To the Editor:

A person who calls people names is a bully. We have heard our current president malign everyone who does not agree with him. He gives his opponents monikers like crooked and sleepy. It is interesting that no one stoops to give it back to him.

Melania Trump decided to have an anti-bullying platform as First Lady. Anything she says against bullying seems to be a challenge to her husband, and whenever possible he undermines her efforts to eliminate bullying by actually promoting it.

Our local congresswoman has decided that if bullying can work for the president, it might work for her too. She likes to call her opponent, taxin’ Tedra. While she may think this is funny and a way to endear herself to some of her constituents, it shows the weakness of her character.

If you want to show that you are the better candidate, advertise your record and what you plan on doing in the coming term. Much like our president, Ms. Stefanik does not have a health care plan. She talks about some of the Affordable Care Act’s popular characteristics, but she and the president have not come up with their own plan to offer to the American people.

Rather than tying up the Supreme Court in trying to dismantle our current plan piece by piece, why not offer up a new plan that people will flock to? This current administration has had four years to propose a plan to be scrutinized on its own merits, but it has let the opportunity slip away … why?

Ms. Stefanik criticizes Ms. Cobb for not being out in public during the COVID-19 crisis. She herself was not out in public in Northern New York prior to the crisis. She never gave a heads up on where she was going to be so her constituents could show up to ask her questions.

She did find the time to tag along with the president to Tulsa to demonstrate her lack of concern for the health crisis by going mask-less. She knew she would not see any of us there during a pandemic.

I encourage people to look at the character of the two candidates running to represent Northern New York. Which one will look out of the well-being of the people in our region, and which one will use us as a stepping-stone to improve her own standing in the political world?

Tony Beane

Canton