To the editor: I find many of President Biden's policies and progressive liberal agenda barely tolerable, but there's something about former President Trump that has gotten under my skin (and it has little to do with his inability to keep his mouth shut). (“Former Vice President Mike Pence says he does not support Trump,” March 15)
It all started with vague, nebulous accusations that Trump is a threat to our democracy, something I wanted to define much more clearly. So I looked it up.
In the simplest terms, democracy basically means two things: free and fair elections and maintaining a balance of power between the branches of our government. If those two pillars are compromised, then our democracy is truly lost.
Trump has clearly threatened those pillars by attempting to overturn valid election results and manipulate or sabotage the legislative and judicial branches to suit his needs.
I strongly disagree with many of Biden's policies and progressive agenda, but supporting the continuation of this president's administration is increasingly better for our country than re-electing Trump. The first is a poison we will probably survive; We will be very sick and weak, but we will survive. We may not survive the latter.
Arthur Saginian, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: During Trump's first term, those of us who saw strong echoes of Hitler in him were labeled extremists. His speeches provoking violence and his worship of autocrats were seen as simply hyperbolic.
What do you think now? From saying in 2016 that many immigrants are rapists and murderers, he now says that “these are animals.” His political opponents are “vermin.” And it goes on and on.
If you read Hitler's “Mein Kampf,” you'll see language like this, in some cases word for word.
And, of course, he praises even those convicted of the January 6 riots as heroes. This is not hyperbole. It is a direct and unprecedented attack on American democracy.
As a former judge, I have believed that the courts will serve as a bulwark against this threat. But seeing the devolution of the US Supreme Court's jurisdiction to political partisanship and Trump-appointed federal judges making extremist rulings, I'm less optimistic than before.
Victor Kenton, Calabasas
