Letters to the Editor: Trump 01.19.17

For Inauguration Day

(Apologies to “Paul Revere’s Ride”)

 

Listen my children and you shall hear

Over and over, you have nothing to fear

Our fanciful tale has an unlikely start

With the geniuses who toil and work at Breitbart

 

They needed a man with neither conscience nor heart

Who could be trusted to play such a part?

They thought and they thought and they finally decided

It could only be someone who’d just been derided

 

When Donnie J threw his hat in the ring

They said he’s the one, he’s got so much bling!

In a golden tower lived this golden man

Who should have just been a flash in the pan

He was in over his head right from day one

But the press didn’t care, he was just too much fun

They would gather and laugh at the absurdities he said

Then put it all out there, the beast had to be fed

 

Wall to wall coverage, he was ratings gold

His outbursts and excesses, they never got old

Slowly but surely things turned around

And before you knew it, he was no longer a clown

 

At rallies his people would holler and hoot

Anything of substance would be rendered moot

“Celebrity Apprentice” had helped cast a spell

Lo and behold we had the candidate from hell

 

Now the day is here and all are falling in line

To honor him and banish all things sublime

But we cannot let this one man define

All that is our country, all that is our time

 

For in this hour of darkness and peril and need

Let us raise a cry of defiance and never to heed

The misguided voices that urge our support

For a man who only ever has one retort

 

“You’re fired!” he says, let it ring throughout the land

But Donnie, haven’t you heard, you’re the one we want canned

C. DEISTLER

Fingitis

East Hampton

January 16, 2017

To the Editor,

Fingitis (fin-guy-tis): A new study just released by the renowned journal Mad Hatter Science and Other Nonsensical Matters has concluded that a new condition, previously unknown to civilization, has just been exposed. 

This condition is predominantly affecting large portions of the population. The populations most affected: prepubescent and teenage males, as well as a surprising result, older men. It is apparent that this condition is especially common in the online applications Twitter and Facebook. 

Affected people have been found to type comments and post in an apparent disconnect from their brains. A person’s fingers just type inane, offensive, and just plain nasty comments before their brains have had a chance to reflect or consider their effect on others. 

Mad Hatter’s scientists stated that they understood how this could happen in prepubescent and teenage males, as they have still developing brains and are prone to talking without thinking. Scientists state that the problem in older men (defined as over 70) requires more study but could be the result of brain deterioration, which occasionally appears in the older generation. However, not all older people are affected.

The study calls the condition “fingitis,” as the fingers act before the brain can intercede. Mad Hatter is hopeful that it will receive federal funding to study this condition further and possibly seek a cure, but the study’s authors doubt a cure is possible, especially in the elderly.

When asked for comments from the United States Department of New Scientific Information, its only comment was, “We are too busy building a wall, proving that there is no global warming, and trying to kill millions of kids by debunking vaccines to consider this right now.”

Maybe next term.

Stay tuned for further developments.

KEN DODGE

The Other End

East Hampton

January 16, 2017

To the Editor:

John Lewis is a true American hero. The Donald is at the other end of that spectrum.

STEPHEN GROSSMAN

The National Scandal

Springs

January 12, 2017

Dear David,

When the Watergate break-in occur­red, I was working in the office of the Democratic National Committee. As a volunteer, I helped drive around members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (they had a room at the D.N.C.) to speak to various groups in Washington, D.C. I remember driving to American University with the “Born on the Fourth of July” author Ron Kovic (who was in a wheelchair). 

The morning after the break-in at the D.N.C. Watergate office, I remember that it was treated by the D.N.C. staff as a typical political prank. They determined that nothing of any value was even there to be taken. People laughed about it. 

McGovern was running against Nixon, and he won the popular vote in Washington. On Nixon’s inaugural day, I flew out of Washington to go to graduate school (in disgust, because it was becoming clear to me that the president had been involved in dirty tricks, and, worse, in an illegal cover-up), and I could see from the plane that the polluted, brown Potomac River appeared to have been dyed green to impress incoming dignitaries.

At grad school I would watch in the common room every minute of the Watergate hearings, and I continued to receive my daily subscription to the Washington Post, albeit a day late. I decided never to go back to Washington, where I had been groomed for a position working for the government. 

I am fearful, and I suspect that we will have a repeat of the national scandal — a repeat of “All the President’s Men” — because Trump exhibits the same ego-driven paranoia and vengefulness of Nixon, but highly amplified. 

SUSAN HARDER

His Wonderfulness

Amagansett

January 15, 2017

Dear David:

I am writing to say why I think Donald Trump is the most dangerous man to become president in my lifetime.

I should start by saying I voted for McCain in 2008, though I had no problem with Obama, just as I voted for Obama in 2012 though I had no problem with Romney. I voted for Hillary Clinton despite misgivings, and would’ve been content if Kasich, Rubio, or Jeb Bush won. 

I support a secure border by any means, am a firm supporter of Israel, and believe radical Islam is the evil of our time. I believe the war against radical Islam is the defining conflict of this generation, and, tragically, those to come. I believe it may drag much of Islam into a clash of civilizations with the West and other democracies in the years to come. 

Though I recognize and applaud those Muslims who have adopted Western values of tolerance and inclusiveness, fought and died for this country, or been slaughtered by jihadists here and abroad, I am appalled by the silence about terrorism emanating from too many mosques, which bespeaks an acquiescence in, if not acceptance of, evil. I don’t want racists, fascists, communists, or those who support Shariah law in this country — and in this country, not to mention the world, many Muslims believe in it. 

I applaud the selection of General Mattis. I understand we often have to work with the bad guys to get the other bad guys that more immediately threaten us. How to address the threat from radical Islam is complex — the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia that fuels Al Qaeda and the Taliban, or the Shiite madness propagated by Iran and Hezbollah, both of which want to destroy us. I realize we employed the two greatest murderers in history, Mao and Stalin, as allies because the immediate threat was Tojo and Hitler. 

Though I disagree with many of his policies, my disgust is with the man himself. This is a president-elect who refused to say whether he would honor the results of the election. Like a child who threatens to take his football home if he isn’t allowed to be quarterback he acted like no other candidate in my lifetime ever had. 

F.B.I. Director Comey, in contravention of all precedent, announced a baseless investigation into a Clinton aide’s emails just before the election. It was all sound and fury, signifying nothing. As former Bush Attorney General Mukasey said yesterday, Comey crossed several lines and should resign. Does anyone doubt how Trump would’ve responded had he been similarly victimized? “Rigged.” “Horrible.” “Evil.” But we hear nothing from this loud-mouthed, ignorant, bullying buffoon, and then, remarkably, “It’s time to move on.”

As for the Electoral College, I have always felt it was an arcane absurdity. Countries around the world have embraced the idea of democracy that we established. Not one of them copied the Electoral College. If you suggested to the English, the Germans, the French, indeed anyone, that someone’s vote from one region should matter less than one from another, they would find it laughable. A dozen states now decide the election. The voters elsewhere are disenfranchised.

As Trump himself said, the Electoral College is a disaster for democracy. Two-thirds of Americans agree. But the point is this: Having said that, in the aftermath of his victory he bragged about winning an “electoral landslide.” It was anything but, but the truth does not matter to this man, who belongs in Roger Rabbit’s Toon Town. 

The merits of the Electoral College are not my point. His reaction is. He embraced the idea of an electoral landslide because it suited his new narrative, meaning him. He lost by nearly three million popular votes. How would this man, who wouldn’t affirm he would honor the results before the election, who alluded to the election being rigged, have responded if he had won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College? If you believe gracefully, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

And therein lies the rub. This man is not interested in any truth that conflicts with his vision of himself. His primary concern is not America, but himself. Give him a truth he doesn’t like, he’ll change the subject, talk about a 400-pound hacker in his basement, attack whomever questions his vision of reality. He’ll avoid, deflect, deny. He’ll quote Julian Assange (whom he denounced back when, suggesting the death penalty); then when it turns out that RT, Russia’s English-speaking propaganda arm, was in contact with him, he’ll move on to the next diversion. 

When the entire intelligence community, the Republican leaders of the House and Senate, and everyone with an objective viewpoint concurred Russia had hacked into the D.N.C. to undermine Clinton’s election, he pouted, went silent (must’ve killed him), and still refused to acknowledge it. He is not merely ignorant, he’s willfully ignorant. 

Finally, he admitted Russia was behind it. Yet again, instead of acknowledging this threat to democracy, he shifted, saying it wouldn’t happen under his leadership, repeating the incredible mantra that it was time to move on. Forced into a corner where he could no longer deny he was wrong, let alone address the seriousness of the latest Russian attack on our freedom, he and his coterie of sycophants shift the narrative back to his wonderfulness: “It won’t happen when I’m in charge.” 

The emperor with no clothes is about to become president. He is a disturbed narcissist locked into a distorted vision of himself. Our European allies are rightfully aghast, as is anyone in possession of their senses in both parties. Putin and his thugs are salivating at the prospect of praising him, confident he is the only one so self-obsessed as to believe it. He thinks it’s great Putin likes him. Remember Neville Chamberlain and Hitler? 

Thankfully, our intelligence community and leaders in both parties know that is not the case. That’s the good news. The bad news, as William Tecumseh Sherman once noted: The worst is yet to come.

PETER HONERKAMP

An Eternal Truth

Montauk

January 16, 2017

To the Editor:

A nation divided cannot stand — a simple reminder of an eternal truth!

BRUCE HOWARD

Clara, We Need You

Springs

January 15, 2017

To the Editor:

Clara Peller! Where are you? Clara, we need you! The country needs you! The F.B.I. and the C.I.A. need you!

Practically every politician in D.C. and the states needs you badly! The president-elect and the new cabinet desperately need your help. A vast majority of the citizens. Please respond ASAP!

(Clara Peller is the character actress who starred in the Wendy’s commercial “Where’s the beef?”)

EDWARD A. WAGSCHAL