To the RP Editor:                                                                                    

In response to the article about Leah Vukmir’s visit to the UW-Whitewater campus prior to the election Nov. 6, if what is reported states her position clearly — and I have no reason to suspect it does not — she is probably now reflecting upon her choice to align herself with the Trump/Trumpism position about the Mexican border.

Her failure to correctly read the Wisconsin voters and focus upon the border wall and immigration over the economy, jobs, education and transportation issues led directly to her sound defeat.

Vukmir’s anecdotal statements about a few selected criminal acts fails to consider that in the recent past incidents, adult, white males have been responsible for killing multitudes of women, children and men. These were not illegal immigrants but home-grown criminals in Pittsburgh, Orlando, Las Vegas, etc. It is well to treat the individual incidents seriously, however, the mass-shootings deserve greater action, but are divorced from the real issues Wisconsin residents face every single day.        

There are many of her ideas one can debate but she tied herself to Trump and was handily defeated by Wisconsin voters in favor of Senator Baldwin. There may be a lesson in this.

–John Newhouse, Whitewater resident