In response to David E Smith’s letter “Pritzker is a king” (Feb. 26), nothing he writes makes sense. He equates life-protecting mandates during a pandemic to acting like a king. Wrong. Gov. JB Pritzker and others issued the mandates in order to protect the citizenry and limit hospitalizations and deaths! They weren’t self-serving decisions that a king would order.
I am grateful for Pritzker’s leadership. It is clear there are two people who believe themselves to be kings — the Donald Trump-Elon Musk incompetence team. They are self-serving without a care in the world about the country or its people.
In his recent State of the State address, Pritzker articulated how quickly Adolf Hitler brought down a democratic republic, and we are witnessing it today under Trump. The ease with which Musk has gotten unvetted individuals into our private and highly personal information, not to mention the harm and damage they could do to the systems, is frightening. The people who have lost their jobs while Trump and Musk play kings is disgusting. The collateral damage from all of this will be long term.
Someone like Smith, from a Christian institute, should reflect and repent.
— Jean Brennan, Chicago
Ignoring history
In a Feb. 26 letter to the editor, David E. Smith of the Illinois Family Institute disingenuously proclaims that the Nazi Party was organized to “advance socialism” and thus was a left-leaning political movement. Certainly when the party was founded in 1920, it was as a German worker’s party, but by the time Adolf Hitler became supreme leader of the Third Reich in the early 1930s, it was completely fascist, and this is how history should be recounted.
I am surprised and angered that the editors did not provide an “editor’s note” to that effect the way they clarified a point on the letter (“Look in the mirror”) below Smith’s.
Just because someone says something does not make it true.
— Erica Dann, Wilmette
Nazis’ strategy
David E. Smith is partially correct when he states the Nazi Party “was organized to advance socialism.” The party used the socialist label strategically to draw away supporters of the Communist Party in Germany at the time. Once Adolf Hitler took over the Nazi Party, he began to downplay the socialist orientation, worked to gain the support of big business and emphasized nationalist and antisemitic rhetoric. That became the Nazi Party we fought in the Second World War.
Contrary to what Smith suggests, Hitler’s Nazi Party was hardly “on the left side of the political spectrum.”
For a recent example of how a political party can change over time, look at how the Republican Party in America has morphed from a party guided by conservative principles to a party with its politicians so intimidated by its leader that they are unfortunately unwilling to challenge him publicly, even when they know he lies.
— Richard Badger, Chicago
Parallel purging
Letter writer David E. Smith falsely claims that Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the Nazis) were socialists on the left side of the political spectrum.
The Nazi Party may have been founded on socialism, but it turned hard right when Hitler joined and took over. He used the idea of “socialism” to convince ordinary Germans that he was on their side and used them to gain power.
Once Hitler became chancellor, he purged the civil service of members of the Communist Party, the Social Democrats and Jews. He had many of his opponents killed, including leading socialists within his own party, during the “Night of the Long Knives” in 1934.
Hitler said his biggest enemies were communists, socialists, capitalists and Jews. He was a nationalist and a fascist, whom any sane historian regards as being on the far right of the political spectrum.
Donald Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen and used that to rile up his base. He convinced ordinary folks that he was on their side and would do something about grocery prices — but he hasn’t. His economic agenda consists of tax cuts for the rich, cuts to social programs, inflationary tariffs and a lot more debt.
Trump’s other campaign issue was stoking fears of immigration. His comment in 2023 that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of our country was straight out of Hitler’s playbook.
Trump has filled his administration with unqualified lackeys who will never tell him he’s wrong. His party has been purged of people who would stand up to him. He has talked of annexing and seizing territory: Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip.
As Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
— Mike Mosser, Chicago
Opposing Trump
You can’t deny that President Donald Trump is keeping his campaign promises, by pursuing unlawful immigration, reducing government size and eliminating wasteful spending through his appointees and executive orders. Assisting in these efforts has been Elon Musk with the Department of Government Efficiency who is exposing wasteful spending.
As expected, nearly everything Trump has done has faced strong opposition, from public criticism to legal challenges. This resistance is coming from Democratic politicians and their media allies. Their resistance to Trump’s efforts reveals their intent of wanting to preserve the status quo.
These critics, by resisting any change in spending, will bankrupt the country if allowed to continue. The state of Illinois has spent $1.6 billion on health care for noncitizens since 2020. The city of Chicago has spent an estimated $300 million on the migrant crisis. Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson noncooperation with federal authorities will continue this expenditure of taxpayer funds.
What you do not hear from these critics is their plan for addressing and solving these issues. The citizens who voted for change and support the president need to encourage others to help in purging these opposing politicians at the federal, state and local levels from office with their vote.
— Al Zvinakis, Lemont
Government’s value
If one good thing comes out of the reign of terror President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk are executing over the federal government, it is that America will see the value of public servants. It is long past time we get past President Ronald Reagan’s maxim that government doesn’t solve problems but rather is the problem.
Far too many Americans have adopted this attitude without considering the essential services provided by government at all levels. While these functions are crucial to our day-to-day lives, the public seems to think these services are just “there” for them. A protester’s sign saying, “Take Your Government Hands Off My Medicare,” is a perfect example of the public’s misunderstanding of what it receives from government.
One of the myths that encourages this attitude is that the private sector operates more efficiently and effectively than government. This attitude is just plain wrong. The Department of Government Efficiency has sloppily fired and then had to rehire employees who guard our nuclear stockpile, doctors and nurses who provide critical care to veterans, and staff working to combat the bird flu outbreak. Is this superior performance in budget and human resources management? I think not.
What drives perceptions that government workers are unnecessary and lazy? I think we have all been frustrated by long lines at the post office or long wait times to hear from Social Security. These experiences help shape public opinion. What people don’t see are the incredibly dedicated staffers providing government services such as research, public safety and benefit payment processing, as well as other work people take for granted in their daily lives.
Could government at all levels operate more efficiently and effectively? Of course, but the way to tackle those issues is to learn and understand systems to find where there might be waste and where specific expertise is essential — not by indiscriminately firing staff regardless of what they do.
Government is process-heavy with a need for checks and balances, but there are potential avenues for savings. Swinging a chainsaw in the direction of government employees simply isn’t an effective way to streamline services and give maximum value to taxpayers.
— Jane Lupton, former deputy regional counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, Evanston
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
