Letters to the Editor: What the polls don’t show: How Trump’s dirty tricks will affect the election

To the editor: I was encouraged by your article and the USC Dornsife “Daybreak” poll showing former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of President Trump by 11 points, with positive comparisons to where Hillary Clinton was at this point in the campaign in 2016.

But given Trump’s history of dirty tricks and his total disregard of our once-sacred democratic institutions, the next four years are still looking perilous.

Trump’s politicization of almost every facet of our once independent federal government agencies — the post office, the Justice Department, the U.S. Census Bureau and others — along with Russian election interference, massive voter suppression and his misuse of executive orders, threatens all Americans votes.

It is all part of our autocratic president’s determination to use his powers to optimize his chances of reelection and undermine our democratic processes. The Dornsife poll doesn’t take this into account.

Ken Goldman, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: Trump may be losing support for a reason not often discussed. I call it the “what-if factor.”

In 2000, voters did not ask themselves what George W. Bush or Al Gore would do if terrorists hit the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. We have no idea what Gore’s decisions would have been, but many felt that Bush made the wrong choices.

That “what-if” question was apparently ignored in 2016. Voters did not look at Clinton and Trump and ask what would happen if a pandemic were to strike. We don’t know for sure how Clinton would have responded, but we have seen how Trump has failed.

I plan to vote for Biden based on the the personal and political decisions he has made over his lifetime. Hopefully there will be no unanticipated “what-if factor” to define his presidency.

Steve Latshaw, West Hills

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To the editor: I’m old enough to remember 2016 and the false sense of security with which I fell asleep one early November night.

Now that we know there is virtually no level beneath which our president won’t stoop to “win” another election — from cozying up to the Russians to threatening our mail system — I’m not going to let headlines and articles like this fool me again.

Jim Abrahams, Santa Monica