Letter to the Editor: Friendships over politics? Maybe in normal times
Published 1:30 pm Monday, March 2, 2026
Under normal circumstances I would agree with Mathew Jay McCully in regards to friendship over politics but these are not normal times (“Friendships over politics,” published Feb. 18).
The Republican party and its politicians have always been very good at the magic trick of “Look what’s going on over here so you won’t see what I’m doing here” political issues. How could we let trans women compete in sports, abortion, abortion, abortion. I don’t know of any person who is pro women’s right to chose who is also pro abortion but I am old enough to remember the times before Roe vs Wade when abortion was illegal.
Make no mistake, women will get abortions whether they are illegal or not but I don’t want to see our country return to back alley butchers and women shoving coat hangers up their vagina, I would much rather see abortion be safe and legal and solely between a woman and her doctor.
Trans women have been competing in women’s sports since at least the mid 70s, when Rene Richards was a pro tennis player in and reached the ranking of number 20 in the pro rankings and there was very little objection at that time or since.
Men don’t need to dress as women to enter a women’s bathroom to assault them they’ll just do it, also trans women competing in sports are approximately 10 in 500,000, so again not really the issue we should be focusing on as voters.
The reason your politics strains our friendships is because you let your politicians manipulate you with these hot button issues so you will keep electing these people who have no interest in making our government serve all of our citizens but instead serve the purposes of the very rich.
Example: Since Reagan instigated his infamous “Trickle Down Theory” there has been a firehose of our nations income headed in the opposite direction. The difference in income between management and workers before 1980 was 30 or 40 to 1 depending on the industry and taxes on the wealthy were as high as 92% at one time, now these differences can be as high as 1800% and in some cases even worse.
Not only that but conservatives focus on these hot button issues has allowed possibly one of the absolutely worst human beings on the planet to currently reside in the oval office who is using his position to, not only enrich himself and his family, but is also making every effort he can to destroy our democracy and make himself dictator, and yet many who elected him still support him, so if you’re still wondering why we can’t be friends, that’s why. Just sayin’.
Larry Benson
Enumclaw
