What’s wrong with the Democratic Party? “Leaders” are calling for Democratic voters to unite and focus on defeating Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers in November. But I don’t hear the strongest voices that endorsed Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
Where is the endorsement now for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer? Or from former senators Debbie Stabenow and departing U.S. Sen. Gary Peters? Or Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer?
It’s time for the the most important leaders of the Democratic Party to get vocal, and get active. Leadership, action, money and support are needed from the very top, starting now, to win this Senate election and show that the Democratic Party is fighting to improve the lives of millions of us who struggle in an economy that is leaving behind 90% or more of Michiganders, while the wealthiest households and corporations get richer and richer.
Larry Lipton
Bloomfield Township
The Republican Party carries the shovels
The result of the Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate primary will affect the entire country, including myself. Democrats had a narrow path to a Senate majority and the end of rubber-stamp approval of Trump nominees, but it seems that the majority of Michigan Democratic voters preferred to let Trump have whatever loyal kooks he prefers as underlings and nominated a too-extreme-to-win candidate.
I continue to be astonished by the inability of many voters to think strategically and see the big picture. Preventing the Trump regime from having two more years to unobstructedly tamper with the federal government was job one. Trump and his allies are entrenching themselves, using obscure, forgotten laws and extra-legal means as required. The more time that they have to dig, the less chance there is that they can be pried from power. On Tuesday, the majority of Michigan Democratic voters handed the Republicans more shovels.
Curt Fredrikson
Mokena
Michigan’s making a national political figure
From southern New England, I am reading the Free Press’s reporting about the Democratic U.S. Senate primary election with great interest. The results will say much about the volatility of American politics at a time when we live in an unsettled world and attempt to cope with widespread economic stress. Michigan’s primary will be more telling than the election of democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City last November. (Editor’s note: Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is not a democratic socialist.)
I live in the nearby suburbs and make two points. First, Mamdani won convincingly against three unlikable opponents. Second, NYC’s political culture is idiosyncratic; no mayor of the city has been elected to higher office in over 150 years. Mamdani’s tenure might be neither long nor influential. In contrast, Michigan is a large, diverse state. If a democratic socialist wins a Senate election there, he immediately becomes a national political figure. As Michigan goes, so goes the nation? It’s possible.
Steven Berizzi
Norwalk, Connecticut
We have to continue fighting the most important battle
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democratic primary was a win for a proud tradition of Midwestern non-interventionism. This ideology has been expounded by a diverse bunch, including Sen. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, and historian William Appleman Williams, among many others. Rather than waste blood and treasure on foreign entanglements, they (and El-Sayed) recognize the most important battle is to be fought at home: The fight to give everyone a decent living.
Hank Kennedy
Hazel Park
Article about Ann Arbor activist was disappointing
I was disappointed with the recent Free Press article by Natalie Davies about a well-known and highly controversial activist, Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, and her recent trip to Iran. (“Ann Arbor woman recounts being in Iran for months during war,” Detroit Free Press, July 10.)
This article reads more like a personal travelogue or op-ed rather than a news item. It provides one Iranian-American perspective – no other local Iranians or Israelis are interviewed about the impact of this conflict, and it omits key facts and context. For example, since 2024 the Iranian regime has launched roughly hundred of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at civilian centers in Israel.
Iran has also launched thousands of missiles and drones at Arab countries in the Gulf and even towards Cypress. As recently as July 14, an elderly man in Haifa succumbed to his wounds and died after being hit by shrapnel from an Iranian missile targeting the civilian population of Haifa.
The article then shifts gear to provide Ms. Savabieasfahani a platform for her attacks on Israel. She is not an expert on Israel/Palestine issues, and – again – no context is provided for her claims. Beginning many years before Oct. 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza, Ms. Savabeiasfahani has been a regular provocateur at Ann Arbor City Council meetings – often disrupting local council matters with her outrageous statements about genocide.
The article ignores that Israel’s war in Gaza – which has exacted a disturbing toll on the local population and infrastructure – was the direct result of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in which over 1,200 people, mostly civilians were slaughtered. This attack included mowing down hundreds of young men and women at the Nova Festival, raping dozens of others, burning people in cars, murdering parents in front of children and children in front of parents and many other atrocities. Much of this attack was recorded by Hamas terrorists with pride.
The article makes no mention of the thousands of rockets, missiles and drones sent by Hezbollah from Lebanon beginning October 8, 2023. These attacks targeted Israeli civilians in the North forcing the evacuation of over sixty thousand Jewish and Arab Israelis from northern Israel.
Ms. Savabieasfahani is quoted longing for an end to “genocide” and war, with absolutely no evidence that either the United States or Israel aims to wipe out an entire people.
Many Iranians have supported this war, understanding that the current regime is a danger to its own people. It is irresponsible to call every war against terrorists and rogue regimes ‒ like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran – “genocide,” and it is irresponsible to give a platform to someone like Ms. Savabieasfahani without contextualization.
Sadly, providing such an unchecked platform for someone who vilifies and demonizes people with whom she differs contributes to the intolerant extremism we are seeing in our social and political spheres.
I am disheartened that the Free Press published this poorly conceived article.
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
The writer is director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Gretchen Whitmer, Gary Peters must endorse Abdul El-Sayed | Letters
Reporting by Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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