To the editor: Oh, to dwell in Jonah Goldberg’s world, the place one could be so blasé as to conclude that President Trump’s zone-flooding can’t go on ceaselessly. In his world, one can think about that Trump is extra within the look of quasi-monarchical powers than the truth that if he oversteps, members of his coalition “would possibly break with him,” and that “courts are already demonstrating the bounds of presidential energy.”
Actually? Unqualified, harmful nominees have been confirmed for the Cupboard, Elon Musk has shortly accessed delicate info, and worldwide help has been halted. The courts don’t have any enforcement energy of their very own.
So who or what’s to cease Trump? Maybe it’ll take ineffectual responses — or no responses in any respect — to a different pandemic and different crises to rein him in. I’m fearful that is the edge required to alter course.
Jennifer Pinkerton, Glendale
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To the editor: No matter one thinks rational about Goldberg’s observations, ask your self the next:
By what measure ought to the leaders and residents of Canada, Denmark, Greenland and Panama assume the publicly said threats to their sovereignty from the president of the world’s strongest nation are lower than Trump “overplaying his hand”?
In keeping with the creator, the supposed consolation afforded these nations and different nations not but identified is that Trump’s “coalition would possibly break with him.” The United Nations and the overwhelming majority of its member states are little question grateful for such a robust assertion.
For the file, in Goldberg’s written opinion, nothing Trump has advocated thus far ranks as truly having already overplayed his hand. Thus, the “if.”
However, there’s all the time a beachfront rental at Mediterranean Resort Gaza awaiting anybody who thinks Trump is simply “zone-flooding” and never completely unhinged.
Ted Rosenblatt, Hancock Park
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To the editor: Goldberg opines that Trump can’t keep his present tempo of motion. I worry he underestimates the extent to which Republicans’ spineless passivity will allow Trump to persist.
There’s a scene in “The Wizard of Oz” the place the Cowardly Lion agrees to enter the Depraved Witch’s fort, “Depraved Witch or no Depraved Witch,” to avoid wasting Dorothy. However earlier than doing so, he asks the Tin Man and Scarecrow to do only one factor for him: “Speak me out of it.”
I envision an identical scene happening within the properties of some Republican legislators as they head out to the Capitol sure mornings promising that that is the day they lastly converse out defending democracy, “Donald Trump or no Donald Trump.” However, earlier than leaving dwelling, every begs their partner to “discuss me out of it.”
In contrast to the film, there will likely be no recipients of medals marked “braveness” on this Republican Congress.
Stephen Gladstone, Shaker Heights, Ohio
