Letters to the Editor: The GOP will still be an autocratic party when Trump is gone

To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg is wrong about the bleak future of Trumpism after Donald Trump is no longer president.

Trump is a demagogue. He has no reason to be president other than to wield power and escape the consequences of his decades-long unethical and possibly criminal career.

That fits the Republican Party perfectly. It did not write a platform in 2020. Because dictators don’t need plans, they just make things up.

Currently, Trump is engaged in a soft coup against American democracy. He seeks to overthrow a legitimate election, not with the military, but with thugs on the streets, phony lawsuits and by brow-beating Republican officials.

When fewer than 30 Republicans in Congress admit that Joe Biden won the presidency, they are subscribing to Trump’s playbook. The sheep aren’t looking to follow an ideology; they are actively soliciting a strongman.

John Gallogly, Los Angeles

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To the editor: What anti-Trumpers like Goldberg fail to appreciate is that a voter has to make a choice. My choice was based on the spectacle of a nightmare Hillary Clinton presidency.

It’s like when you were a kid at the annual family reunion. One uncle was a crashing boor, but he told you a dirty joke and slipped you a five-dollar bill when your parents weren’t looking. Another would yammer on about why you should go to church at least twice a week. If you’re a kid, whom would you choose?

Trump’s boorish behavior is simply not an issue for sober-thinking individuals, but it’s all-consuming for liberals.

David Pohlod, Oak Park

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To the editor: Kudos to Goldberg on the creation of the best oxymoron to be added to our modern political lexicon — “intellectual Trumpism.”

Robert Shapiro, Laguna Woods