Opinion: Government expertise is a must for the president, and Oprah doesn’t have it

To the editor: Conservatives have spent the past 40 years denigrating government service and slandering career public servants, pretending that government expertise is not a thing. That’s precisely how we got a hateful, know-nothing Twitter troll for a president.

To put Oprah Winfrey, another celebrity with no government experience, on the ballot in 2020 would be to concede that those who foisted Donald Trump on this nation and the world were right that government is just a racket, that anyone can do it. (“Oprah for president? Have we learned nothing?” editorial, Jan. 8)

This is just one more time my fellow liberals have fallen into the trap of accepting the frame the opposing party places on an issue. It’s why we don’t win elections.

I’ll vote for Winfrey, the former two-term governor of Illinois, in 2028, and not before then.

Branden Frankel, Encino

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To the editor: Where was the skepticism when the Republicans gave us the untested and ultimately forgettable Representatives Fred “Gopher” Grady from “The Love Boat” and singer Sonny Bono? Or the B-movie actor, corporate huckster, mediocre governor and finally President Ronald Reagan, or body-builder, “actor” and then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?

These were white male celebrities with zero relevant experience before running for public office. Not one will go down in history as having made our country better.

Winfrey has a long history of not only enormous business executive experience and success (for those who conflate business skills with government skills), but she has also spent her adult life identifying and mitigating countless social inequities.

And — she reads! Imagine that! She has an infectious fire in her belly that just might motivate this country to ask, once again, what can I do for my country, not what can my country do for me.

Sara R. Nichols, Los Angeles

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