America is not Trump
Richard Rees’ critical invective (Letters, 2 March) directed at, variously, the Washington Post, Agence France-Presse and The Nation proposes that articles (his word – what is usually associated with being news in a journalistic meaning, in my view) are nothing but opinion pieces.
A somewhat subjective postulation, me thinks. One can easily suggest that the same applies to any media report, if uncharitably inclined.
He further infers that foreign readers think that the US has turned into a “xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, immigrant-hating behemoth” under Trump. The issue is emphatically not with the US or its citizens, whom I on several visits have found to be an unfailingly kind, generous and pretty much a tolerant race, but with the man himself and the fawning acolytes he has surrounded himself with, including members of the ‘swamp’, as it happens. I do agree, however, that Trump is a breath of air, but it is the quality of it where Mr Rees and I part company. An antonym of “fresh” is apposite, I believe. No-one has to take my word for it; one only needs to revisit his record on the stump, and subsequent to that, to know the facts.
As for two-term Obama; well, we have been treated to this cynical prevarication before, the objective being to impertinently cast doubt on a former holder of the office, and thereby evade the quite proper denunciation of a thin-skinned, self-interested incumbent. I, too, know which one I prefer.
Dr Frank
