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Justin Bogie’s column on What to expect from four more years of Ivey received a considerable response from readers, particularly in his objection to the state gas tax.
W. Rutherford of Trinity had this to say:
“I must say, I hardly think 10 cents a gallon gasoline tax is ‘crushing’ anyone, compared to the actual cost of gasoline. You have a minor point with the grocery tax. That should have gone away, with the dodo, but legislatures of decades past have done nothing on that either.
But even that pales to the frustration I feel when I see our less ‘fortunate’ friends pushing multiple shopping carts full of food, with steaks, and other high-cost prepared meal items, and paying with my tax money. This as I struggle to pay for my single buggy, half full of nowhere near the high-end foodstuffs that we taxpayers are providing others. Oh, and those grocery price increases - I can also blame on Joe Biden.
The statement that you made regarding our current governor, who was asked ‘if she would even be willing to suspend the $.10 tax increase. She responded with a resounding no and instead blamed high energy costs on President Joe Biden.’ A fact of which you were largely dismissive.
Well, the FACT IS, that the high energy costs ARE DIRECTLY attributable to Joe Biden, the paltry (when compared to the $2.00 per gallon price increase we have experienced) ten cents a gallon tax notwithstanding.
So, would it have been a good move, politically, to suspend the tax? Probably. But she gets paid to make the hard decisions. That is what leaders do. The money that is pouring into the state coffers as you mentioned, is here now; but will it be gone in a few years? Never to return?
Then what Mr. Bogie? The politically popular decision would merely have kicked the can down the road…
So, when I pay $75-100.00 to fill up my service vehicle, paying the $2-3.00 extra in gas taxes doesn’t even register compared to the pain of the doubling of gas prices. I don’t even consider the additional gas tax. But you can believe I think about our Democrat friends, and President Biden - the founder of the pain that you are quick to blame our state leaders for.
We need roads. Infrastructure. Less government.”
K.A. of Madison listed out why she voted for Ivey.
“I will tell you why Ivey got my vote and why I did not vote for the alternatives.
1) Ivey has proved herself to be in line with my views when it comes to allowing concealed carry of guns for good, law-abiding citizens. As a 70-year-old grandmother who enjoys taking the kids to the beach, I simply feel safer that way. I have taken gun safety classes, know how to use a weapon and have target practiced on a variety of guns since I was 20.
2) Ivey spoke clearly and openly about the problems of transgender males in women's sports and has protected minors against those forces seeking to change a child's biological gender. Children must be protected from these types of extreme sexual 'grooming’ activities and psychological ideologies pretending to be fact or science. Forcing hormones and puberty blockers, surgery, and dysphoric identities on young children is and should be criminal. It is trendy, manipulative and abusive not only because of the children themselves but because of the regular children experiencing such lunacy imposed upon them by peers. Our kids have enough problems growing up. Ivey was willing to take a stand.
3) She was not ashamed to mention her strong belief in God, which is my cornerstone and the cornerstone of many Southerners. If every state had more people who had true faith, morals, and actions to prove their love of God and their fellowman, the U.S. would certainly have less problems, less crime, less suicide particularly among the youth, and certainly less racism.
4) Ivey has managed leading this state through a very tough time with a COVID pandemic, as well as the unprecedented population growth of the state. She has not fallen for Biden's mess and mandated stupidity, but rather with a steady hand and listening ear heard from the many voices of medicine, business, schools, and families, taking a safe, moderate course while preserving our freedom. She deserves to be commended!
5) Other runners of the primary were new, unknown, a risk. I support school choice. I am prolife. I certainly considered these topics. And had Ivey not been already proven to support prolife, I may have voted differently. But I just didn't know if I could trust these other unknowns like I did Gov. Ivey. …
Finally, the thing we need and which is being lost, I think, is having good, healthy publicly available information, both pro and con. It seems the public is having to deal with censorship on one hand, political correctness on the other, and outright lies in-between. But as a retired teacher who taught students how to research, how to evaluate fact vs opinion, and how to conduct civil debate with their peers on many hot button topics of our day, people need to be respected enough to tell us the truth and then let us decide. We are smarter than some politicians think.”
Wayne Christopher of Grand Bay takes Secretary of State John Merrill to task over electronic voting machines and for so easily dismissing the claims of “My Pillow” Mike Lindell’s lawsuit against the Secretary of State office.
“Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill recently did an interview … and was asked about the lawsuit Mike Lindell has filed against his office over concerns about the electronic voting machines used in Alabama elections and our voter registration rolls. Lindell had purchased Alabama voter registration data and has examined it.
“In the interview, Merrill dismisses Lindell's entire list of questionable registrations by highlighting one category that he claims Lindell misinterpreted. But he fails to mention any of the categories that are more difficult to dismiss, like 3,328 people who are more than 100 years old, or 842 college students who supposedly reside in dorms which can only accommodate 250 people. Merrill also attempts to assure listeners that the machines cannot transfer data via the internet, saying they don't have any ‘electronic transfer of data.’ He defends the use of electronics by comparing Russian elections where he said he ‘saw’ ballot stuffing taking place when doing hand counts.
Unwittingly, he has made a good argument against using electronics in elections. You can ‘see’ ballot stuffing when it is done by hand. You can't ‘see’ it when it is done electronically, making it easier to cheat! Regardless of whether or not the equipment is communicating via the internet, it has replaced observable vote counting with unobservable vote counting, making it impossible for local poll watchers and poll workers to do their jobs. Merrill arrogantly makes the claim, "there is nothing we could do different or better than we are currently doing.” Mike Lindell has shown how easy it would be to clean up our voter rolls. For some reason, John Merrill is not interested in doing that, and prefers to dismiss the evidence, claiming he has already done that. Why?”
Quite a few people reacted to the conversation with Mike Durant and his thoughts after finishing third in the Republican Senate Primary, and his comments in “The Process Is As Broken As You Can Possibly Imagine”
Ken Stephens of Montgomery wrote:
“Thank you for writing about your interview with Mike Durant. I must confess that I was swayed by the video with Durant saying the first step was to disarm the population. How could he deny that? We had video proof that he said it. But for the first time, to me anyway, your article explains that he was talking about Somalia. Why did he not come out with a counter ad explaining it? That might have earned him my vote.
“However, the story is still incomplete. Didn’t Durant have a lot of PAC support as well? And does he believe the attack ads against Britt were truthful? Does he really believe she was pro-abortion because of an SGA vote she did not override many years ago? Politics are indeed nasty business, but I would love to see Britt’s and Brooks’ opinions on Durant’s own election integrity.”
Anne Cox of Huntsville said this on the Durant article:
“I live in Huntsville, and my husband and I have the same concerns that Durant has. If he has any thoughts of making a difference, this may be the time. People want honesty in government. Thank you for an article that reminds us we must be vigilant to keep our freedoms!”
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