Sharice Davids won despite Kansas GOP’s antidemocratic — and failed — gerrymandering

Not competitive

The Star deserves credit for its fine coverage of the elections. Nov. 10’s front-page story “Davids overcomes expected GOP wave to win third House term” was one of many informative articles. I almost laughed, however, to read: “The Republican-controlled Legislature attempted to make the district more competitive by taking Democratic-leaning voters from the northern half of Wyandotte County out of the district and added more Republican-leaning voters in Miami, Franklin and Anderson counties.”

Please.

Today’s Kansas Republicans, along with those elsewhere, could not care less about “competitive” districts. They do their best to create districts they cannot lose and Democrats cannot win. The article quotes state Rep. Stephanie Clayton that U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids prevailed over a “major partisan gerrymander.” That is absolutely correct.

Davids has literally been a fighter in the mixed martial arts and now figuratively fights fiercely for the people of her district and state. Her victory demonstrates the skills that make her a splendid public servant. Speaking as her constituent who also is a longtime political analyst, I am honored to have her as my U.S. representative.

- Max J. Skidmore, Overland Park

Bigger picture

Last Sunday, two days before Election Day, Donald Trump was already hollering, “Rigged election!” on his Truth Social platform.

The condition of this country was inherited from Trump. We were in a pandemic that sent everything down the tubes, and it was up to President Joe Biden to fix it.

High gas prices? There are lots of variables in this equation. A person needs to Google it to understand the bigger picture. Oil prices are set on the global market, not by refineries, and the U.S. is the leading producer of oil.

High fuel prices affect food production, which in turn is passed on to us at the grocery store. It is a vicious circle and has nothing to do with President Biden. Oh, we can blame him, but he has no control over it.

We all know the changes aren’t coming as fast as we would like, but we didn’t get in this mess overnight, and it won’t be fixed overnight. He needs time.

The Democratic Party has always been the party of the people while the Republicans have always been for big business.

- Pam Wishon, Independence

Inevitable result

If you listen to the talking heads explaining the recent bout of inflation, you might conclude that it resulted from a host of complex reasons, a perfect storm that even the smartest could not have predicted. The pandemic, supply chain issues, low interest rates and so on confounded the sages and inflation got loose on the prairie.

I beg to differ. One of my heroes is William of Ockham, a 14th century Franciscan friar. His problem-solving theory is known as Occam’s razor. Basically, it says that when you shave away the tangential reasons that might cause a problem, you get to the simplest and most direct cause. This is often the most important one.

During the last two presidential administrations, the federal government created $3 trillion out of thin air ($1 trillion under Donald Trump, $2 trillion under Joe Biden) to be distributed as pandemic relief. It was borrowed or simply printed, not paid for with reserves or taxes.

The U.S. economy is about $25 trillion. Dumping 3 trillion worthless dollars into it dilutes the average dollar value by about 12%. In the game of supply and demand, is it any wonder they simply do not buy as much as they used to?

- Graham Marcott, Fairway

Not for Missouri

Well, Missouri, you did it again. You’re sending another grandstander to Washington who has no intention of doing anything for the state, just like the last guy sent to the Senate. So now, we have a matched set: Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley.

Schmitt has said he intends to block everything President Joe Biden tries to do. How does he think that helps Missouri? Please show some sense when you vote, voters. We’re stuck with this guy for six years and Hawley for another two.

Schmitt did nothing for you when he was Missouri attorney general, suing China and attacking school districts that were trying to keep kids safe by requiring masks. To top it off, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, he immediately proudly announced that he would enforce the General Assembly’s trigger law that took reproductive choice off the table for the women of Missouri.

We didn’t get to vote on this issue. What kind of authoritarian is that?

- Charlotte Folsom, Lee’s Summit

A thousand words

I’m not an artist, but I’d like to suggest a political cartoon: The caption is “Massive red wave in midterms.” The cartoon depicts Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waving “bye-bye” to Donald Trump.

- John McDonald, Ferguson, Missouri

Pharmacy pain

Kudos to Ronald E. Ragan and Russell B. Melchert for their well-written guest commentary highlighting the plight of today’s pharmacy students. (Nov. 10, 13A, “An alarming trend points to pharmacy problems ahead”) Who better to know these issues than the deans of our two major local pharmacy schools?

Beyond the long hours and heavy workloads mentioned are the stress of expected clinical demands, which are more than can be mentioned here. Our annual Kansas Pharmacists Association conference recognized this by providing two hours of stress-management classes.

This commentary should help patients be more understanding while waiting at the pharmacy counter.

- Drew Bodner, Overland Park

Bloated middle

Pharmacists are vital, and therefore so are pharmacy students. They should probably earn more, and middlemen such as pharmacy benefit managers — whatever they do — should make less. It is hard to understand why these PBMs are entrenched in the middle, but a serious look is needed. Patients and pharmacists must get by without benefits managers.

- Richard E. Ralston, Executive director, Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, Los Angeles