Trump Fired Acosta

I believe I understand The Courant’s main points about the incident at the White House involving the President and CNN reporter Jim Acosta [Nov. 9, Editorial, “Don’t Disrespect The Media”]. But I doubt the outcome is a suppression of free speech or in any way an infringement upon the First Amendment rights of Acosta.

Being called upon by the president to ask a question is not an invitation to be obnoxious, acrimonious or otherwise pompous in attempting to put forth one’s own bias. A press conference should not be for the self-aggrandizement of any member of the press corps. Mr. Acosta’s opinion of his own capabilities or importance far exceeds reality. Does he believe he has the potential to bolster CNN’s ratings?

At press conferences, the president routinely calls upon people he doesn’t like, in these instances commonplace because of how he feels about so many in the media. Considering his history with Acosta, it was a conciliatory gesture to even acknowledge the reporter’s presence. Ultimately, the result was that Mr. Trump yelled “you’re fired” from this small theater.

I completely agree with Harvey Jassem’s Nov. 8 letter that worried voters abandoned Oz Griebel because they were afraid a vote for a third-party candidate would lead to a victory for a major party candidate they thought would be a disaster.

The Courant endorsed Oz for governor. How many voters agreed with the Courant editorial board but voted against the major party candidate they feared most rather than for a candidate they felt would be the best governor? We’ll never know, but we would have known if Connecticut adopted ranked-choice voting, as Maine has.

Instead of selecting one candidate, voters rank all the candidates for office in order of preference. There’s no fear of throwing away a vote, and the election results reveal much more about the real preferences of the voters.

Ranked choice voting in Maine was passed by the people over the objections of of their legislature. Like Maine’s legislature, Connecticut’s Democratic and Republican legislators want to restrict voters to a forced choice between a Democratic and Republican candidate.

However, a large plurality of Connecticut voters do not find either the Democratic or Republican parties compelling. They register as unaffiliated.

Connecticut’s election process should belong to all the voters — not just to the Democrats or the Republicans.