Opinion: This is how you spell real change: President Donald Trump

To the editor: On Nov. 9, the dawn of a new era began. The age of Pax American idealism, an unapologetic and unyielding conviction in the expanding power of ideals and social infrastructure to effect change and improve people’s lives, is now dead. On both the left and the right, Americans disdain large institutions. (“Trump: The whole world is watching, anxiously,” editorial, Nov. 12)

Among the left, Big Pharma, Big Business, Big Religion and Big Finance are loathed. On the right, it is Big Government, Big Media, Big Unions and also Big Finance. The underlying emotion here is hate.

Why? All of these mega-institutions have promised riches for all. News flash: In the United States and Europe, the perception is anything but that, and perception is the new reality. Welcome to a brave new world of President Donald Trump, Brexit and possibly even President Marie Le Pen in France.

Ah, the good old days of ... yes, when exactly? This is real life, and life — like it or not — is about real change.

Carter Bravmann, Los Angeles

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To the editor: What is this world coming to?

First the Philippines elect a madman, Rodrigo Duterte, as president. This is a man who encourages Filipino citizens and police to kill suspected drug users and dealers.

Then Great Britain ruins its economy because the people don’t want any more immigrants.

Then Colombia votes to reject a peace treaty that would have ended 50 years of bloodshed with its revolutionary group FARC. The people voted down the treaty, which took years to negotiate, because it didn’t allow for enough revenge against the revolutionaries.

And now, the United States, due to its outmoded method of electing its president through the Electoral College, has elected Trump. This, despite the fact that Hillary Clinton received a few hundred thousand more votes (and growing) than Trump.

It is a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Lee Lipps, Sacramento

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To the editor: I am writing as one of the 29% of Latinos who actually voted for Trump. As your publication, through your various writers, continues to evaluate how the election turned out the way it did, I have found your writers erudite in their expressions and genuinely sincere in looking for answers.

However, pieces analyzing the election tend to mention older white males, the blue-collar uneducated and misogyny. This is your paradigm, and if you were one of my forensic trainees (I’m retired now), I’d tell you that you need to reexamine your paradigm since the evidence is not fitting it.

Too many times we get a favorite theory and try to cram it into the evidence. But maybe the paradigm itself is wrong. Don’t ask the other side to examine their core beliefs unless you are willing to examine your own. How much evidence must you see before you examine the awful possibility that you, the media, didn’t get it or see it because your base beliefs were in error?

I’d like to read a fair piece on the 29%. You may not like the answer because you may have to change what you believe to be true.

Dave Miranda, Covina

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To the editor: Thank you for the wonderful photo of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) with President-elect Trump and his wife on the speaker’s balcony. That and the other photo of Trump with President Obama clearly show us the peaceful transition of power in government that we value so much.

Rosalie Niemann, La Cañada Flintridge

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To the editor: I certainly hope, but am not too optimistic, that Trump will find some rational voices within his party that he can seek for counsel and advice. However, the indications so far are that his cabinet picks will thrust America back into the dark ages.

How fitting that the names of two adulterers, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, have been floated. One has spoken three words — a noun, a verb and 9/11 — and the other, the author of the so-called Contract with America, led the charge against Bill Clinton and his impeachment.

Someone please tell me I misheard Sarah Palin’s name in the mix.

Dan Pellow, Westchester

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