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Opinion: Why Donald Trump is the third-party candidate of 2016

Donald Trump gestures during an Oct. 24 meeting with first responders at the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department in St. Augustine, Fla.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
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To the editor: The third-party candidate in this election is Republican nominee Donald Trump. He does not represent the fundamental principles of the traditional GOP platform except for tax cuts and gun rights. He does not stress deficit reduction, he opposes free trade, and he is willing to cut back on support for allies, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (“A Republican senator’s strategy to save his seat in one of the country’s tightest races: Avoid Trump,” Oct. 24)

Trump has limited appeal to the “values voters,” as he has no history of opposing abortion or gay marriage. He is hardly the paragon of virtue with his three marriages and affairs.

Wall Street along with the leadership of the Republican Party have either disavowed him or given grudging endorsement while not actively campaigning for him. The GOP does not have a horse in this race, and Trump’s campaign organization is as ineffective as that of a third political party.

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Betty C. Duckman, Long Beach

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To the editor: It makes sense to keep a distance from Trump. Democracy looks horrible from day to day, but it seems gradually to improve human society in the long run.

In David Brin’s book “Existence,” humans make contact with a range of societies on other planets, and it turns out that we are one of the best species. We have enough insight to reject their obsession with converting planets to factories that create robot messengers, which then try to persuade other planets to focus only on manufacturing similar robot messengers. The only message is “join us in creating message robots” — a crazy cycle.

Freedom of speech does seem to be the bedrock of sanity; it allows the insane sectors to expose themselves to ruin through their rants.

Lucy Hahn, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Serious question for The Times: Do you consider yourself unbiased in your reporting of the presidential election?

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It is most evident that your inclusion of negative Trump stories versus negative Clinton stories is incredibly one-sided. For example, the headline to this article, “Donald Trump’s brand takes a hit from sexual assault allegations and lewd video,” could have easily read, “Clinton’s brand takes a hit from e-mail, pay-to-play claims.”

This is just one of the scores of examples where Trump continually gets negative coverage from you. Both candidates have extremely low favorable ratings and plenty of scandalous material to draw from, but it is as if Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign makes decisions on your above-the-fold, front-page articles.

I know it may be too much to ask, but please be fair in your reporting.

John Damitz, Fountain Valley

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