Sen. Graham’s financial statements prove that he’s hardly living a lavish lifestyle

On Graham’s finances

Thank you to The State for your article on U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s finances; the facts clearly give the lie to the main thrust of the campaign being run by Graham’s opponent, Jaime Harrison.

Graham has stated that he does not have a lavish lifestyle and, according to the figures published in The State, he sure doesn’t. Graham’s net worth is no higher than mine, and I’m a retired teacher.

Graham was the first in his family to go to college, and he has done South Carolina’s public education system proud by putting it — and his military training — to work not to enrich himself but to serve his nation.

In contrast you have Harrison, a multi-millionaire who has become enriched at taxpayer expense.

Other than the corporations they serve, who pays for lobbyists like Harrison?

You and I do — through the favors that Harrison receives from his mentor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In addition Harrison’s campaign ads imply that he had a deprived childhood. Well, I also grew up that poor — but our shabby homes, including a farm tenant house that had an outdoor toilet — have been torn down.

Wealthy Jaime’s ads, supported by shadowy riches outside South Carolina, range from being holier-than-thou to vomit-inducing.

Has the bottom been reached yet?

M.B. Spears, Florence

On face masks

Asking people to wear a face mask to protect others is a useless request.

You are addressing the same people who:

▪ Take up two parking spots at the grocery store by not staying within the lines of a parking space.

▪ Leave grocery buggies in the parking lot so they can roll away and bang into parked cars.

▪ Throw trash out of vehicles as they drive down highways.

Let’s face it: many Americans are just inconsiderate of others.

Antoinette Buerkert, Blythewood

On Trump

As the Bible says, there is “a time for everything” — and that time came in February 2020 when President Donald Trump was informed that a deadly new virus threatened the nation’s security.

Now Trump claims that he kept the danger secret to avert “a panic.” Well, a public panic was the exact medicine needed to mobilize preventive action to contain the virus.

Trump’s denial of the danger and his deliberate hiding of the dire information that he possessed is criminal. What would you say if your doctor had refused to inform you that you had a life-threatening but treatable disease?

Trump’s equation of his silence with how Winston Churchill led the British during World War II is astonishing. The fact is that Churchill purposely struck fear in the British people to motivate them to prepare for a long, hard war with Nazi Germany that would require “blood, sweat and tears” for victory to be achieved.

Churchill knew that the time had come to instill public panic.

President Trump is no Churchill. He is a loser who has victimized the nearly 200,000 Americans who have lost their lives because of his dereliction of duty.

Charles Kegley, Columbia

Kegley is a distinguished Pearce professor of international relations emeritus at the University of South Carolina.

On Trump

President Donald Trump is our best president in years.

He foils all of the political correctness that has a corrosive effect on almost everything it touches.

Trump has been particularly effective in fighting terrorism; thankfully, the president isn’t guided by the political correctness groupies who mimic Neville Chamberlain, the naive former British leader.

Daniel House, West Columbia

This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 4:21 PM.