To the Editor:
Bret Stephens’s Jan. 14 column, “The Case for Trump, by Someone Who Wants Him to Lose,” is a brilliant summary of why we may be about to elect a buffoon with enough baggage to sink, one would think, anyone similarly freighted who aspired to high political office.
Millions of Americans are unhappy, frightened and angry. Privileges long taken for granted, like good housing and the chance for decent employment and advancement, are fast fading away. People want change! And the demagogue’s madness speaks to that need.
The same old, same old posture of the Democratic Party does not. What happened in 2016 is happening again, as once more someone from the old guard comes face to face with someone embodying the desperate fury of millions of people.
It is indeed, as Mr. Stephens so eloquently stated, time for those in the liberal establishment to pull their heads out of the sand. Thank you, Mr. Stephens, for sounding the alarm.
Paula Chernoff
Vancouver, Wash.
To the Editor:
Bret Stephens makes a good case that Donald Trump was and is right on out-of-control illegal immigration to the United States, that the response to Covid should include a balance of concern for health, the economy and child education, and that many middle-class working people resent “liberal elites.” Visceral reaction to this, however, should not cloud Americans’ voting judgment.
Mr. Trump was and is dangerously wrong about weakening NATO, which threatens the security of our country, and dangerously wrong in dismissing climate change, which threatens the security of our planet.
He was wrong on providing massive tax cuts for the rich when the money could have been much better spent on reducing our massive debt and providing social benefits that help people help themselves, such as free prekindergarten for working families and free community colleges and trade schools for those who qualify.
He was wrong on trying to dismantle Obamacare. His stand on abortion usurps the free choice of women and endangers them.
Most of all, Mr. Trump was dangerously wrong in trying to overthrow our democracy by subverting an election to retain power against the will of the people. He is unstable and unpredictable.
Arthur Pitchenik
Miami
To the Editor:
Bret Stephens nails it by theorizing, “If Republican voters think the central problem in America today is obnoxious progressives, then how better to spite them than by shoving Trump down their throats for another four years?”
Although Mr. Stephens wants Donald Trump to lose and admits that he “will spend the coming year strenuously opposing his candidacy,” this bias only adds to Mr. Trump’s appeal to Republican voters.
Mr. Trump is positioned to regain the presidency this fall because Republican and independent voters are disgusted by the hysterical hypocrisy of the liberal establishment and its failures to address the real problems faced by everyday Americans. Voters will demand a return to the common-sense Republican policies championed by Mr. Trump. Count on it.
Dennis L. Breo
New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
To the Editor:
I am a liberal who reluctantly agrees with much of Bret Stephens’s argument for Donald Trump’s appeal. However, I am struck by his glaring omission: the role of racism in Mr. Trump’s success.
Mr. Trump’s political life started with birtherism, an overtly racist attack on Barack Obama, and racism has never been far from the surface of Mr. Trump’s political life. Mr. Trump’s success was in part a reaction to President Obama’s presence in the White House.
Unless modern American conservatives confront the cancer of racism in our national life, they forfeit their seat at the table of national healing.
Edward W. Merrow
Lancaster, N.H.
Freedom of Expression
To the Editor:
Re “Museum Cancels Big Exhibition” (Arts, Jan. 13):
I write as a retired judge with definite liberal leanings who was disturbed to read of the cancellation of the artist Samia Halaby’s retrospective exhibit at Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art.
Presumably the reason for this action was Ms. Halaby’s “social media posts on the Israel-Gaza war, where she had expressed support for Palestinian causes and outrage at the violence in the Middle East, comparing the Israeli bombardment to a genocide.”
I am a practicing Jew who supports Israel’s right to exist. My religion, my profession and my political proclivities all dictate not only tolerance but also love and respect for freedom of expression through the arts. This action by the museum implicitly rejects this freedom.
Alice Schlesinger
New York
Police Courtesy Cards
To the Editor:
The article about police courtesy cards (“Officer’s Career May Be Undone by Ticket Taboo,” front page, Jan. 17) exemplifies what is wrong with current policing.
Despite the high-minded nonsense that “cops are brothers” and “the cards were symbols of the bonds between the police and their extended family and friends,” what we have in evidence here is police corruption, pure and simple. It is not a matter of giving someone a pass so they don’t have to pay a ticket. Instead, it is a matter of a two-tiered system of justice.
If the police are going to hand out “get out of jail free cards,” they should have to account for them: who got one and how often is it used. Even better, the card should be one-time use only.
Traffic laws are in place to protect us all. Courtesy cards undermine that purpose. In addition, they waste the time of the traffic officer who makes repeated stops for no purpose.
I know that many police officers need to feel that they are privileged, that they are centurions handing out favors. But this kind of petty corruption is one of the reasons some people want to defund the police.
Richard W. Poeton
Lenox, Mass.
Domestic Violence in New York
To the Editor:
Re “Homicides and Shootings Fall in New York City” (news article, Jan. 5):
While the New York Police Department deserves Mayor Eric Adams’s praise for decreases in crime, his administration is ignoring a brutal fact: Homicides due to intimate partner violence (I.P.V.) continue to rise.
Intimate partner fatalities increased by 29 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to a report by the New York City Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee. Black women accounted for 41.7 percent of intimate partner homicides, while Hispanic women accounted for 36 percent.
Meanwhile, the sector that provides services to survivors of I.P.V. and their families is in desperate need of more support, not more cuts. Supportive services on the state level are also in dire need of funding.
We should not be making laudatory statements about New York being the safest big city in the world while intimate partner violence — especially against Black and brown women — continues to rise. Not only does this ignore the reality of I.P.V. survivors and homicide victims, but it also upholds a dangerous myth that more support for survivor services is not desperately needed.
Nathaniel M. Fields
New York
The writer is the chief executive officer of the Urban Resource Institute.