Andy Barr’s most recent and most offensive ad will lose him Christian votes | Opinion

Extremist Barr

Dear U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. - As a Christian, which incidentally means “Christ like,” I find your current commercial particularly offensive. Your inference that a person who believes in the equality of and has compassion for all people (woke) is non-Christian is completely incorrect.

Jesus Christ preached of love and compassion for all people, and I still live by His teachings. I am disappointed that you have taken up the extreme rhetoric of the current administration in your pursuit of political success. I have voted for you in the past ,but I no longer will.

Debi Pattie, Lexington

Shame on Barr

Andy Barr - “Dumb, Evil, Indoctrination?” Your latest ad is pathetic. Where do you find it is a sin for being white? Where is it against the law to be male? When have you EVER been disqualified for being a Christian? Complete baloney. I would rather be “woke” and understand my country’s history than deny and erase. You are pandering to only one person and his base. Shame on you.

Lesli D. Nickell, Nicholasville

Barr’s new ad gets Christianity wrong

Barr thinks he’s so funny in his effort to appease the tarnished idol he worships. It isn’t wrong to be a Christian, but it is a sin to manipulate the Word to lead Christians astray. The Holy Bible warns against it. He must think God is dumb since God’s creation is diverse. He must think Christ’s teachings are evil indoctrination since Jesus taught equality and inclusion. Barr and Trump and his goons might consider reading the Beatitudes and Matthew 23:31-46. To paraphrase: What one does for or to the least, they do for or to God. We were all created in God’s image, not just white men. The longer Barr is in office, the less sympathy and empathy he exhibits. It’s time our Republican leaders found a backbone and a conscience and quit toadying to Trump.

Glenna Brouse, Lexington

SAVE Act

I attended a recent town hall with our congressional representative and left deeply concerned about how the SAVE Act was presented.

The legislation was framed as a straightforward election integrity measure. However, the proposal would require in-person documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, a significant change to current law.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, millions of voting-age American citizens do not have immediate access to documents such as a passport or a birth certificate that reflects their current legal name. This disproportionately impacts married women who have changed their names, as well as our oldest seniors, rural residents, and low-income voters.

Non-citizen voting in federal elections is already illegal under federal law. Multiple analyses, including data from the Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database, show such cases are rare.

If the problem is statistically insignificant, why is the solution so sweeping?

Voting is a constitutional right. Any policy that risks disenfranchising eligible citizens should be debated honestly and transparently. Our community deserves clear answers about how many lawful voters could lose access under this proposal; what safeguards exist to prevent that outcome?

Election integrity and voter access are not mutually exclusive. We should expect both.

Kari Greene, Lexington

DOJ Lawfare

The U.S. Department of Justice seems to have been weaponized as a political instrument of retribution for the Trump Administration, and appears to be an illegitimate prosecutorial instrument not for the people and for their protection or for any actual justice. It is a standing mockery and contempt of the judiciary of our nation.

No honorable federal judge, trusted and in faith with their Oaths, can indulge the DOJ with good faith. Such claims are bereft of genuine respect for the court, rife with malfeasance, mismanagement, malpractice, and malicious prosecution, to such a systemic degree that no case the DOJ under Bondi or Blanche could bring would do anything other than waste the time of the court that does not at first question even the semblance of its merit.

The Federal Judiciary should hold council with each other to determine remedies for this institutional vacuum of both legitimacies, competence, ethics and the plethora of unscrupulous injustice. As for the U.S. Supreme Court ... insistence on Congressional Review and impeachment of some Supreme Court Justices, may be without precedent, but are still warranted.

Robert Moreland, Lexington

Empathy

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, complains that we are “in an age of progressive suicidal empathy.”

Empathy is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another,” so I’m not exactly sure what Roy means. Progressives are killing ourselves by understanding and caring too much about others? Well… having empathy does make life pretty hard these days with American citizens being shot in the streets by our own government, women being pulled out of their cars and thrown to the ground by government agents, young children being sent to squalid detention centers far from home, unidentified boats in the Caribbean and Pacific being blown to bits, noncitizens being called “trash” and no longer able to unite with their families here in accordance with the law.

So, is empathy a bad thing? Are we hurting ourselves and others by being able to understand what it must feel like to stand in the shoes of these folks? Is too much empathy the real problem at the heart of the chaos we are living through?

I think not. The chaos will end when we stop sending supporters of President Donald Trump to represent us in Congress.

Marilyn Daniel, Versailles

Senior caregiver assistance

Every week in Kentucky, I meet parents in their late 70s and 80s who are still providing daily care for their adult children with disabilities. Many of those adult children are in their 50s.Their bodies are failing. Lifting is unsafe. Bathing is dangerous. Transfers put everyone at risk. Yet these parents keep going, not because they can, but because they believe there is no other choice.

That belief is quietly harming families across our state. I hear the same things on repeat:

“I was told the waiting list is 20 years, so I never applied.”

“Someone said my child cannot get help until I am gone.”

“I am 82 years old, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Here is what aging caregivers deserve to know: you do not have to wait until you die for your child to receive help. Kentucky has multiple support programs with different eligibility rules and timelines. Some families wait years. Others qualify sooner than expected.

Aging parents should not suffer in isolation. The question is not whether these families need help. It is whether we will make sure they know help exists before it is too late.

Samantha Harrison, Founder, Momentum Family Strategies, Florence

Bondi outburst

We were recently treated to our nation’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, pitching a full-throated playground hissy fit during her recent Congressional appearance.

When asked if she was investigating people in the Epstein files, she started yelling about the stock market. I’m sorry Ms. Bondi, but there’s already a Fed chair nominee. You should have spoken up sooner if you wanted the job. When asked if she would apologize to victims who were standing behind her, she said she would not get in the gutter. I suppose for some people admitting fault and taking responsibility is the equivalent of being in the gutter.

If you still have any doubts about the people working in this administration this should more than clear them up. The mid-terms are coming...vote!

Jay Hopkins, Frankfort

Working for ICE

I just heard on social media that President Donald Trump’s newly recruited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are not receiving the pay and health benefits Trump promised them.

It gets worse. That $50,000 sign on bonus? Trumps recently hired ICE recruits will not receive that $50,000 in one lump sum! Oh no! They will receive their $50,000 sign on bonus in yearly $10,000 incremental payments! $10,000 lousy dollars per year!

And it gets even worse! If they get fired or quit over the next five years, THEY HAVE TO PAY THE MONEY BACK!

This is what happens when you make deals with habitual liars who have a proven track record of not paying people what they owe them. This is what happens to people who sell their souls for money! That’s why they don’t want to remove their face coverings! They know they’re breaking the law and violating people’s constitutional rights! Watch them quit in droves when it’s decided that they have to work without masks and have to wear body cameras! If they quit, there goes their “SUCKER!” bonus money!

“What was your most recent job?”

“I worked for ICE.”

“You worked for ICE?”

That’s going to go over really well! SUCKERS!

Yolanda Averette, Lexington

Voters’ legacy

People running for office say in ads he/she will do what President Donald Trump tells them to do; they are Christian and are not a politician.

The candidates hope voters want someone who cannot think for themselves and will do what they are told to do by Trump. The candidates and those like them in office are not leaders but followers. These candidates have no integrity, no empathy, and no ability to hear or want the truth. Those are qualities of a good leader and Trump has none of those qualities.

George H. Bush once asked Ronald Reagan during a primary debate — Where’s the beef? Voters need to ask candidates the same. What are their answers in regard to healthcare and housing costs and other issues families must deal with daily? They do have answers on how to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations. For these candidates, corporate welfare is good, while people’s welfare is costly.

How will your children and grandchildren judge you years from now? Will your legacy be “I just did what I was told to do as people died because they could not afford healthcare, housing, food and shot by the gov’t for no reason?”

MerryLynne Lincove, Lexington

Legislating discrimination

It is becoming harder each day to recognize our state and our country. The latest example of the blight that is impacting our democracy is the recently introduced Senate Bill 72. This is one of a number of legislative attempts in recent years to pass laws that give people permission to discriminate and show prejudice toward those whose beliefs may be different from yours. Like most such attempts, it has been disguised as a bill that protects sincerely held religious moral, or ethical principles held by health care professionals. In actuality, it just provides an opportunity to express hate and disgust toward those who are different. Although this is a bill that is quite flawed, don’t fail to recognize the true intent.

There is a common thread through all such attempts to legalize discrimination and prejudice. EVERY attempt carries a Republican signature. That should tell you that we should be very concerned about what the Republican Party has become.

Remember in November.

William Farnau, Lexington

Resolving FCPS issues

Headlines about public education in Fayette County, indicate an investigation has been complete. However, there is no indication or proof that problems (financial deficient or personnel issues) have been resolved!!!

There is nothing in the report to indicate there is any effort to resolve the issue or balance the budget. Construction continues on buildings that have questionable uses. Lights are on in empty buildings at night on Harrodsburg Road. There are individuals making six (6) figure salaries in the central offices. No consideration has been given on what to do with food not used while the district was closed for two weeks.

It looks like Superintendent Liggins and Chairman Murphy are asleep at the wheel during snowstorm and before.

1. There does not seem to be any communication with the City of Lexington regard street and road clearance.

2. There does not seem to be any communication with principals regarding distribution of Chromebook or computer for students when they cannot get to schools.

3. There seems to be no direction from the Board to Superintendent Demetrius Liggins during this time of crisis regarding these problems.

Paul L. Whalen, Fort Thomas

Edited by Liz Carey

This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 10:15 AM.