Letters to the Editor: Trump was a clown in 2016, and he won. Take him seriously in 2020

To the editor: I disagree with Paul Slansky that President Trump’s buffoonery is his Achilles’ heel, and that Democrats should mock him in 2020. We already did that in 2016, and I’m sure a few voters came out just because they thought it’d be hilarious if the clown was president.

There is, I think, a much better way to get voters in the middle, and that’s to focus very closely on Trump’s practice of pocketing taxpayer dollars.

A fairly significant number of people who do not like Trump voted for him in 2016 because they vote their financial self-interests. The way to peel off at least some of them is to hammer them with the message that every time the federal government spends money at a Trump property, he is stealing from them.

The Trump cultists are happy to see their money pocketed by the president, but the less devoted can, I believe, be persuaded to resent that money is coming out of their wallets only to find its way into Trump’s.

If we can’t get them to vote Democratic, at least we can get them to vote third party or stay home.

Branden Frankel, Encino

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To the editor: Slansky’s piece hits a new low.

Slansky opens with a complete misrepresentation. He states that President Obama’s eight years in office were without scandal. Slansky neglects to mention scandals involving the Internal Revenue Service and Fast and Furious, to name a few. Eric Holder, Obama’s first attorney general, was the focus of congressional investigations.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in the polls indicates to me that many Democrats are unhappy with the ascendancy of the radical left in their party. Without a reasonable candidate, at least for moderate Democrats, desperation is likely to set in.

Without rational arguments, Slansky’s recommendation is to make fun of the president. How sad.

Nathan Post, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: If many of us are laughing at our president’s antics, we are doing it between bouts of anger and serious concern.

As Slansky points out, the comedians and talk shows do provide some welcome relief. The best of them, like Stephen Colbert, manage to both amuse us and enlighten us with an informed and useful perspective.

There’s more to come, of course. Imagine Trump debating Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) if she gets her party’s nomination. I hope he tries that stunt where he follows his opponent around on stage like an ominous stalker.

I can’t wait.

Laura Owen, Pacific Palisades