To the Editor:

Re “Trump Voters, One Year In” (letters, Jan. 18):

As one who does think of President Trump’s supporters as among the “deplorables” — people who are racist and xenophobic, people who fear the world, people who blame others for all their challenges and woes, people who hate the very idea of government as a force for good — I was fascinated to read the letters from Trump voters.

I thought it was a wise and striking decision on The Times’s part to run them in its own editorial board’s space. Indeed, that’s the space they deserved to maximize their impact.

Thanks to these letters, I do have a better understanding now of what these writers see happening under Mr. Trump: an end to pussyfooted, mealy-mouthed weakness and to regulatory overreach; a return to forcefulness and certainty on the world stage and unleashed optimism at home.

But then I stop and think about what it is they’re really so happy about: reckless threats and pointless insults passing for diplomacy; a rejection of fact, science and even the notions of decency, humanity and justice; a litany of lies and myths as the foundation of policy; and historic levels of incompetence and self-dealing across the agencies of government from the White House on down.