Opinion: They may be cracking jokes, but liberals aren’t having fun under Trump

To the editor: Watching this current West Wing circus is causing an Endorphin rush? Really? (“This just in from the Westside: Who knew a nightmare election would wind up being such a gas?” Opinion, Sept. 7

As a card-carrying Westside liberal, I cut my teeth hanging out in the Young Democrats club with Henry Waxman and Howard Berman. OK, I am dating myself, but I was hoping to enjoy my last remaining years slurping frozen yogurt and watching Santa Monica sunsets.

I was hoping that I didn’t have to worry about climate change deniers, cars on fossil fuel, pesticides, the next assault-rifle shootout, Nazis marching or war with North Korea.

Eight years of “no drama Obama” put me in a pleasant, dreamlike state. Now I obsessively ponder how President Trump’s election could have happened. Why are liberals being punished? We recycle. We march for women. We forward letters of outrage to our members of Congress, including even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who seems to be our liberal standard-bearer now.

Maybe the question of why this is happening shall go unanswered. And to answer op-ed article writer Peter Mehlman’s question: No, we are not having much fun.

Bonnie Flamer, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: Thanks for Mehlman’s witty piece on the unexpected consequences of having Donald Trump as president. Of course, the sanctimonious scolds who profess to speak for liberal thought these days will be outraged, which will double the pleasure for me.

Well done, Mr. Mehlman, and thanks again to The Times.

Michael Jenning, Van Nuys

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To the editor: If Mehlman thinks the politics of the last nine months have been “fun,” he must not know any immigrants.

I know this was framed as a joke, but let’s ask Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, a Los Angeles father who was detained by immigration authorities after dropping his daughter off at school, if it’s funny.

Lorelei Laird, Culver City

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To the editor: I was shocked by Mehlman’s flippant attitude.

He tried to intimate that liberals are chuckling past the graveyard under Trump’s regime, but I take offense at any such notion. The idea that liberals would find any humor in the dismantling of human rights, threats of nuclear war and the disparaging of women and minorities is reprehensible.

I don’t know which “liberals” Mehlman has been speaking to, but I heartily disagree with his premise. It’s far-right conservatives who have been laughing on their way to the white supremacist rallies, and liberals who have been hanging their heads in shame at the injustices perpetrated by Trump.

Doug Fredericksen, Corona

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