Readers write: third party candidates; Trump's free range; verbal recharge
Letters to the editor for the Sept. 7, 2015 weekly magazine.
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont addresses the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Minneapolis on Aug. 28, 2015. Sanders says international rivals would be mistaken to assume he wouldn't use military force if that's what circumstances required. He says the United States should have the strongest military in the world.
Jim Mone/AP
What about third-party candidates?
Regarding the Aug. 3 cover story, “How voters really choose”: I’ve been reading the Monitor for years and enjoy its insight on D.C. politics, but I believe this article missed the mark. I don’t believe we have fair, honest, or open elections in the United States. The current duopoly, made up of Republicans and Democrats, is corrupt and owned by the wealthiest 1 percent (primarily corporations). Third parties are shut out altogether. I consider the country’s best years to be when progressives like Franklin D. Roosevelt ran things. I also believe that given the chance, US citizens (99 percent of the nation) are progressives at heart and are all in complete agreement as to what the US needs to do in order to prosper.
Deanna D. Daniels
Seattle
Trump’s wealth gives him free range
Regarding the Aug. 24 online article “Has the media now accepted Donald Trump? What that could mean”: In my opinion, one reason Donald Trump is surging in the polls as the top contender in the Republican primary is because he does not wear a political mask like the other contenders. Mr. Trump can go without a mask because he is funding his own campaign. In a way this makes him dangerous; his stance on immigration and his words against the “Black Lives Matter” movement can further divide the country. It is a scary thought to imagine waking up the day after Election Day and finding that Trump has won.
Alfred Waddell
Hyannis, Mass.
Verbal recharge
I am a longtime Monitor reader and subscriber, and have for some time wanted to write and say how much I enjoy Ruth Walker’s Verbal Energy columns. It is invariably the first thing I read after I pull the Monitor from my mailbox, and I am always delighted. She has an uncanny knack for writing about things I am just then wondering about, and her good sense, humor, sanity, and masterly craft always dazzle.
Blake Ray
Durham, N.C.