My Texas Republican friends once knew right from wrong, truth from lie. What happened?

Not the GOP I once knew

Most Tarrant County voters can tell the difference between the truth and a lie. They know Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president. They know the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is just that, a lie. About 300 Republican candidates in the midterms are election deniers. Some are on the ballot here in Tarrant County.

Make America Great Again extremists have seized control of the Texas and Tarrant County GOP. I miss my Republican friends with whom I could have honest policy disagreements, none of whom felt compelled to traffic in lies and distortions.

- Doyle C. Fine II, Fort Worth

Vote — it’s good for you

Voting is an indicator of a healthy society, and a healthy society is an indicator for voting. As an epidemiologist, I identify protective and risk factors for various health conditions. We see the destructive power of hate. We also see the protective and healing properties of human rights, dignity, respect and belonging.

On Tuesday, we have the right and responsibility as American citizens to make informed choices and vote. We have an opportunity to protect our individual and collective health.

Channel your passion and frustration into action. Educate yourself on the candidates and their policies. Be courageous and vote. Remember that good policies begin with electing good policymakers.

Voting and civic engagement cultivate a healthy collective. Improved health leads to increased voting. Participating in this positive loop can safeguard our democracy.

- Joshua Yudkin, Dallas

How did Texas get here?

A headline in the Oct. 26 Star-Telegram tells us: “Report: Less than 25% of Texas 8th-graders proficient in math.” (2A) Add this to our failed energy grid, the law enforcement failure in Uvalde, overcrowded roads, a failed judicial system with an attorney general who’s been under indictment for seven years, crumbling water systems and outrageous property taxes, and I’d say the result of nearly three decades of Republican leadership is failure.

I hope my fellow Texans will remember this at the polls. Let’s give another party a chance.

- Owen Daniel, Fort Worth

It’s all about gasoline prices

If you are unsure how to vote, try this:

Stop at a gas station and fill your tank on the way to the polls. The national average for a gallon in January 2021 was $2.25. Today, it’s $3.77. Enough said.

- Gene Kenneth Zimmerman, Bedford

Forward is the only path

Texas is bursting at the seams with new innovations, scientific improvements, impressive and inclusive universities and thriving big cities. But we also have groups of people who question nothing, parents who want to ban books and control information taught by trained professionals, and science-deniers.

If Texans continue to vote for candidates who preserve the way it’s been and drag us back to the 1920s, the state will die.

- Ann J. Clarkson, Wichita Falls

Tim O’Hare bashing wrong

So the Star-Telegram ran two columns on the Oct. 30 Page 5C about whether Tim O’Hare should be Tarrant County judge. Ronnell Smith’s “yes” side pointed out O’Hare’s good ideas and listed reasons we should vote for him. (“Yes: He’ll cut property taxes, help law enforcement and protect our liberties”) The Rev. Charles Johnson on the “no” side listed a host of bad ideas emanating from O’Hare and not a single good idea that opponent Deborah Peoples has proposed. (“No: He would endanger our prosperity with budget cuts and harm public schools”)

Johnson did point out twice that he is a pastor, though, and declared that O’Hare will be bad for Tarrant County schools even though his job as judge has nothing to do with schools. I thought your paper didn’t like negative campaigning.

- Jeff Murray, Fort Worth

Things great under GOP

You know Democrats are desperate when they put President Joe Biden on national TV to tell outright lies. No, Republicans are not going to take away Medicare or Social Security.

Our retirement funds are being depleted. Families can’t afford to buy a home or car because of sky-high interest rates, and families are struggling to buy food, all under the Democrats.

Think how great our country was under Republican control, and don’t buy the lies that the Democrats are spewing because they are afraid of losing this election.

- Donna Bierd, Keller