Murray State historian Ken Wolf has written about the lowering of DQ standards, which refers to the Decency Quotient (not the Dairy Queen). You need thick skins to be in politics, but the angry, hostile, and hateful charges being used against one’s opponents in politics today seems worse than ever. Americans of all political stripes are concerned that the lower Decency Quotient is turning us into warring camps or even cults with little or no understanding of each other.

Not all politicians are guilty. When President Biden finally (and thankfully) stepped down, the Republican Mike Pence generously and graciously focused on the good Biden had done during his long career. But CNN fact-checkers found 13 “false, misleading, or lacking-key-context” statements by speakers over the four hours of Monday’s opening Democratic convention. Former President Trump, however, set a Guinness World Record against decency in his one-hour press conference on August 8. An NPR study found that in that hour he uttered “162 lies and distortions.” Trump repeatedly referred to Vice President Harris as the appointed “Border Czar” responsible for the mess at the border.

Harris was never named or called “Border Czar” by Biden or anyone else.  The president did ask Harris to try to address the root causes of our serious border problems. She then went to and spent time talking with leaders in the Latin American countries immigrants were fleeing from. She subsequently secured commitments of $5 billion from private U.S. and multinational companies to boost the economies of those countries.

In your August 17-18 issue you published a letter by Danvillian Eben Henson. In his letter Henson not only echoed, but amplified one of the 162 lies and distortions in Trump’s press conference. Henson wrote about Kamala Harris’ failure as President Biden’s appointed “Border Czar.”

Beginning in 2021 a bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators and Representatives worked very hard and long to come up with a compromise, bi-partisan plan to stop the unsustainable influx of illegal immigrants. Three of the four congressmen were from states most affected by the problems: Senators John Cornyn (R – Texas) and Krysten Sinema (D – Arizona) and Representatives Tony Gonzales (R – Texas 23) and Henry Cuellar (D – Texas 28).

Last February key elements of their extensive plan to fix the border problems were part of the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, a bi-partisan compromise that would have brought about the strongest border enforcement in 30 years. Senator McConnell and other Republicans saw its value. Trump then allegedly convinced Republican congressmen who feared his increasing power to kill the bill (NBC: Republicans kill border bill in sign of Trump’s strength). Why? Because it would have allowed Congress to solve the problem Trump depended on to incite his MAGA base (immigrants are “vermin who drain the blood of our country,” Trump said)—as he used the ‘stolen election’ lie for the “Hang Mike Pence” crowd on January 6.

With Congress unable to pass any border legislation, Biden issued an Executive Order that went into effect June 5. That month there were fewer monthly apprehensions in any month since January 2021, the month Biden took office. The trend continues.

Can we all reduce the unsubstantiated personal attacks and have more decency and respect when discussing important national issues?  Can we raise the Decency Quotient?

— Milton Reigelman, Danville