Letters to the Editor: History will smile on those who protested Trump’s ‘cruel, petty’ actions

To the editor: President Trump designated “antifa,” a nonentity, as a terrorist organization (“Trump’s new order could redefine protests as ‘domestic terrorism,’ ” Oct. 13). And now, leaders of his party have decided to label all of us who protest his cruel, petty and certainly unconstitutional overreaches as terrorists who “hate America.”

Not only do they have it completely backward, but I’m confident that history will come down in favor of us protesters and hard against he-who-would-be-king.

And how Republicans can support Trump’s undemocratic stances defies reason. His cruelty, vindictiveness, dishonesty and racism are all well-documented, as are both his denials of science and his support of institutionalized ignorance.

Toss in his total lack of empathy, and by any metric, Trump’s actions are a perfect recipe for disaster.

With a compliant Supreme Court and a Congress that supports his every whim, it may take a miracle for our democracy to endure through Trump’s second term.

Robert Archerd, Rancho Palos Verdes

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To the editor: Columnist Anita Chabria’s account of the “No Kings” rallies — and of the overheated reaction from political leaders — underscores a larger problem: the growing emptiness of our national rhetoric (“Don’t let MAGA turn protest into a crime,” Oct. 16).

When the speaker of the House smears peaceful demonstrations as “hate America” rallies filled with “antifa” and “pro-Hamas” agitators, most Americans don’t bristle — they change the channel. After years of nonstop apocalyptic warnings, citizens have learned that when politicians start shouting about “enemies within,” nothing real is being said.

Chabria is right to note that such language is poisonous, but it’s also hollow. What corrodes the public square isn’t just division; it’s exhaustion — the sense that every outburst is more performance than belief. The tragedy is that when outrage becomes automatic, meaning disappears — and so, eventually, does trust.

Brian J. Gross, Austin, Texas