Dead Tree Rag
East Hampton
November 10, 2024
To the Editor,
For normalcy. For faith. For family. For country. For citizens, for the people who just want to be left alone. For mothers, for wives, for daughters who don’t feel safe. For the sanctity of life.
For the First Amendment. For the Second Amendment. For the Bill of Rights, for the Constitution, and the Republic. For the rule of law and the end of lawfare, for the end of politically motivated prosecution.
For the people. For the middle class. For those who go out every day and make this country work, for the working man. For families. For the American Dream. For the people who aren’t deplorable. For the people who aren’t garbage.
For peace. For an end to mindless wars. For talking to our enemies instead of just trying to vaporize them. For stopping the sacrifice of our children to endless war. For strength. For states’ rights. For health. For accountability.
For our sovereignty, for a government that actually sees to the needs of its citizens before the needs of invaders. For a border. For security. For safety. For national integrity, for an end to the politics of division and mindless hate.
For the end of wokeism. For the end of D.E.I. For giving the best qualified a chance. For opportunity. For dreams. For meritocracy. For people to be able to be free to make their own choices free of government interference. Free from mandates.
For men and women, for Black and white, for Christian and Jew, for yellow and red, for Muslim and Hindu, for all Americans of every color and creed: freedom and liberty. For America First. For Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance.
The above was a response to your passionate if misguided editorial prior to the election. What follows is a response to the idiotic garbage you so lazily slopped on your editorial page last week. I have never read something so poorly written and tortured as that rubbish, a doubling down on some of the most stupid and inane nonsense that has bubbled up from the Left the past few years.
Have you ever thought about getting out and actually talking to regular working-class folks, people who are really struggling under the wonders of Bidenomics? I imagine the tiny, narrow little world you can only see through the dirty glass windows at 153 Main Street might be a limiting factor to seeing the world as it is and not just what you imagine. You know, maybe get out of your bubble, put down the cheese and the wine glass and maybe have a beer with a normal person and talk to them and not just someone you agree with?
Obviously not. Maybe you are so used to just regurgitating what you read in The Times or what comes over The Associated Press that you struggle with original thought now, hence the low quality of your editorial. However this is emblematic of the dying legacy media, something your dead tree rag is the last gasp of. Harris didn’t lose on Nov. 5, you did.
You and the rest of the merry band of propaganda machines who were completely and totally wrong about everything. People no longer have to count on you, ABC, The Times, or any of the other failing old media. The number of disappearing papers is accelerating as they fail to adapt to the changing times and technology, an average of 2.5 newspapers disappears each week.
We are now entering the era of citizen journalism, where anyone, anywhere, anytime can report on what they think is newsworthy and not rely on some tired, old, and archaic methodology, i.e., you. There are no more gatekeepers to the truth, you are about to matter as much as a buggy whip or whale oil. I welcome it.
One bit of good news for you at least, maybe not your poor staff, is you are sitting on a gold mine. When the time comes you can offload your family’s legacy, what’s left of it, for a pretty penny and go enjoy yourself, maybe some place more to your liking like Cuba or Venezuela. And thanks to Trump’s forthcoming tax reforms you’ll get to keep more of the money. Don’t forget to thank him on the way out.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL D. BOUKER
Death Notice
East Hampton
November 8, 2024
To the Editor:
I cut out your editorial “Shifting on Its Axis” and taped it on my fridge — along with lists and whatnots. Surely the death notice of the Republic is worth that much.
Apparently, American democracy wasn’t all that special after all. It left this world not with a bang (that would have been Jan. 6, 2021) but with a whimper — just voted out of existence by an ignorant electorate.
Tuck away your pocket Constitution — maybe with old family photos — you won’t need it now. Democracy, quaint old notion, stuffed in a box with faded faces and places. Soon no one will remember what all the fuss was about. Separation of powers? Is that Uncle Peter? Checks and balances? Freedom of the press? I think that’s Aunt Jane, I think.
STEVE RUSSELL
A Red Wave
Amagansett
November 6, 2024
To the Editor,
The streets of East Hampton Town are flooded with a red wave and Liberal tears are raining down!
NICK PUPO
Pitchforkers
Springs
November 10, 2024
To the Editor,
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
In collecting my thoughts on what this election means, I remind myself that any explanation made within hours or days of an election is not likely to be accurate. I think real wisdom will only come once the dust settles, the finger-pointing stops, and the need to fill space on cable news with instantly developed opinions of talking heads and so-called experts subsides.
With that said, I have been thinking throughout the last several months about a warning issued 10 years ago by a billionaire hedge-fund guy from Seattle, Nick Hanauer, who made his money being an early investor in Amazon. He warned the One Percenters that by letting income disparity between the top and bottom rungs of the economic ladder grow out of hand, hollowing out the middle class, they/we were setting society up for a huge backlash where there would one day be a tipping point where the guys with the pitchforks would rise up (think France, 1789).
That tipping point may have arrived. White liberals (mea culpa) and Democratic politicians (mea culpa quoque) have not focused on this, I believe, for two reasons. First, while the wealth of the plutocrats got way out of hand, the college-educated and professional classes saw their wealth and incomes rise, too. They/we saw no urgency in reining in the party because we were ancillary beneficiaries. Second, we convinced enough of the plutocrats to help fund our Democratic campaigns and our favorite charities that we didn’t want to make waves or alienate the plutocrat donors.
The irony here is that the guys with the pitchforks came for the leadership that most stands with them and cares about their lives, and not the cynical hatemongers who fueled their resentment of the upper class (represented by the “establishment” and the status quo in government). Those with the pitchforks have brought into political power the economic overlords who most benefit from the income and wealth disparity, oppose unions and universal and affordable health care, housing and educational opportunities, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that could help to reduce the disparity.
But why, you ask. Because we (Democrats/liberals) have yet to figure out how to fight in an arena where the other side doesn’t play by the rules and long-established norms. For better or worse, as the educated liberal class, we are institutionalists who believe in the rules, have a different view of what religion and ethics mean in our culture, and because we view ourselves as morally superior, will not stoop to using misinformation and the worst tools in the social media universe to gain and hold power. Because of our self-regard as educated moralists, we often approach dealing with the pitchfork carriers as if we are missionaries trying to convert them to our lifestyle when they don’t have the same economic security that gives us the luxury of our viewpoints.
Forget the “facts.” The facts are that a Democratic administration dealt with the aftermath of a pandemic, prevented a recession, brought back jobs, stabilized employment, increased wages and the power of unions, addressed the disintegration of our infrastructure, tried to alleviate student-loan debt, and brought the inflation created by the necessary fiscal response to the pandemic under control. But the pitchforkers didn’t buy it.
Fueled by disinformation spread on social media and repetition by Trump and others who know better but lie anyway, they wanted and were provided scapegoats for their various resentments (immigrants, women, woke liberals who let men play against girls’ sports teams, trans men in women’s bathrooms).
The non-college-educated white vote, which increased as a proportion of the electorate, along with erosion in some other demographics, and the failure of the gender gap to carry the day are what appear to have cost the election, at least as of today. Next week, month, or year it may be something else that isn’t obvious to us today. But most of all the pitchforkers without college educations want to hang out with (and be led by) other folks who aren’t educated, or at least act that way. See “Forrest Gump” above.
So, now what? I note for the record that when Obama won in 2008 and 2012, the majorities in places like Mississippi and Wyoming and Oklahoma didn’t let their heads explode with grief. They put on their big boy/girl pants and continued their activism, doing what conservatives do in their locales and their state houses, where they still controlled things. And they mounted a pretty serious effort that almost stopped the passage of the Affordable Care Act. So we have to now focus on what we can do in our hometowns, counties, and states to try to make the world a better place on that scale.
One final note. To the extent I can bear to listen to political stuff in the media, I have heard the word “realignment” misused frequently in the last 72 hours. The year 1860 was a realignment. The year 1932 was a realignment. Arguably, there was a realignment when Reagan was elected, accelerating the rise of income disparity like no other factor (see above). A swing of 2 to 4 percentage points in swing states in an election year that saw the winning presidential candidate get about the same number of votes that he got when he lost in 2020, a decline in overall turnout, a break-even in the House, and a predictable loss of a closely divided Senate does not a realignment make. That’s not to say we don’t need to figure out some new strategies around messaging, but using the R-word is a reach, in my humble opinion.
CHRISTOPHER D. KELLEY
Become Whole
Montauk
November 9, 2024
Dear David,
Congratulations, President-Elect Donald Trump, and all who won their seats. Prayers that each and every one, Democrats, Republicans, and conservatives, will work together to help America become whole. Remove the divide between everyone.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
A Good Question
East Hampton
November 11, 2024
To the Editor,
First and foremost, and to qualify for the purposes of this letter, I am a white male. Much of the time, and often not, I am aware of the privileges that I have as a white male in our society, yet there also come along many moments when I realize the opposite is true for so many. This election was one of those moments.
I am a teacher in an elementary school and as I talked with many of the “middle age” kids, children ages 6 to 11, I was struck by how many were aghast that there has never been a female U.S. president. One after another, in their truly unjaded youth, they would confusedly ask, “Why?” And I would say to them, “That is a very good question,” and I had no good answer. This shook me. With one simple, one-word question, these children put up a mirror to our entire society and my place in it.
Coincidentally, or perhaps not, I also recently watched the movie “On the Basis of Sex,” about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which poignantly and thoroughly illustrates our country’s recent history of sexism and misogyny. Befittingly, leading up to this election, I would hear many voters say things like, “We need a man as president,” followed by various reasonings — “because they are strong,” “because they are steady,” “because they can deal better with other male leaders,” or, sometimes, “just because.” I also heard, “Women have too many hormones . . . too many feelings . . . they would start a war.”
All these arguments, for me, seem ridiculous. For one, haven’t all wars been started by men?! But in the wake of this election, as a voter, as a committed member of society, as a teacher, as a white male, as a husband, a father, a brother, a human being, do I not now have the obligation to unpack this bag? How is it that we purport to know what a woman would do as president if we have never had one? And yet men, and women, will claim, and vociferously so, to know. How? Why?
Certainly, for our entire lives, we have been fed a slow and steady diet of a male-centric, male-dominated paradigm in every sector of our society — science, religion, education, math, literature, politics, the arts, sports, and knowledge itself? To most, this is obvious, but let the weight, the gravity of this sink in a moment.
Over 13 million voters who voted for Joe Biden in the last election did not vote in this election. (Newsweek, “Did 15 Million Democrats Not Show Up For This Election?” by Tom Norton, Nov. 7.) Not 1,000 or 10,000. Over 13 million. Over 13 million voters who voted for a male president and against Trump in the last election, when faced with a similar scenario, but a Black female president-elect, chose to not vote.
Does this not give us pause to the point of slamming on the brakes? Does this not force us to reflect on our personal and collective beliefs, attitudes, and stake in our society? Thirty years ago, any one of Trump’s transgressions, faux pas, lies, or outright crimes would have been the immediate end of his campaign. Forget any debate about immigration or the economy. If there was ever an election to take a moral stand, it was this one.
So then what moral obligation did we as voters have, and continue to have, to move the needle toward a more just and equal society? Sadly, with this election we could have sent a message to girls that anything is possible, but instead we sent a message to boys that you can lie, manipulate, and even rape with little or no consequence or accountability.
Morally, our country has been dubious from the beginning, but for my entire life I have thought that the long arc of American democracy moves ever so haltingly and awkwardly toward equality, and a truer democracy. However, I fear that a Trump presidency without any checks and balances will be the greatest test to our democracy since the Civil War.
PERRY BURNS
Angry, Unruly B.L.M.
East Quogue
November 8, 2024
To the Editor,
The harsh attacks on Harris below are not mistaken in listing her shortcomings. What is mistaken is this: It is the Democratic Party that lost, not Harris.
Yes, there were undoubtedly racist votes, sexist votes, and anti-”elite” votes. But the opposition had been waiting for the moment to take advantage of all the disastrous policies of the Democrats, of the paleoliberals, of the angry, unruly B.L.M. Blacks, of the Democrats’ playing to their crowd of woke I.P. warriors waging their culture wars. The ammunition for which the Democrats happily gave them as they sucked up to the L.G.B.T.Q./B.L.M./woke crowd and ignored the real problems infecting this country.
When you give your blessing to the twisted physical mutilation of confused trans teenagers, and in the process destroy their sexual lives, retribution isn’t long in coming. When you force loyalty oaths privileging some groups over others in the workplace and universities, you deserve what happens afterward.
Meanwhile, the real problems of this country continue as usual. Whether Harris thought them unimportant is irrelevant. It was the Democratic Party that banished them to the back burner to keep simmering. Those naive liberals who fault the Democratic Party for “not listening” to the complaints of middle Americans are mistaken if they thought a friendly heart-to-heart talk would change their minds. Despite such unsupported optimism, most of those Trump voters will never “see the light,” as the Democratic Party and liberals think. Their lives and beliefs and biases will continue unchanged.
Thinking that heart-to-heart talks will change people is delusionary. There are hordes of uninformed, uneducated heavily partisan voters between the coasts and they didn’t appear overnight. Realistically, they will never change.
Absent a Left with any sense, what needs to change is the Democratic Party and its naïveté in thinking that sucking up to one or two fragments of the citizenry would deliver victory. They have thought this way for decades, thus giving the right wing and libertarians and evangelicals all the time in the world to organize.
Read Ralph Nader again. He has always been correct. Painfully so for the paleoliberals.
LORNA SALZMAN
—
Ms. Salzman sought the U.S. Green Party presidential nomination in 2004. Ed.
Brought to Heel
East Hampton
November 8, 2024
To the Editor,
Today, the Friday after the election, I walked on the beach at Egypt at sunrise. My candidates had all lost and yet I was relaxed, actually relieved. If Harris had won there would have been months of protests over the “steal,” threats of violence, and then violence. The denigration of Harris would have become only more ferocious after the inauguration.
Then it came to me: “Yes, this is how they bring you to heel.”
TOM MACKEY
Like Oligarchs
Springs
November 11, 2024
Dear David,
The people who voted for Trump are going to have buyer’s remorse when they see that Trump’s policies will not benefit them. The only people who will benefit will be the selected billionaires who are awarded entire industries in order to kick money back to Trump and his buddies. Exactly like the oligarchs who were awarded by Putin to control Russian industries.
The Trump voters were conned by a con man.
It’s really sad.
SUSAN HARDER
Treat the Headache
Montauk
November 11, 2024
Dear Mr. Rattray:
As the times get more divisive, the losing voters of elections, particularly presidential ones, whine louder than ever, whether Democrats or Republicans, but that serves no practical purpose.
The essential thing to worry about in the immediate future is that our system of government has been hijacked, not by Republicans or Democrats, but rather dark, apolitical entities whose only interest is growing richer and more powerful. These are the One Percenters, the billionaires, and occasionally influential foreign nations who hide in the shadows (Elon Musk is an exception) and pull the puppet strings of most representatives in Washington. You cannot get elected to high offices in Washington and stay there without accepting their money in exchange for your soul.
While we continue the senseless political bickering, the puppet masters take pride in their subterfuge knowing full well that the political conflicts hide the corruption they have wrought upon the land. They’ve slowly created a population of politicians who eagerly take their contributions in order to maintain some degree of power in this cesspool, while the distracted voters don’t see what’s going on.
Does anyone wonder why the core problem in American government is never spoken of by either party? Campaign finance is rarely mentioned and therefore never addressed. These vampires holding office are not about to drive a wooden stake through their own hearts. Rather, they are going to desperately defend the status quo by stoking the flames of political dissension.
The solution will only come from the voters. And that doesn’t come from bashing the other party. It comes from holding both parties equally accountable to a higher, moral standard whether they like it or not.
Montesquieu said in “The Spirit of Law” that the “tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” That is just as current today as it was in 1748.
Getting bogged down in politics is exactly what the puppet masters want. Push aside politics and work together to get dark money and special interests out of politics, particularly around election time when we’re overwhelmed by their slick TV spots. Force each and every elected official to address this now. If this is not addressed, there is very little hope for us. The corruption will consume our democracy, if it hasn’t already.
Issues that tend to be foremost on voters’ minds -– abortion, immigration, health care, and taxes, to name a few -– are symptoms of the disease of dark money and can wait. Let’s not treat the headache, while ignoring the brain tumor. Treating the tumor will naturally solve many of the symptoms that concern us all.
JEFF GEWERT
The Enemy Within
North Haven
November 11, 2024
Dear David,
Our country became a Republic governed by a democracy. On Sept. 17, 1787, Benjamin Franklin responded to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin answered rather prophetically: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
This republic has lasted 237 years, up to now. Unfortunately, today we find tyrants and dictatorships thriving all around us. Even here at home we see insurrection and behaviors uncivil and disrespectful.
The phrase “the enemy within” has been bandied about a lot. Nazi Germany used that fear phrase and now we hear it here being applied to immigrants, the press, and our own peaceful citizens. I fear we are vulnerable to these narrow-minded and harsh dictums. Will they become policy?
It’s time to ask ourselves if we can keep our fragile form of governing, or will we choose to destroy it?
I pray for ourselves and our allies as well as Ukraine, all struggling to preserve democracy. It works if we can work together, and it fails if we allow tyrants to split us apart.
Think of this today, on Veterans Day.
ANTHONY CORON
Plight of Scallops
Springs
November 9, 2024
To the Editor,
Jon M. Diat, in “Old Habits,” addresses once again the unfortunate plight of bay scallops. We hear of the bad harvests year after year, along with the lack of eelgrass, plankton, horseshoe crabs (not cyclical), etc. And, from what I gather, it all comes down to lawn fertilizers, tick repellent, and leaky septic systems. Keeping in mind I really have no clue of what I’m talking about, but the Democratic-led town board and members of the East Hampton Town Trustees may have conflicting interests. Either way, property values will go down if we go the way of great South Bay (a dead sea). Only local government can try to fix this, as the federal Environmental Protection Agency will be cut. Why not fines for landscapers who profess to be organic and aren’t, for starters?
JEFF NICHOLS
The First Citizen
Amagansett
November 7, 2024
To the Editor,
Recently I visited the Golden Pear on Newtown Lane for my favorite sandwich (the number-two panino with mozzarella and tomato, thank you for asking). It was early afternoon, and workmen were setting up tables in the street for what I learned was a World Series watch party that night.
What I took away: a frighteningly shallow, actually rather sinister, event was being staged by the First Citizen, who (as I wrote recently) is very much in the Disneyland phase of his dictatorship.
I love The Star — you know that. And you have certainly reported on the First Citizen fearlessly, and (if memory serves) editorialized about him as well. But, seriously, I only need quote the title of the front cover article by Jack Motz in last week’s issue: “A Community-Building Block Party.”
Community? No one could sit next to the First Citizen at one of those tables without feeling some trepidation of getting on his wrong side, and being publicly castigated as a renegade and criminal, as he so freely did to the faithful volunteers at the village ambulance when they inadvertently got between him and something he wanted.
Remind you of someone on the national stage? Though I don’t think Donald Trump has the attention span for a sustained Disneyland, I couldn’t help noticing the similar trepidation radiating from the words of my (formerly much admired) landsman Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he mendaciously said yesterday, “I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together.”
Sensing a theme here?
Full disclosure: Starting with a local hook before addressing the national scene was my transparent effort to maintain my usual place in the top half of the letters column, and avoid being relegated below Bea Derrico, which might cause me to weep uncontrollably.
For democracy in America,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Nuisance Remains
Amagansett
November 10, 2024
To the Editor,
Nov. 12 will mark 1,461 days since the Town of East Hampton was sent “Letters of Enforcement.” I should know. My name is the one on it. When the town neglected to respond, what did we do? Family, friends, and neighbors stepped into the town’s shoes and did the job. You’re more than welcome to look up the court-rendered decision.
Now the nuisance remains and continues to remain 2,300 days later. Appeasement seems to be the game.
Quick aside: God bless our veterans. Now let me kindly remind you.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
The Machismo
East Hampton
November 9, 2024
Dear David,
In the aftermath there is reflection. Mostly quiet sorrow. We fought the good fight to protect our rights as women and for a country we envisioned as unified and respectful. Maybe that was too lofty an ideal. Maybe that’s an America in the rearview or from our childhoods. Mind you, never was it perfect or “great” for everyone. Though it did seem more civilized once. There were Golden Rules. Not frat boys on steroids. The election we just endured was “Sense and Sensibility” versus “Animal House.” While both were movies that appealed to some of us, this was real life. You can have your win but no need to gloat, please. Allow us our moment of sorrow. We earned it after the ridiculous rantings for months.
Some of us of a certain age fought for the rights many take for granted. Choice to be mothers is one. Parenthood is a vocation and it’s not for everyone. That’s blatantly obvious. And the world is overpopulated. Personally, 20-20, I rocked a baby and wrote to a senator. One Orrin Hatch, who aimed in the 1970s to take away our rights. He recently died and I won’t miss him. He did damage and that’s not okay. But I never imagined we would be in this fight again, 50 years later. It matters to a lot of us. And it’s none of your business what a woman does with her body. You do you. And don’t dare bring up God to me. I have been steeped in religion since birth and don’t need to be preached at. I walk my talk. Do you? We need more mirror-gazing and less finger-pointing.
You got the president you wanted, go celebrate. Mudslide yourself into oblivion. Just don’t tell me to be happy about the outcome. I’m taking a good minute. I need my sulk, I’ve earned it. I listened ad nauseam to your opinions in this newspaper and on every news source and the infernal signs and banners around town. But my letters and opinions rattled your feathers? So much so that I was “told on,” to my husband. Can you imagine? He should keep me in line? Hah! Him and what army? We don’t boss each other around. We’re grown-ups and he knows I’m smart. Seriously, I am well informed, avidly read, and know what’s what. It is behavior like this that we were voting against. Sure, seal up the border, get those egg and gas prices down. But don’t kid me that you didn’t have more invested than that. You related to the machismo and you’d never vote for any woman. Maybe as a woman you needed another man bossing you around. But you have daughters and one day they and your granddaughters will school you and maybe you’ll wake up. Or not.
Well. Go enjoy your cheaper eggs come January and relish your win. I will continue my quiet sulk and mourn what was within reach and possible. A beautiful unity. A quieter solution. Less hate. The magic wand you’re counting on doesn’t exist; there is no Shangri-La. You wanted a savior but you may get a demon instead and a whole pack of lost boys. Good luck with that. Just don’t expect me to come along. I’m holding fast to a bigger dream.
NANCI LAGARENNE
Term Limits
Montauk
November 6, 2024
Dear David,
I began writing this letter before the election. It was to be filled with reasons why early voting should be curtailed. Then on Election Day I awoke at 3 a.m. with severe pain in my back. I struggled to arrange my affairs for a stay in the hospital; I drove to the polling place and voted. Then with the assistance of a fire department volunteer I was taken to the Stonybrook Southampton Hospital Emergency Room. I was well treated and felt better on leaving.
Since I was almost unable to vote, my feelings about early voting have changed. I believe that early voting should only be two weeks before the election and that it must be in-person with proof of citizenship. Also, “Election Day” should be two days, Sunday and Monday.
I try to write letters to The Star that could/should be supported by both parties. Congress should have term limits. New Supreme Court justices should be limited to 20-year terms. Only those who are 21 or older should vote in federal elections. There should be exceptions for those in the military, police, etc. English should be our national language, and all new citizens should prove their ability to speak it.
Yours hopefully,
DAN BRIGANTI