A22 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, MAY 26 , 2022LETTERS TO THE EDITOR[email protected]MICHAEL DE ADDERABCDEFREDERICK J. RYAN JR.
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(202) 334-6000ABCDEAN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPEREDITORIALS“W
HY ARE we willing to live
with t his carnage? Why d o
we keep letting this hap-
pen? Where i n God’s name
is our backbone?” Those were the an-
guished questions of President Biden
hours after Tuesday’s massacre at an el-
ementary school in Texas. The same
haunting questions were asked after Col-
umbine, after Blacksburg, after Sandy
Hook, after Roseburg, after Charleston.
They w ill be a sked a gain, and y et a gain, as
long as Congress refuses to enact needed
gun s afety r eform.
Just 10 days after a man allegedly driv-
en by racism gunned down 10 Black peo-
ple at a Buffalo supermarket came the
murders of 19 children and two teachers
in a fourth-grade classroom at Robb El-
ementary School in Uvalde, Tex.
Among the victims of the deadliest
mass shooting at an American school in
nearly a decade: Xavier L opez, 10, who h ad
just made t he honor roll; Uziyah Garcia, 8,
remembered by his grandfather as the
“sweetest little boy that I’ve ever known”;
Eva Mireles, an educator for 17 years
whose daughter recently graduated fromcollege; and Irma Garcia, a teacher and
mother of four reported to have tried to
shield her students f rom t he gunman.
The shooting — one of a t least 24 a cts of
gun violence on K- 12 campuses so far this
year in w hich at l east 28 p eople h ave been
killed, according to a Post database —
came a day after a FBI report showing a
sharp increase last year in active-shooter
attacks nationwide. In 2020, for the first
time, firearms became the leading cause
of death for American children and teen-
agers, supplanting car a ccidents.
Yet Congress does nothing. The issue
has n ot been seriously debated since 20 13,
after 20 children and six staff members
were gunned down at Sandy Hook El-
ementary School in Newtown, Conn., in
December 20 12. Two proposals to expand
and strengthen background checks — re-
forms that have overwhelming support
from the American public — passed the
House in March of 202 1 but have lan-
guished in the Senate where 10 Republi-
can votes would be needed to overcome a
filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Charles
E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats areopen to negotiations with Republicans in
hopes of coming up with a deal on gun
control legislation. One can hope that the
horror in Uvalde has caused some soul-
searching among the Republican ranks.
Fortifying b ackground checks s hould be a
priority. So should legislation sponsored
by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that
would r aise the minimum age to purchase
assault weapons and high-capacity am-
munition magazines from 18 to 21.
The Texas gunman — like the shooting
suspect in Buffalo and so many others
responsible for mass slaughters — was a
teenager but able to purchase military-
style weapons because of a provision in
federal gun laws that requires someone to
be 21 to purchase a handgun b ut not a rifle.
After the Parkland s hooting in 20 18, Flori-
da’s GOP-controlled legislature passed
and then-Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed into
law a measure raising the minimum age
for p urchasing rifles to 2 1 years old. Surely,
Mr. Scott, now in the Republican leader-
ship of the Senate, should stand behind a
proposal he once championed. New laws
won’t prevent all mass shootings, b ut they
would s top s ome o f them. T hat’s a start.The same haunting questionsAfter so many mass shootings, will Congress ever see fit to act?THERE’S GOOD news for U. S. de-
mocracy: On Tuesday n ight, Geor-
gia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secre-
tary of State Brad Raffensperger,
both incumbents, won Republican pri-
maries to retain their offices, despite for-
mer president Donald Trump’s campaign
of retribution against them for their refus-
al to join his malign effort t o overturn the
state’s 2020 presidential election results.
Mr. Tr ump’s failure to convince Georgia
voters has rendered some of the scariest
202 4 election scenarios far l ess likely.
Mr. Kemp easily beat Mr. Trump’s h and-
picked c andidate, former U.S. senator Da-
vid Perdue, w ho declared d uring his cam-
paign against Mr. K emp that, had h e been
governor in 2020, he would have refused
to certify Joe Biden’s v ictory in Georgia. A
Gov. Perdue might have had the opportu-
nity to do something similar in 2024, and
then sent his own slate of presidential
electors to Washington, in defiance of the
people’s choice, based on lies about voter
fraud. Under the vague rules of the 1887
Electoral Count Act, a GOP House majori-
ty might h ave accepted t hem.
Even more valiant than Mr. Kemp in202 0 was Mr. R affensperger, w ho rejected
Mr. Tr ump’s claims about a stolen 2020
election, most dramatically during a call
in which the then-president asked him to
“find 11, 780 votes” — Mr. Tr ump’s 202 0
margin of l oss in Georgia. Mr. Tr ump ran a
vicious campaign against Mr. Raffen-
sperger, during which the Georgia secre-
tary of state had to fear for his safety and
that of his staff. Not only did Mr. Raffen-
sperger’s steadfastness prevail on Tues-
day, but his opponent, Tr ump-backed
election denier Rep. Jody Hice, will not be
in a position to “find” any votes for
Mr. Tr ump or any other candidate in 202 4.
Moreover, Tuesday’s Georgia primaries
attracted a notably large turnout, suggest-
ing voters were motivated to reject the
election deniers — and also assuaging
fears about the state’s new, more restric-
tive e lection law.
Yet Tuesday’s results do not mean that
the nation’s democratic system is out of
danger. Mr. Tr ump’s l ies have prevailed in
important races elsewhere — notably in
places where party candidates are select-
ed in conventions that are dominated by
far-right activists. Colorado Republicansoverwhelmingly backed Tina Peters, a
county clerk who has been indicted on
charges related to election security
breaches she allegedly committed while
trying to find nonexistent evidence of
voting f raud, to be Colorado’s s ecretary of
state. Michigan Republicans, picking
their choice for the state’s chief election
officer, embraced Kristina Karamo,
whose only relevant experience appears
to be her belief in Mr. Tr ump’s 2 020
election lies.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Doug Mastriano
won Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial
primary earlier this month, putting o ne of
the country’s most aggressive election
deniers in l ine to lead a major swing s tate.
From that position, he c ould try to use t he
fake presidential electors maneuver that
Mr. Perdue will n ot be able to attempt.
So there remains a hard core of Repub-
licans w illing to use the levers o f power in
ways that could be fatal to the country’s
democratic system. That is why, despite
the fact that sanity prevailed in Georgia,
Congress must revamp the Electoral
Count Act and bolster the nation’s infra-
structure of d emocracy.A good night for democracyIt prevailed in Georgia’s primaries, but there is still work to be done.THE BABY formula debacle has
taught the nation many lessons.
Among the most important is
how the Food and Drug Admin-
istration failed. The agency did an
insufficient job i nspecting and monitor-
ing formula factories. It reacted slug-
gishly to a whistleblower and to reports
of sick infants. And it neglected to take
timely action to prevent the shortage
after a major production plant closed in
February.
The timeline tells the story: Last Sep-
tember, the FDA made its first visit to
Abbott’s Sturgis, Mich., baby formula
plant during the pandemic and conclud-
ed the facility was not “in a clean and
sanitary condition.” Around then, the
Minnesota Health Department alerted
the FDA to a sick infant who consumed
formula from the Sturgis plant. In Octo-
ber, a whistleblower sent the FDA a
34 -page document alleging falsifying of
records and uncleanliness at the Sturgis
plant. (The agency says a “failure i n FDA’s
mailroom” prevented top officials from
seeing it for months.) More reports o f sick
babies arrived on Dec. 1 and Jan. 11. But
the FDA didn’t investigate the plant again
until Jan. 31, which is when it found
evidence of a bacteria deadly to infants.
Abbott shut down the plant and issued a
voluntary recall in mid- F ebruary — five
months after the initial red flags.
Four suppliers control almost all of the
U. S. baby formula market. The massive
drop in availability of Abbott formula
quickly led to a nationwide shortage, a
situation the FDA should have seen
coming. But not until mid-May did the
agency announce it would streamline the
onerous process for importing supplies
from abroad. (Formula is finally arriving
from Europe with more expected from
Britain in early June.)
The FDA needs an urgent overhaul of
its food safety division. In an extensivePolitico report last month, former acting
FDA commissioner Stephen Ostroff put
it bluntly: “The food program is on the
back burner. To me, that’s problem No. 1.”
FDA food investigations peaked in 2011
at 1 0,641 and have been falling ever since.
Beefing up inspections, staffing and
oversight must be a priority for FDA
Commissioner Robert M. Califf, who
received a blistering grilling Wednesday
on Capitol Hill.
Congress must also do its part to boost
funding and give the FDA clear oversight
authority, including requiring compa-
nies to report potential supply problems.
House Appropriations Committee Chair-
woman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) de-
serves credit for flagging FDA problems,
including the troubling lack of inspec-
tions, for years. The agency only has ninefull-time staff who review baby formula
reports. There are a handful of on-the-
ground inspectors, but only one special-
izes in infant formula manufacturing.
This is inadequate and highlights how
wrong it was for 192 House Republicans
to vote against giving the FDA a mere $28
million in additional funding.
Abbott is also at fault. While the
company likes to point out that the
bacteria found at t he plant did not match
the exact illness the infants had, it’s c lear
there were major problems at t he Sturgis
facility. Abbott leadership needs to do
more than say “we’re sorry.” More testing
at the facility is the minimum needed.
Many f ailures led to this crisis, and the
pandemic exacerbated them. But when
the FDA is not looking carefully, there are
serious and deadly consequences.The FDA is on the hookThe agency must be held to account for the baby formula crisis.SAMUEL CORUM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Shelves meant for baby formula sit empty in D.C. on Sunday.In her May 23 Style column, “What
Biden should say about abortion,” Moni-
ca Hesse made a very thoughtful argu-
ment as to why those who can become
pregnant should continue to have the
choice of seeking medical care and
intervention to end a pregnancy if they
decide they need to for whatever reason.
The only points I would add are that
we need better education in our schools
covering reproduction and sexuality as
well as better access to birth control.
Our young people deserve to be
equipped with facts so they can make
informed decisions about their bodies
and their behavior. This would decrease
the need for abortions, something I
think everyone can agree would be a
better outcome.
Sharon Altman , La PlataA way to reduce abortionsJason Willick argued that an unpopular
Supreme Court opinion should not give
rise to doubts about the court’s legitimacy
[“Sorry, b ut the court has no crisis of ‘legiti-
macy,’ ” op-ed, May 16]. Maybe it shouldn’t,
but his analysis a voided factors that might
lead reasonable people to question the
present court’s “legitimacy,” at least as it
relates to Roe v. Wade and the recent
leaked draft opinion that would overrule it.
The composition of the court has been
partly determined by a profoundly hypo-
critical Republican tactic: refusing to
move on Merrick Garland’s nomination
eight months before t he 20 16 p residential
election and then ramming through Amy
Coney B arrett’s c onfirmation a w eek or s o
before the 2020 election. Donald Tr ump
promised he would appoint justices who
would vote to overrule Roe. And he did
just that, after largely outsourcing the
selection p rocess to the Federalist Society
and i ts board member, prominent activist
Leonard Leo. The astonishing upshot is
that Roe , a holding that’s inconsistent
with the church’s position that life begins
at conception, is now being reconsidered
by a court with five devout conservative
Catholics (plus Justice Neil M. Gorsuch,
raised and e ducated Catholic).
Mr. Willick wrote that the court’s “legit-
imacy” depends on “the general accep-
tance o f its rulings.” Surely t hat requires a
belief that those rulings follow full and
fair consideration of legal issues by an
impartial body. If, on the other hand, the
public were to see the court as politically
engineered to ensure certain outcomes,
questions of “legitimacy” are very proper-
ly raised, Mr. Willick n otwithstanding.
Robert J. McManus , B ethesdaThe court’s legitimacyFareed Zakaria’s May 20 Friday Opin-
ion column, “President Biden has the
means to reduce inflation. Why isn’t he
acting?,” was heartbreaking at a time
when Russian troops are marauding
through Ukraine killing innocent civil-
ians. The idea that it is better for Mr. Biden
to focus on easy political wins with Chi-
nese tariffs is exactly the kind of logic that
Russian President Vladimir Putin count-
ed on when dealing with the West. For
decades, the l eaders of the f ree world have
been more interested in making deals
with d ictators t han c onsidering the conse-
quences to global order. Germany’s deci-
sion t o walk away f rom the Nord Stream 2
pipeline is admirable, but it took the
biggest war in Europe since World War II
to change the calculus. It is d isingenuous
to suggest that every single policy Presi-
dent Donald Trump enacted was a bad
one that should be reversed. Voters will
reward leaders w ho consider the f ull value
and implications of global policy.
Patrick Andrews , Fairfax StationIt’s telling that in calling for the repeal
of tariffs to combat inflation, Fareed Za-
karia never mentioned why penalty t ariffs
were imposed in the first place — to
address China’s unfair and predatory
trade practices — or the price we would
pay in lost jobs and leverage with China if
they were lifted. Tariffs didn’t cause infla-
tion, and cutting them isn’t the solution.
They give us a chance to compete and
trade negotiators a powerful tool to get
China to change its behavior.
As Josh Rogin wrote the same day in “A
concession to China that Biden can’t af-
ford to make” [Friday Opinion], removing
tariffs “would have little, if any, measur-
able effect on inflation.” But it would be a
surrender to China and send more Ameri-
can factories and jobs there. Let’s not t ake
a simplistic approach to inflation that
undermines U. S. firms and workers.
Kimberly Glas , Washington
The writer is president and chief
executive of the National Council
of Textile Organizations.The trouble with tariffsother DPC staff. We met again.
It was immediately clear to us that
Ms. Stefanik h ad special t alents and high
character, so, d espite her youth, I pushed
hard to have her hired as my assistant
managing the day-to-day work of the
DPC. She was one of my best hires. She
never let down the DPC, the president or
her country.
Mr. Bridgeland had left t he White H ouse
before this happened, and I don’t believe
he knows a whit about the darkness or
brightness of Ms. Stefanik’s soul. She is one
of today’s smartest and most principled
members of Congress. The current attacks
against her are opportunistic smears.
The discomfiture of Mr. Bridgeland,
Mr. Milbank and other antagonists might
stem from the fact that Ms. Stefanik’s
cherished principles are simply different
from theirs.
Karl Zinsmeister , Beaufort, S.C.Dana Milbank’s May 22 Sunday Opinion
column, “How a ‘bright light’ chose to take
a darker path,” laid out John Bridgeland’s
castigation of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).
I hired Ms. Stefanik for her first job in
the White House. At the time, I was serv-
ing as assistant to the president in charge
of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC). A
DPC staff member introduced me to a
visiting college friend: Ms. Stefanik. As w e
talked, I was impressed by her wisdom
and poise. I asked her to speak with someHow Ms. Stefanik got startedReading the May 20 Metro article “Re-
port knocks student performance” about
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) mis-
leading claims of underperformance by
Virginia students (who actually outper-
form national averages) and his alarm over
unspecified “age-inappropriate” teaching,
left me with a disturbing d eja vu.
I’m recalling Mr. Youngkin’s campaign
in which he disparaged Virginia’s eco-
nomic performance (despite its “Best State
for Business” CNBC rating and other high
rankings) and promoted unsubstantiated
claims that critical race theory was being
taught in our public schools.
There are two tactics here. The first
involves the use of dubious statistics to
discredit legitimate economic and educa-
tional achievements of the prior Demo-
cratic administration, which also has the
added benefit of lowering the bar for
achievement by the Youngkin administra-
tion. The second is the use of inflammatory
allegations to sow fear and anger toward
the current public educational system, un-
dermine its legitimacy and create demand
for significant change. These tactics might
yield short-term points with partisan audi-
ences, but they also recklessly politicize
and undermine trust in our public educa-
tional system and educators and risk long-
term damage to institutions of learning on
which much of Virginia’s future success
ultimately depends.
Mr. Youngkin was elected on promises
to be a uniter. Governor, in educational
parlance, i t’s time to “show your work.”
James A. Lindsay Jr. , ArlingtonShow your work, Governor