Paul Ryan hasn’t shown Americans compassion

The April 12 editorial “Giving Up” casts U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan as a “compassionate conservative who was actually both.”

What? Conservative, for sure. Compassionate, far from it.

Compassionate? A man whose longtime political agenda was to cavalierly cut crucial entitlements the poor — and others — depend on: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid were all targeted.

Compassionate? A man who sought fervently to eradicate Obamacare, despite the suffering its loss would impose on countless patients.

Compassionate? A man who squeaked, “He could have done better,” in response to President Donald Trump’s saying “some very fine people” were among the white nationalists chanting “The Jews will not replace us” in Virginia last summer.

Paul Ryan, you could have done better, much better, with the power you wield.

Lately, I’ve found myself wondering if Mr. Ryan, who often touts his Catholic faith, ever feels guilty for betraying such Catholic values as “Blessed are the poor ... . ” If so, he has an opportunity to expiate his guilt and perhaps redeem his tarnished reputation by using his position to “pass legislation to make it harder for the president to fire Robert Mueller,” as The New York Times suggests. EILEEN COLIANNI

Oakmont management team would countenance such behavior from a public relations specialist. MICHAEL JANSEN Scott

Post-Gazette editor Keith Burris got some things right in his tribute to the “Roseanne” show as an antidote to anti-Trump outrage (April 8, “Can Roseanne Restore Our Sense of Proportion?”). As he predicted about people reading the column, he got my teeth gnashing, prompting my response to his own biases, cloaked as a balanced, temperate view.

Implicit in his criticism of the Mueller investigation is the assumption that it’s all sound and fury signifying nothing, a desperate attempt by “selfanointed guardians of all that is good and enlightened in America” to disrespectfully criticize Donald Trump and his actions. Similar sentiments were spoken by editorial voices early in the Watergate affair and the results proved the skeptics wrong.

Except for those closest to the investigation, we don’t know whether any impeachable offenses can be linked to Mr. Trump. I agree that neither Trump sycophants nor despisers should rush to judgment on his culpability. What I find most offensive about Mr. Burris’ argument is the suggestion that we who find Mr. Trump’s vile, boorish, immature and unpresidential behavior and his uninformed, petulant approach to policymaking a threat to our constitutional values and democratic processes should just chill out, tune in to “Roseanne” and become better citizens.

Sorry, Mr. Burris, but I believe that each citizen has the privilege and obligation to be a “self-anointed guardian” of our nation’s core values and guiding principles. When they are hijacked and subverted by a man who has no moral compass or any basis for policymaking beyond “what’s good for the Trump brand is good for America,” it’s our responsibility regardless of party label to express our legitimate concerns and resistance. WES ROHRER Aspinwall