‘Who Is Left to Counterbalance the Extreme Partisanship?’
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Version 0 of 1. Here are the top 10 comments of the week on our digital platforms, as selected by our readers and the journalists who moderate nearly every comment. 1. Comey’s 11th-hour letter to Congress is perfectly in line with the chaotic, aggressive and truth-free tone of this dispiriting election. That he was under duress is clear, although it’s not clear from whom. Whatever the truth (I use the term lightly), his actions have undermined the people’s faith in the apolitical agencies tasked to safeguard the nation and protect its people. In times of deep anxiety, and of such importance, this was a failure of epic proportions. Who is left to counterbalance the extreme partisanship running riot in America, and with every chance that it could worsen as people exult or despair? The F.B.I., led by Mr. Comey, had one simple duty. Maintain control, guarantee continuity & safeguard America. They have failed, spectacularly. — LC in France, reacting to an article about the letter sent by James B. Comey, the director of the F.B.I., to Congress about the bureau’s renewed inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails. This comment received more than 1,900 reader recommendations. 2. So we wait until after Clinton is elected, and then the F.B.I. tells us the investigation was open, and then they indict Clinton, and she gets convicted, and we find out that we elected a felon because the F.B.I. kept silent? Sure, great idea. — Jay Washington in New York. 3. The irony of this is, Trump supporters complain that the tax code is so complex and convoluted that only these tax professionals can successfully navigate it. But it is maneuvers like these that necessitate a complex tax code in the first place! Unfortunately the I.R.S. can’t just say, “Don’t claim losses of other people’s money,” because people like Trump find ways to redefine “other people’s money.” So the I.R.S. has to create new laws and language to prevent it. The tax code didn’t start out complex. The complexity was created by cheats. — Al in Texas, reacting to an article about Donald J. Trump avoiding years of federal personal income taxes via a legally dubious maneuver. 4. I am a college student and a Donald Trump supporter and I decided to read your article. Thanks for not calling his supporters stupid, racist, xenophobic. We all want the same thing, which is to keep America moving forward. I personally believe, though, that four more years of an establishment president will do nothing for this nation. Hillary is corrupt. I’m sorry to say it, but she terrifies me. I could stomach some “mistakes” because no one is perfect, but she is ... extreme. The emails, Benghazi cover-up, D.N.C. primary rigging, silencing Bill’s accusers, these are not “mistakes.” This is corruption. I’d rather have a presidency where the direction is kind of a question mark over a presidency that will keep America chugging in the same (wrong) direction. — Cecilia in State College, Pa. 5. The Cubs’ win unfolded as a beautiful, balletic contest. It was cathartic, as though all the tension and anxiety that have built up in this grimy election year shifted for a few hours to the honored national game. Close-up shots of the fans showed people with tightly folded arms, nail-biting, praying, clutching rosary beads, compressing lips, grinding teeth, clenching jaws — and bursts of hope that could not be held in any longer. It was a brilliantly played game between two strong teams telling us decency and fair play still exist in this country. — Dressmaker, reacting to an article about the Chicago Cubs’ World Series championship, their first in 108 years. 6. Went to my first Cubs game 60 years back when I was 4 years old. My dad was a lifelong Cubs fan born in 1909, the year after the Cubs last won the World Series. He hopped on a freight car in Bathgate, N.D., in 1932 to travel to Chicago to watch the Cubs lose the World Series to Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees. Thank you Cubs for finally winning one for Dad. May he rest in peace. — Grady Foster on The Times’s Facebook page. 7. Such wonderful irony. The British people vote to “take back control” and restore sovereignty to Parliament, and then they complain when Parliament tries to exert this sovereignty to stop the autocratic whims of the government. — Josh Boulton in Syracuse, reacting to an article about a court ruling in Britain that Parliament must rule on the British withdrawal from the European Union before the process begins. This comment received more than 180 reader recommendations. 8. I had a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer at age 29. I am a head and neck surgeon. I think there is an enormous price — financial, physical, psychological — to breast reconstruction and that it is overlooked. Too often women are not offered a full choice: mastectomy without reconstruction should be a choice. Surgeons are often men and are themselves in psychological conflict by letting women go without reconstruction. We have to be conscious of this phenomenon and help women have true power over their bodies. — Dr. Valerie Julie Brousseau in Montreal, reacting to an article about women who opt against reconstructive breast surgery following a mastectomy, a process termed "going flat.” This comment received more than 560 reader recommendations. 9. A standard piece of advice about decisions is that important ones should not be made in times of traumatic upheaval. Little is more traumatizing than losing one’s breasts, forcing a decision so intimate, so personal: whether or not to reconstruct and how. Yes, it is odd that these are not the breasts I grew in adolescence. But I could not have predicted how grateful I am to have them. And that’s the sorrow: that in the throes of diagnosis and surgery it is nigh on to impossible to know how we will feel being reconstructed or breastless in a year or three. — Elophant in Roque Bluffs, Me. This comment received more than 230 reader recommendations. 10. I went to Trader Joe’s one of the first weekends I moved to my new city. I had never been there before and I was really tight on money, and told the cashier where I wanted him to stop ringing stuff up. To my amazement, he rang up most of my groceries at 10 cents apiece. I couldn’t express enough how grateful I was, and he just shrugged it off with a smile. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. — Leslie Bullock on The Times’s Facebook Page, responding to an article about how workers at Trader Joe’s, including one who says he was fired for lacking a “genuine” smile, have complained about their treatment and of safety lapses. |