Letters: Not buying the GOP’s poverty talk

Re “GOP tries new tack on poverty,” Jan. 9

Call me cynical, but congressional Republicans suddenly adopting poverty as their issue of the moment sounds just a bit, well, cynical. And desperate.

Republicans have been lurching from one issue to another, trying to find one that has traction. Benghazi went nowhere. The deficit is shrinking. The unemployment rate is in decline. Obamacare is steadily getting its act together.

The truth is that the GOP is the party of business and the wealthy. That base will always be a minority, so Republicans have to find ways to lure other constituencies. Hence the Moral Majority, gun rights and so on.

But in that quest, the GOP seems to have lost its way. In this season of NFL playoffs, I suggest the GOP heed the advice any winning coach would give: Be who you are, stick with what you know, and do it well.

Peter Coonradt

Redlands

I applaud the GOP’s efforts to deal with poverty. Hopefully, its new message will focus on ways to give folks the opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to get an upwardly mobile job as a way to move into the middle class. It’s time to end the partisan political rhetoric that usually dominates on this issue.

Welfare and food stamps will probably be with us forever, as will the welcome helping hand provided by local charities. However, these aren’t terribly effective at pulling people out of poverty. Rather, a high-quality education and an upwardly mobile job offer far greater promise.

If this is the GOP’s new message, then I think it will be received very well by the American people. It will also be the approach that will finally win the war on poverty.

Donald Wiggins

Yucca Valley

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