Re: Trump stuns in off-script tirade, Aug. 16

Re: Baltimore workers remove Confederate statues overnight, Aug. 16

Trump stuns in off-script tirade, Aug. 16

What’s most upsetting about the recent meltdown by U.S. President Donald Trump is not that his lowering of the standards of morality have hit ground zero. It’s that his critics interpret this low point as a sign of his tipping point and downfall.

Trump’s nation of true believers have exceptional faith only in their personal reality. So when Trump tells them that white supremacists are good, law-abiding people who got a permit to voice hate, they believe him. They identify with his prejudices that it’s the counter-protesters who are the troublemakers.

In their mind, they are law-abiding, church-going righteous people and yet they have been made to feel ashamed by the progressive media, as if their religious moral values are a stain on America.

Trump is voicing their moral outrage as the silent majority. They believe he is telling it like it really is. Consequently, they don’t believe the criticism.

If critics took their eye away from Trump and thought more objectively about Trump Nation, they might understand that he will not be so easily toppled by his moral failings.

Tony D’Andrea, Toronto

U.S. President Donald Trump never seems to be at a loss to shock Americans.

His predecessor, Barack Obama, made an effort to heal the wounds of his country by attending memorial services for victims of the many notorious crimes that shook the U.S. during his eight years in office.

Trump could have made an effort to heal the wounds of his country by attending the service for Heather Heyer, the young woman who was killed by a neo-Nazi sympathizer at a Charlottesville, Va., rally.

The president chose instead to spend time at his golf resort, but did point out to the media that he has a winery in Charlottesville.

Robert Ariano, Scarborough

If there is any lesson the U.S. election has taught us, it is that our schools need a more in-depth history curriculum. Specifically, more attention must be paid to the study of past demagogic leaders, encompassing not only their paths to power but also their personal traits and rhetoric.

It is only through the education of our next generations that we can more assuredly identify these troublemakers and prevent their ascent into positions of power.

Ross Hollingshead, Toronto

Stop snickering from sidelines, Cohn, Aug. 17

Martin Regg Cohn tells us we are not going to reach the Trump supporters by making fun of their choice for president. All that is accomplishing is driving a bigger wedge, with those in on the joke feeling superior, while driving those on the outside to be more stubborn about their choice.

But let’s not denounce humour. This therapeutic laughing does not mean people are giving up on the more important task of retaking America.

There are systemic reasons for the Trump election success. Gerrymandering, the biased electoral-college system, big money in politics and the failure of the Democratic Party all had a part to play in electing a president who shies away from denouncing the KKK and Nazis.

I have relatives who support Donald Trump and have been waiting for the aha moment as he circles the drain with his inappropriate response to the Charlottesville terrorism. It appears eloquent appeals and logic are just as impotent as humour in shifting their attitude. The humour is for us, it is not for changing minds.

Russell Pangborn, Keswick

Those who really pay attention have been quite aware that the “elite” media outlets have presented their news to conform with or enhance their own narrow-minded bigotry.

As of late, however, the veneer of feigned frank reporting has been exposed. The effort to present the violence that ensued at Charlottesville, Va., in their usual agenda-driven fashion was publicly challenged, revealing the distortions and omissions of inconvenient facts for all to see.

Unaccustomed to having their agenda exposed to the light of day and fearful that more of the disdained common folk will clue in, they over-reacted, thus risking even more questioning and wider enlightenment.

Will they be able to put the genie back in the bottle or will they advocate increased suppression of free expression?

John Mortl, Toronto

In the 5th century B.C., Plato said, “Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and a fool.”

For “school,” read the press, TV, social media, Twitter, etc. We are in those same times again when Pluto lived.

Venkat Krishnan, Ajax

Baltimore workers remove Confederate statues overnight, Aug. 16

So all is OK now. Everything’s forgotten. There never was a Civil War. Nobody owned slaves. What a wonderful, lily-white country the United States is, and ever was.

Joe Spence, Ottawa

As I watched the frightening spectacle of the first amendment being practiced in Charlottesville, Va., I found myself wondering what might be going through the minds of America’s Aboriginal people as they listened to a bunch of white dudes screaming that they were going to take their country back.

Brian Hayman, Oakville

Time to shame white supremacists, Teitel, Aug. 16

Perhaps no one informed young Peter Cvjetanovic that, because of his Slavic heritage, he wouldn’t be considered white enough by Hitler, any more than Jews, gay people, communists or those with physical disabilities would.

Young men wind up swelling the throngs of al kinds of bad movements, but the real problem is that Donald Trump is an old-fashioned sexist, racist who only comes alive when he’s hating, demeaning or vilifying others, and who got his nickname The Donald because of his delight in suing just about anyone who got in his way.

Mr. Trump is unfit to be president and the longer he continues in office, the worse the U.S. is at risk of dividing along racial, ethnic and linguistic lines.

Throughout the Republican leadership campaign, Trump showed he had no shame. He is a morally immature man. Debating NAFTA or anything else with such a man might well prove to be a waste of time.

Ron Charach, Toronto

I can hardly bear it but I actually agree with Donald Trump on something.

Gen. Robert E. Lee has a place in history. For that matter, so does Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president who was in fact a Democrat. And yes, Washington and Jefferson were, of course, slave owners.

Then there were all the obstructionist and anti-integrationist southern Democrats, right through to the 1960s. There’s loads of guilt to share among those who always like to think they’ll forever be on the side of good.

Trump has re-energized those who will forever spread hatred of all kinds. And he can’t claim this was completely inadvertent. It’s certainly what his buddy, Steve Bannon, wanted.

The statue of Lee probably should have been left alone for simply historic reasons. And in the current, detestable, Trump-enabled atmosphere, this sort of clash should have been foreseen.

Trump is treading a very narrow path, especially if he has any hope of re-election. The last thing he needed was the Charlottesville incident. But he can largely blame himself.

Ian Sutton, Kingston, Ont.

Why not put warning labels on outdated historic statues instead of tearing them down or confining them to museums? For example, a sign saying “racist traitor” could go next to Gen. Robert E. Lee. These statues could then become true educational experiences.

James Dubro, Toronto

Plaque honouring Confederate leader Jefferson Davis removed from Montreal building, Aug. 15

So the Bay has removed from its Montreal store a sign commemorating Jefferson Davis. Big deal. As long as the Bay continues to sell the clothing and accessories of the daughter of the current occupant of the White House (someone who cannot bring himself to disavow the likes of David Duke), I will not give them one nickel.

John Merzetti, Vancouver

After Donald Trump’s too-little-too-late denunciation of white supremacists — calling them evil and repugnant — White House chief strategist Steve Bannon remains on the payroll of the American people. It’s apparent that Trump’s talk and walk are taking two different directions.

JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, Fla.

It is unfortunate that protesters in Durham, N.C. chose to topple a memorial to ordinary Confederate soldiers, many of whom were conscripted and many of whom did not own slaves.

The real problem is the many statues of their leaders, some of whom voluntarily resigned their commissions in the US Army. It is not a problem that there are memorial statues to the more than quarter-million Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War.

However, it is a problem that there are more memorials to the thousands who died in the Civil War than to the several million who died under slavery, including during the trans-Atlantic crossing.

Bruce Couchman, Ottawa

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