Readers React: Donald Trump, the Father Coughlin of our day

To the editor: Donald Trump is the Father Coughlin of our day, the sad reflection of a nation more fearful than fearsome. He represents all that’s been distorted in this country, all that tolerates the bully who oppresses the oppressed. (“Donald Trump often says things that stretch the truth, but they fire up the faithful,” Nov. 25)

He is the worst we have to offer, the sum total of American ignorance, misguided exceptionalism and a literal greed for power that embarrasses the intelligent, offends the compassionate and defiles the founding spirit of America.

As Edward R. Murrow said about Sen. Joseph McCarthy: “We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay among our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And who’s fault is that? Not really his; he didn’t create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it, and rather successfully.”

Trump’s version of that success does not make America great. It creates demagogues who encourage the uninformed to victimize the guiltless.

Peter Altschuler, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Is your obsession with Trump so over the top that you find fault with a $270,000 order for baseball caps to a California employer that employs mostly Hispanics? (“Inside the Southern California factory that makes the Donald Trump hats,” Nov. 24)

Is the ordering of campaign paraphernalia now front-page news? It seems so if Trump is doing the ordering.

The hard reality is that an order for baseball caps of this size will offer the Carson-based Cali-Fame hat company plenty of work that could never have been realized without a Trump presidential effort.

What do the immigration policies of a presidential candidate have to do with the purchase of campaign hats? Nothing. Would The Times be happy if Cali-Fame President Brian Kennedy turned down the contract and held a news conference railing against the Donald?

It is this obsession with Trump by liberal media outlets like this newspaper that is making Trump the overwhelming front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for president.

Nick Antonicello, Venice

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To the editor: Through his racist rants, barely coherent speeches and mocking of a disabled reporter, Trump has achieved the impossible: He’s made former President George W. Bush seem like an articulate elder statesman.

Matthew Singerman, Newbury Park