Readers React: What the media failed to tell us about the Republican debate

To the editor: Rather than focusing on who is winning, who made a better showing or who delivered the most stinging retort at the Republican presidential candidates’ debate on Tuesday, I would like to read an analysis that focuses on who is addressing the topics of most concern to the American people. (“GOP debate gives new life to struggling candidates,” Nov. 10)

I write of the real concerns we all face: education, the huge gap between rich and poor, infrastructure failure, climate change, moving jobs offshore, medical care, guns, violence in our own country, our policy toward China, trade policy, defense and the list goes on.

Only then will voters be truly informed. And that, it seems to me, is the function of a newspaper in a democratic society.

Cathy Colloff, Toluca Lake

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To the editor: While Donald Trump rails against the inefficiency of government, he proposes to make it exponentially bigger by deporting all illegal immigrants.

Finding and deporting millions of people will create a huge bureaucracy. In addition to the troubling picture of government agents invading peoples’ homes in search of illegal immigrants, think of the larger holding facilities for detainees. (How will we care for their children?)

And what about the considerable expense needed to transport millions of people out of the country and possibly to then process the millions of applications from people trying to reenter the United States?

While I am a proponent of obeying the law, deporting millions of productive immigrants serves no one and will redefine the concept of “big government” in a way that will be unacceptable to both Democrats and Republicans.

Carol Mason, Newport Beach

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To the editor: I scoured The Times’ analysis in vain to find mention of the most important statement of the debate. It was uttered by Trump to Ohio Gov. John Kasich: “I’ve created tens of thousands of jobs. I’ve built an unbelievable company worth billions of dollars. I don’t have to listen to this man.”

This gives us an insight into how Trump views others (like senators and congressmen, not to mention the rest of us). This sentence is more significant than the infamous 47% comment by Mitt Romney in 2012.

Equally mystifying is why no one questioned Trump about a lawsuit he faces over allegedly deceptive practices related to Trump University. Time magazine had a big article about it recently, but not one moderator asked Trump about it.

Is everyone asleep?

Dorothy Gravino, Los Angeles

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