To the editor: It is very disheartening to see our nation becoming more like the former Soviet Union rather than the bastion of freedom I knew it to be in earlier years.

DEAR HARRIETTE: I’m feeling really hurt and confused about a situation with a close friend of mine. We were close before we both moved to new cities. Since then, I’ve noticed that my friend never returns my calls or texts anymore. I’ve tried reaching out multiple times, leaving voicemails, sending texts and writing emails, but I rarely get a response. When I do hear back, it’s often brief and doesn’t lead to any meaningful conversation. This has left me feeling abandoned and wondering if I’ve done something wrong.

Ahandful of Republicans have referred to Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, as a “DEI hire.” They were essentially saying that President Joe Biden picked Harris to be his running mate in 2020 because she was a person of color. Democrats have, of course, pushed back, calling the phrase “extremely offensive and dehumanizing,” in the words of former U.N. Ambassador and Obama and Biden White House insider Susan Rice. Some Republicans, like former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, pushed back, too, calling the accusation “totally stupid and dumb.”

You do know that Donald Trump has never won a majority of the votes in any election, right? Hillary Clinton got 3.5 million more votes than Trump in 2016; Joe Biden beat him by 7 million in 2020.