Opinion: An illuminating lesson from Donald Trump: Hard-working Americans who pay their taxes are suckers

To the editor: Donald Trump and his surrogates don’t get it. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns is in no way equivalent to Hillary Clinton’s “33,000 deleted emails.”

( “A testy opening round,” Sept. 27, “Analysis: One came with an attack plan and executed,” Sept. 27 and “Takeaways from the first face-off,” Sept. 27)

Trump is a man who can’t stop boasting about his wealth and success. As a person of moderate income, I have to pay my taxes. I can’t take advantage of a “rigged system” to dodge paying taxes.

We are entitled to have a president who also pays his or her taxes.

Ellen M. Tipping, Irvine

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To the editor: Well, those of us who went to school, got an education, go to work every day to earn an honest living, don’t resent paying our fair share of taxes, and may even consider ourselves smart — we learned from Donald Trump’s debate remarks that we’re really just a bunch of dumb suckers.

Mort Tuchin, Poway, Calif.

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To the editor: The debate reminded me of a baseball game between the singles hitters against the big boppers, who swing from the heels in a vain effort to hit the home run with each swing.

Hillary Clinton, the singles hitter, kept her composure and also kept poking them into the outfield until the sheer numbers of hits added up to a run here and a run there. Well, by the 6th inning, Clinton was leading 6 to nothing, and Trump began to swing even harder at each pitch, whether it was a strike or not. By the end, his syntax had become gibberish. Maybe next debate, he’ll call the bullpen to send in Ivanka Trump, who at least has the ability to put together a grammatically correct sentence every so often.

Robert G. Brewer, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: I now know why Trump has not released his income tax returns. He probably stiffed his accountants when they failed to “do a good job” when his returns reflected tax liabilities.

Jeff Hershow, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: Hats off to Lester Holt for holding ground when necessary but allowing the candidates to actually debate.

Aside from the many untruths and misleads, the Monday night meeting of the presidential candidates was a real debate. Going forward I hope the other commentators can do the same.

Lin Conrad, Indio

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To the editor: Holt did a poor job of moderating. He could hardly hold Trump on point to answer questions. He just allowed Trump to ramble on. If Holt is going to moderate he must enforce the rules and time limits. Once again Trump was able to command the media. This debate was a farce.

Michael Krubiner, Valley Village

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To the editor: Monday night I learned how to speak Trump. So now when he says “Wrong,” “Not true” and “I never said that”— I know he really means “Correct,” “True” and “I just said that five minutes ago.” And Hillary’s supposed to be “crooked”?

Tim Paine, Burbank

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To the editor: After watching the debate, I again was struck by Trump’s inability to finish a sentence, his tendency to repeat sentences, to jump from one thought to another, by his limited vocabulary (”This I can tell you,” “ believe me”), his inability to focus, his constant fidgeting, his constant changes of facial expressions, his frequent interruptions, his obvious lack of preparation.

To me, all of these are suggestive of the possible presence of a form of adult attention deficit disorder. I wonder if his longtime personal physician in New York has ever discussed it with him?

Daniel Berez, Studio City

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To the editor: Stating the obvious — that Clinton is trying to make this election all about Trump — is hardly a take-away. Isn’t that what elections are all about? Who will keep America safer, grow the economy and has the best plans for improving the lives of the most people?

Although FBI head James Comey declared no classified information was released, this still gets more attention than Trump wanting to bomb Iranian sailors for jeering at American sailors. He is proud of all his bankruptcies and will make America “great again” and magically fix all our problems by not paying his federal taxes. Really?

Marcy Bregman, Agoura Hills

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To the editor: My answer to “Who won the Presidential debate?” I scored it 47 to 43 in favor of Clinton. The rest was a draw. In the end, Clinton did a better job in expressing what she would do as president than Trump did. Trump fumbled the ball. He took an early lead and choked after that.

Joseph B. D. Saraceno, Gardena

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To the editor: I’m not so sure. Though Trump is not a perfect debater, I think he won this debate.

Clinton was more focused on attacking her opponent (instead of focusing on the issues hurting our nation) and somehow justifying her failed foreign interventionist policies. Under her watch as secretary of State, I think the world became only more dangerous and unstable.

Trump wants to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure and create the conditions to foster domestic jobs whereas Clinton wants to promote the globalist agenda of the overly wealthy “elites”/Wall Street. Regardless of who “won” the debate, these are the issues that voters care about.

Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nev.

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To the editor: Trump continued to demonstrate that he’s no conservative and no Republican.

I’ll probably end up holding my nose and voting for him, on the assumption that even a faux Republican is better than no Republican, but I doubt he’s really serious about winning the election.

Patrick M. Dempsey, Granada Hills

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To the editor: Trump followers seem to think that being a successful businessman qualifies him to lead the country. Where is it written that a country should be run like a business? The goal of a business is to make a profit, and increase that profit every year.

The goal of governing a country is the welfare of its people: to help provide jobs, to educate our children, to further our global economic interests, to improve our infrastructure, to combat global warming, to prevent nuclear proliferation, to assure that health care is available and affordable for families, our elderly, mentally ill and veterans. We don’t need a businessman; we need a statesman/stateswoman at the helm.

Ticia Perenchio, Valley Village

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