This years election will set the tone for America, and its people for many year’s. Many folks laughed at me when I spoke of the choices between the republican party top contender Mr. Trump, and the democrat contenders of Clinton-Sanders.

Not so much laughing at me now. It really is an easy pattern to see. The old customs do not fit this time of history. The divisions between whole groups of people that will fight to keep their place, and the ones who demand to be recognized as having a place, are being played out.

National politics get the most attention, yet look at the local politics, and it too reflects the national conscious. For too long the old customs have held hostage the folks of this county, and from the last election results, the custom is changing. Old customs dictated that only certain family, and the name, were electable. In today's world, most folks don't know who the old family, or name is, and from my personal view, they don't care.

If anything, the old name is being held as an example of what isn't working. The voters realize there is more to being a citizen than just living in a certain geographical location, tied to old names.

Right here in Susquehanna county folks are seeing the "open for business" slogan, and only seeing business in the Boro of Montrose or Bridgewater Township. They start to think they live in another Boro or Township in this county, and do not see the economic development where they live. One starts to think that the gas wells are not in the Boro limits, but one would not know that after seeing all the improvements. This particular Boro has all new pavement surfaces, sidewalks and new traffic light patterns. There is a new hospital, feed stores and even a new chain business. As pro business as Susquehanna county people are, there are those who would like to see it’s elected realize we are here, outside of the limited parameters they work and live in. That is one sign of change.

Who would have thought that a young "outsider" was just 144 votes different than the majority commissioner? And word on the street is that she really didn't have a big budget for signage. The shift shows that big money can't save the chosen ones anymore. While this new gal may not have a Daddy War Bucks, she does have the confidence of her voters. There are those who think new ones are ignorant ones. What the old forgot is, at one time the old was new. And who doesn't like new things?

I believe that the time is here and now for change. Voters are looking to get away from the old grab and graft of yesterday's politicians. Sure, its a wonderful thing to live in a county that can boast being one of only two in the state that has a fully funded pension and health care plan for its court house rank and file. Some wonder, at what price for the few was the overlooking of the many?

We have ambition here. There are those who groom themselves for the next position without finishing the first elected job. What will that vacancy mean to the county folks? Who is the one who selects the person to finish the term? The county solicitor/commissioner? Votes by special election?

Where are the Democrats? There seems to be just one that is brought out for parades and photo opportunity, and not really for the purpose of governing. This is no time for a whole political party to not have anyone throwing in the hat for any of the offices that are coming up for election. It would be a grave political mistake to not recognize this new generation of active voters. These voters are pretty savvy with computers and opinions. They are also activists. Word is because they were raised by Generation X (1954-72), that has always been opinionated and active. If party idealism stands for the difference between the two political parties and the voters, one just has to see the current front running presidential democrats now. Even in this it is a split.

One is a woman with the experience of being a lawyer-activist. The wife of a president who sought her own political involvement thru health care on the national level. She served as the Senator from N.Y. and rounding off her resume, her last job was as Secretary of State. Mighty impressive by anyone's standards. The other is an Independent Senator from Vermont. He has served well, and for way too many years. This is also a very real issue that old school Politian's are failing to grasp. The up and coming will vote in term limits. Term limits on all the elected offices, not just the Presidents. There will not be members of Congress serving 40 years. Voters realize that congress are the ones who control how life for the citizen works, not the President. That has a trickle down affect. Long term state and local politicians will not stand either.

Yes indeed, a very exciting time to be a registered and active voter. If you are not, you still have until March 28, 2016 to register. There is an on-line site to voters of Pa. The name is: pavotes.com.

The beauty of being a responsible, and civic minded citizen of a country like this, is the ballot box. I hear the common complaint "my vote doesn't matter".

 If you believe that, you are mis-informed. While I understand the whole Electoral College, think back to election year 2000. Anyone hear the term "popular vote"? And in this county, every vote is counted. Doesn't that matter?

I also look forward to seeing the candidates come out and do the town hall meet and greets. Not all of them are well known outside of the tiny area of the state they hail from. I'd like to hear their opinions. I also would like to see a few high school debate teams moderate these gatherings. Heaven knows, we have all seen how a couple of bad moderators have turned the debates for President into a bully pulpit, and loss in ratings.

Hopefully this election cycle will give us the "shiny" politician, and not the lackluster, apathetic old school politician so many of us are "used" to.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

New Milford, Pa

Some 150 years ago the nation faced a crossroad. It was the presidential election of 1860. The Democratic Party was fractured into three irreconcilable divisions. They opposed a single Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln.

With a field of four, a full 60 percent of the ballots went to one of the three Democratic candidates. Only 40 percent of the votes were for Lincoln. He won the presidency by a narrow margin of elector votes. Lincoln became the president that the overwhelming majority of Americans did not want.

Forty-four days after the election, South Carolina seceded from the Union. So began a train of events that would lead to the deaths of 800,000 Union and Confederate soldiers and Americans.

Now the nation is again at a crossroad eerily similar to the first. This time, it's the Republican Party that has a three-way split: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. Will they eventually be able to unite against a single Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton? Probably, but the fault lines run deep and wide.

The seismic event that fractured the Republican plate was Donald Trump. Trump is the only presidential candidate to self-fund his campaign.

As a consequence, he is a contender for the Oval Office who speaks his mind, never mind what his party thinks or for that matter, what anyone thinks. Trump raised issues that revealed a long-standing disconnect between the entrenched political establishment and the electorate. A disconnect caused by a collaboration between Big Business and Congress.

The Faustian partnership began Jan. 1, 1994. President Bill Clinton handed the international business cartels what they dearly wanted, the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA). It was the internationals' Elysian Fields. Cheap workers readily available, no labor unions, no bothersome environmental concerns, and no pesky OSHA regs, a manufacturer's paradise.

The race to the bottom had begun.

The company that could move production facilities outside the US border, produce the cheapest products, cut every corner, send the finished product back into the states, avoid US taxes, and make the biggest profit would win.

It was a win-win association for Big Business and Congress. Big Business bought the legislation, and Congress pocketed the currency.

Big Business also wanted access to cheap domestic labor via the southern border. No problem.

During Obama's eight years 2.5 million illegals crossed over into the states. That was less than the 3 million illegals who swarmed into the states during the two terms of the Bush administration. Both parties supported an open-border policy that allowed entrance to 340,000 illegals/year for the past 16 years.

But that had consequences.

After 20 years, NAFTA cost one million American jobs, gutted our factories, created the rust belt, downsized the middle class, and caused wages to stagnate.

Last year the trade imbalance with Mexico was $58 billion; that is, we imported that much more from Mexico than we exported to it. Mexico also received $560 million in foreign aid from the US in 2013.

And there's the matter of remittances.

Illegals from Mexico send an annual $22 billion back to their country. If we include illegals from other South American nations, that's an additional $50 billion/year.

Add to all this the taxes that Mexicans and other illegals do not pay and the cost of social services that taxpayers foot, and the yearly tab for illegals easily tops $130 billion/year. (For simplicity's sake, we'll ignore the cost of crime.)

Trump wants to build a 1,000-mile long wall---not a go-around, jump-over, or dig-under fence---across the Mexican border. He insists that Mexico will pay the $10 billion cost. Mexico's ex-president Vicente Fox said, “I am not going to pay for the [expletive] wall.”

Little wonder that so many are supporting the man who will build the border barrier, collar that Fox and have Mexico pay for it, stop illegal immigration, bring the factories and jobs back to America, renegotiate unfavorable trade agreements, and Make America Great Again.

Meanwhile, the establishment GOP avoids discussing the crucial problems that confront the nation and frets about which label it should pin on Trump. Is the leading Republican candidate a true-false-fake-phony or occasional conservative?

Et tu Romney.

The twice-failed presidential opened the door for a third try in a brokered convention. Romney tested the waters in a speech that skewered not Obama, not Hillary, not the embedded invertebrates, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, but the front-runner of the Republican Party, Donald Trump.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

In 2008, the full implementation of the Saul Alinsky manifesto, “Rules for Radicals,” was put into operation. Candidates for high office used the Rules, “picking” supposed enemies, “freezing” them and then “polarizing” them. It all culminated in ridiculing them and finally, denigrating and destroying them. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain were among the prime targets - and casualties.

The same situation occurred in 2012. The “targets” this time were Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, the TEA Party, and conservative and religious organizations. TEA Party groups, and some religious organizations have enjoyed even closer application of the “Rules.”  For the TEA Party this has resulted in the denial of their applications for tax-exempt status.  For religious groups it was a denial of their exemption from Obamacare regulations that demanded religious groups forego their beliefs and pay for abortions and abortifascent drugs.

Since 2008 the current Washington cabal has told us repeatedly about how awful the United States has been to other nations around the world, how terrible the American people are, how cruel and uncaring we have been to our own citizens and how America’s place in the world should be diminished.

However, we have watched the cabal, in all its forms, claim victory as their promised “Stimulus Package” failed us completely. What about the other failures and scandals? What about “Cash for Clunkers,” Obamacare, Eric Holder and Fast and Furious, the IRS and Veterans’ Administration scandals, the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership, the Associated Press scandal, Healthcare.gov, Solyndra, faked unemployment numbers, Benghazi? What about the lack of a Federal Budget for 8 years, necessitating “continuing resolutions” passed by feckless legislators in Washington?  What about executive amnesty, and the illegal bypassing of regular order and the Constitution by using a “pen and a phone” to implement executive orders, actions and memos? We the People have watched how these and other schemes have destroyed Constitutional government, and turned a once great republic into a tin-pot dictatorship.

After having elected this savior who would fundamentally transform America, only to see her fundamentally dispirited and destroyed, we now arrive at a point in our history where another “savior” is presenting himself.

The 2015-2016 presidential race is undergoing an application of the same Alinsky rules. However, they are being implemented with greater force, precision and expertise than ever before.

Enter the “frontrunner” in the Republican presidential race. Fantastically wealthy.  Hugely popular. Best deal maker. Smartest businessman. Winning in all the polls. The only one able to make America great again! Or so he says.

If one looks closely, one can see that the new savior bears a striking resemblance to the old savior.  He’s a billionaire reality show huckster (as opposed to a community organizer); braggart (same as the old savior); narcissist (same as the old savior); and bully (again, same as the old savior).   Remember the “Big Lie?” The new savior has learned to use it to his advantage. The political party he is alleged to be aligned with presently (he has been member of at least three parties in his life, most times as a liberal Democrat), has not been able to stop this speeding train. They have not been able to tone down his rhetoric, clean up his language, add truth to his statements, and even they cannot find out what his political platform actually is. No one knows his foreign policy, and no one has seen any clear plans for actually “making America great again.” The only clear plans he has deal with curtailing the First Amendment, and that may be the only matter on which he has actually mentioned the Constitution and what’s in it. The establishment elites know that he can’t be controlled, and his supporters love it! One might even suppose that the establishment elite really desire that he is the final poll winner and vote getter. After all, he wouldn’t be able to beat Hillary, and they can all work with HER! Any other candidate would oppose them with a principled administration, and that just wouldn’t work!

To be sure, his current party affiliation is actually responsible for creating the monster he truly is. They have done so by abandoning the rule of law, fidelity to the Constitution, their oaths of office and their duty to the American people. They (the Republican ruling class) have helped this monster grow stronger with each insult they have dealt to the American people by way of caving in to the whims and calculated wiles of the current progressive administration. Because they have been unwilling, for at least the last eight years, to stand up for the values and laws they were elected to uphold, the people have sought refuge in someone willing to tell the Washington elite to literally go fly kites.  To say that We the People are angry is an understatement.  With few exceptions, every elected member of the governing elite, in the House, the Senate and the presidency, have ignored us, lied to us and deceived us.  They have, collectively, rendered themselves irrelevant by their capitulation to a “pen and a phone.”

This savior cannot be controlled because he does not need donor/establishment money - in fact, they have all been greedy and willing to accept his money. His appeal comes from his stating that he is not a politician, and he is right. He can BUY any politician he wants (and he has done so, by making big donations to them) so why would he become one and take a cut in pay? Why enter politics when he could buy any political party or politician he needs? Indeed, if any research is done into his campaign contributions, it becomes clear that he has heavily supported liberal, progressive Democrats as well as Republicans - all on the “take” and willing to make any “deals” that benefit themselves as well as the “savior.”

We have heard from this second savior about how his opponents are stupid, have low energy, are failures, liars, weak, ugly, have no friends and that nobody likes them - but nothing else. These are the same statements made by bullies in schoolyards. We have heard him bully candidates during debates. We have read and heard his vile attacks and seen his infantile outbursts at every one of his opponents (especially if they are near or surpass him in the polls) and we have been regaled by his foul mouth on too many occasions to be counted. “Uncouth” is a fitting description of this man. However, other adjectives serve to even better define him, such as a liar, cheat, unscrupulous, dishonest, deceitful, two-faced, greedy, fraudulent, paranoid - and we haven’t even touched on the particulars of his business dealings.

Those who still think we live in a civil society have been appalled by his actions, his demeanor and his temper tantrums. Surely, the office of President of the United States requires more sobriety, dignity - statesmanship, if you will - than that being offered by this foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, failed businessman (many times over!) Yes, he never personally declared bankruptcy, but his businesses have - at least four times, and yes, HE is the one who is owned by Wall Street Banks. Yet, he accuses others of being dishonest in their business dealings and “liars.” Civil society requires that the POTUS treat the leaders and citizens of this and other nations with respect and dignity. It is certainly to be expected from someone who claims that he is “friends with everybody.”

There are those of us who are sick and tired of hearing how he’ll make America great again, while acting like a spoiled brat and buffoon on the national - and now, international - stage. We are tired of his one liners without any substance, like, “I’m going to build a wall; Mexico will pay for it; China is at fault; Companies will come back to the U.S.; China’s eating our lunch...yadda, yadda, yadda.” We are tired of his faux “conservatism” and religiosity, with such outrages as how he’s being audited because he is a “strong Christian.” We are tired of his empty words and rants, with no substance and no plans.

You are entitled to vote for whoever you wish, but for the sake of the republic, and your children and grandchildren’s future, please do your own research into this new savior. There’s plenty available. For all those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, read and listen! Remember, too, that there has been only one Savior, but there have been countless false prophets.

Remember, too, that after WWI, Europe faced devastating economic and social upheavals. Nations were suffering, and no one seemed to be in control. Then along came “saviors” that promised “Hope and Change,” and that they would “Make Europe Great Again.” What they got from those “saviors” was a lot more than they bargained for - including WWII - and more misery. Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.

The truth regarding this second savior is available for all to see. Please pray to God, while we still have the right to do so, that we all wake up before Europe’s history becomes our reality.

Sincerely,

Edna K Paskoff

Montrose, PA

On Tuesday I heard a very disturbing radio show telling of the horrible crimes of priests against innocent children. This is not a new story, for Catholics know that Lucifer loves to stir such happenings into a frenzy of anger against the Church. Ever since the birth of Christ, untold numbers of people have suffered horribly at the hands of monstrous humans. For, seemingly impossible to believe, God does not take away a persons’ free will when they abuse it. He does, however, repay the victims 10 fold when they enter heaven. The fact that the Catholic Church has become the deep pockets for the unscrupulous and many of the allegations are false is never included in the stories. Also, many priests have suffered terribly for false accusations. The press is quick to print the allegation but you never see the follow-up, true story.

The Catholic Church has had monsters through the years, just as any group of humans has had monsters within them. Covering up the deeds of these monsters happens often in the name of “protecting” against scandal. But to blame the entire body for the sins of the guilty is not the way to stop such monstrosities. Who do we blame besides Herod for the death of the innocents at the birth of Christ? Do we blame all Germans for the atrocities committed by Hitler? Do we blame all Russians for the terror and death of millions Stalin brought about? Do we blame all Cambodians for the genocide of Pol Pot? And do we blame all Muslims for the monstrous crimes against humanity, especially Christians, now taking place by Muslims -or do we blame Isis and the Radical Muslims?

Some years back, in the name of compassion and noninvasive political correctness the Catholic Church eliminated some of its psychology tests given to young men wishing to enter the priesthood. This only insured passing some who had either latent or secret tendencies which led to this horrible story. I am sure some candidates even hoped to free themselves of such tendencies. There are no words that can explain away the many acts of pedophilia committed by Catholic Priests against innocent children. Being respected Priests intensifies the guilt. There is no compassion strong enough for the parents of such children. We must punish those who committed these horrible crimes and those who covered them up, thinking this the way to protect the Church.

Mother Teresa, in a public speech in the 80s told us that if we did not stop the killing of our innocent unborn our great country would die. I believe that the pedophilia by Priests and the dwindling parishioners in many Christian churches is a sign of the truth of her words. There are many millions of good Catholics, especially priests, who bring Christ to us daily, who should not be judged by the sins of monsters. Join us in prayer that these horrible sins committed by people of all faiths end and that America wakes up to its decline.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson Township