted as his wingman when it came to blocking the reports of these indiscretions and then trashed the unfortunate women who made the substantiated claims.

Will you be using your editorial privileges to demand that Ms. Throne-Holst publicly denounce Clinton’s email scandal or that she insist on a special prosecutor, or maybe just demand an apology for being so negligent with America’s security secrets? How about holding the same high-dudgeon standard for all the congressional candidates? 

Your selective moral outrage and your own self-serving prejudices are showing again, David! Gee, I wonder who you’ll be endorsing?

Regards,

DON CIRILLO

A Strong Supporter

Montauk

October 11, 2016

Dear Editor:

The attack ads are getting boring. I guess I would like to see more positive, informative ads for the candidates. I know very little about Anna Throne-Holst except that she is aligning herself with Hillary Clinton. What has she accomplished as an elected official? What has she done to improve Long Island?

Anna Throne-Holst’s ads seem to be intentionally misleading. She goes after Congressman Zeldin for allowing dangerous individuals to purchase guns. If she had checked this out, she could have found out that the congressman introduced a bill, Protect America Act, to prevent exactly that. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, which allows us to protect ourselves.

Congressman Zeldin’s ads highlight his service as a paratrooper and his work in Congress. I have known him for several years and he is nothing but a fine, intelligent young man whose concerns for Long Island and his country are of utmost importance to him. 

Many thanks again for your service to our great nation. I do hope that people elect you again to carry on your good work.

PAT FLYNN

Disrespect Is Evident

Springs

October 13, 2016

 

Dear David:

My wife and I have been increasingly disgusted at the disrespect (to put it mildly) for the American populace displayed not only by Donald Trump in his “presidential” campaign, but dizzyingly defended by his unprincipled surrogates. The concern with this conduct centers on the fear that Trump’s misconduct will be embraced by his followers.

Our fear has been realized. A couple weeks ago, I purchased from the Clinton campaign a yard sign, which we displayed on our property. In an act of complete disrespect for our right of free speech, our Clinton-Kaine sign has been stolen. This incident is stark evidence of the danger that the Trump campaign exposes to all who are perceived to be less powerful than him, as well as the danger that his sycophants will find his conduct to be permissible as well.

This disrespect is also evident at the congressional campaign level. Three times I have written to our congressman, Lee Zeldin, on a variety of environmental and consumer protection issues. Expecting more than a perfunctory form letter that was a non sequitur to my correspondence, I was appalled that Mr. Zeldin found it apparently beneath him even to respond to a constituent’s concern. His conduct is in perfect harmony with that of his role model, whom he continues to endorse.

Now he wants my vote? Too late. Anna Throne-Holst demonstrates the respect her constituents deserve. She has my vote. (Ironically, the yard sign supporting her is undisturbed!)

BRUCE A. COLBATH

People Above Party

Springs

October 17, 2016

Dear David,

Anna Throne-Holst is a get-the-job-done dedicated public servant who puts her constituents’ needs ahead of her political party and takes a pragmatic, scientific approach to solving our problems, earning my family’s vote for Congress this November. Anna is dedicated to the needs of Long Islanders, and puts people above party.

Not so with our can’t do, won’t do, first-term congressman, lazy Lee Zeldin, whose continued support of Donald Trump grows more concerning with every paranoid and disruptive Trump Tweet undermining our basic American values and political systems.

It is important to note that Lee Zeldin is not your normal Republican, squeaking into office on the second wave of Tea Party disruption 24 months ago. I’m hard pressed to name any positive changes Zeldin’s election brought to the hard-working Americans of the East End. 

Lee Zeldin has denied science, and women’s rights, and consistently voted against the will of the people. Now his unwavering support of Donald Trump, in light of Russian hackers infiltrating our electoral process, Trump’s continued claims of Putin as a “strong, good leader,” and Trump’s paranoid, divisive warnings of “rigged election results,” asking supporters to serve as voter watchdogs to pre-emptively claim a fraudulent outcome, is a concern all Americans should share, because Lee Zeldin cannot and will not change, even when faced with conflicting evidence and facts.

You may be a Republican who will not vote for Trump and won’t vote for Clinton. You may not vote for either presidential candidate, but I ask you to take a long, hard look at our First District’s Congressional race and send our Anna Throne-Holst to Congress. You want change? Put a woman in charge for change who values our families and our community regardless of party affiliation.

ALEX MILLER

 

Tea Party Supporter

East Hampton

October 15, 2016

To the Editor:

Readers of The Star should take to heart last week’s editorial (Oct.13) strongly opposing the re-election of Congressman Lee Zeldin.

As the editorial notes, Zeldin has been, and remains, an unwavering Tea Party supporter of Donald Trump’s calamitous personal missteps and ill-advised policy proposals.

American voters of both parties are poised to reject Donald Trump in droves, but his impending defeat does not guarantee that the next administration will be free to move the country toward shared, sensible goals. Members of the Republican National Committee, already anticipating Trump’s fall, have announced their intention to redouble efforts to preserve a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. If a portion of Trump’s die-hard adherents, such as Lee Zeldin, are re-elected, they are likely to cling to Trump’s discredited prescriptions: obstruction of the legislative process, denial of climate change, chaotic immigration laws, opposition to gun safety measures, and restrictions on the voting rights of minorities, among other unwise proposals.

East End voters should reject Lee Zeldin, whom the Star editorial rightly describes as a “true believer” in these soiled remnants of the Trump campaign. Zeldin’s temperate opponent, Anna Throne-Holst, should be supported for the sake of our country’s future.

RICHARD ROBERTS