Opinion: Relax, liberals: Trump’s more of a populist than an archconservative

To the editor: Like many stunned progressives, I’m struggling with grief. I’m fearful for the economy, the environment and the message we’re sending about values and compassion. But perhaps a President Trump won’t be apocalyptic after all. (“What to make of Trump one week in: He’s unpredictable and keeping his options open,” Nov. 16)

Trump now plans to keep some of the important parts of Obamacare and improve upon it. He’s promoting infrastructure spending to stimulate job growth. He won’t cut Social Security and Medicare.

Unfortunately, he also wants tax cuts for the wealthy, exacerbating our massive federal debt. He’s undeniably our climate change denier in chief. Years from now our grandchildren will look back at our generation, incredulous over why we didn’t do more when we could.

Trump is more of a populist than a traditional conservative who wants to please the moderate majority. I’m optimistic the millennials will continue moving the ball down the field, and time is on their side.

Steve Vigil, La Jolla

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To the editor: I’m happy to know that President-elect Donald Trump authorizes my partner and me to remain married. However, I can’t quite wrap my head around his suggestion that somehow Obergefell vs. Hodges is a more valid Supreme Court decision than Roe vs. Wade. Roe was decided 43 years ago and in the interim was slightly modified with the underlying right reasserted.

This is not the first time Trump has applied selective reasoning and illogical analysis to critical matters; examples include foreign policy toward Russia, tax policy (cuts for large corporations with a huge infusion of government funds to rebuild the infrastructure) and healthcare (make it more affordable by essentially returning to the failed pre-Affordable Care Act system).

Unfortunately, I suspect this is more about politics than legal precedent. If Trump later thinks it’s politically necessary to backtrack on gay marriage, Obergefell suddenly won’t be so “settled.”

Thomas Bailey, Long Beach

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To the editor: Now that Trump is interviewing for 4,000 open positions in the White House, he will need to add a few additional ones: a poet, an engraver, and an electrician.

The poet will need to update the message on the Statue of Liberty to make it relevant for current times; the engraver will be needed to remove the old message written to last many, many, lifetimes, and substitute the “new” American message; and the electrician will be needed to extinguish her torch.

Obviously she no longer speaks for the majority of Americans who are old and “wise” enough to vote, and her torch no longer lights the way to freedom.

Karen Friedman, Marina del Rey

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To the editor: Trump proclaimed during the campaign that he wants to change American libel laws to make it easier for public figures, starting no doubt with him, to sue the media and win. The objects of his wrath include the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC and CBS.

But if he gets his way — leaving aside persnickety details like the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times vs. Sullivan, which established the actual malice standard protecting responsible journalists — won’t the law of unintended consequences come into play?

If it will be easier to sue the New York Times for libel and win, won’t it also be easier for, say, the Clintons to sue ideological alt-right media outlets such as Breitbart for libel and win?

Lawrence Dietz, Pasadena

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