Citizens United undermines the people’s will

The campaign financing system in the United States does not accurately represent the will of the people, as it favors large corporate donors over individual citizens. One of these issues revolves around the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling on Citizens United v. FEC, which gave large corporations and labor organizations the ability to make unlimited contributions to political campaigns.

As a student of Kent State University, I have been researching this topic and cannot help but recognize the corruptness of this ruling. Allowing unlimited contributions by large groups actively diminishes the focus of campaigns from the will of the American people to the will of the highest donor.

How is it that a nation founded upon the idea of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” gives more power to organizations than the people themselves? To fix this issue, I urge U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus and Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey to address Congress with diligence and persistence to obtain a solution that brings power back to the voice of the people. SPENCER SMITH

Reserve of Donald Trump talking about groping and belittling women has finally taken him down and broken through his Teflon shell. However, these comments, disgusting as they are, are not the worst things that Mr. Trump has said.

When he says that if elected, he will appoint a prosecutor to put Hillary Clinton in jail, that is the stuff of banana republics and dictators. When he calls Mexicans rapists, he is racist. When he mocks a disabled reporter, he is a bigoted ableist.

When he praises Vladimir Putin, he aids and abets our adversary. When he says the election is rigged, he undermines the American system and incites his followers to violence. When he belittles war heroes, he proves he is no friend of veterans. When he encourages nations to develop a nuclear capability, he demonstrates that he is no friend of peace.

His tax plan would make the rich richer and the poor (and the middle class) poorer and balloon the federal deficit; he is no friend to the working person.

All of these things and more are as bad as, or worse than, his sexist remarks and show he is unqualified to be president and commander in chief. MARVIN FIELDS

Oakland

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Hollywood intelligentsia can clue me in! They seem to know all. RAY RIEBER Mount Oliver

I am at a loss as to why voters refuse to cross party lines. While admittedly many issues faced by our politicians are divisive, I am also at a loss as to why so many individuals, especially Mike Pence, and those who refer to themselves as “evangelical Christians” can support anyone who espouses values such as Donald Trump’s.

“Love thy neighbor as thy self” is a primary principle of Christianity. At the risk of being judgmental, I feel that Mr. Trump has demonstrated in a variety of ways that he is a racist, a bigot, a sexist, a liar, a bully and a cheat. How can anyone excuse this behavior?

In reference to Mr. Trump’s locker room talk, Barack Obama said, “You don’t have to be a ... parent to know that that kind of language, those kind of thoughts, those kind of actions are unacceptable. They are not right. You just have to be a decent human.”

So now, it’s not about Mr. Trump’s decency but the decency of the American people. LOIS SLOCUM

Upper St. Clair