I disagree with many of the ideas expressed in “Let the President Lead,” by Warren Goldberg. He is obviously a Trump voter, but not a racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobe, I think. But what are the Trump supporters?
Trump supporters, I believe, are not empathetic types. After all, the top 1 percent has gotten wealthier and more powerful, especially in controlling the media, consumer choices, and paying very low taxes. Without laws to protect people, special laws, there will be more wrongs: widespread hunger, homelessness, lack of medical care, racist, homophobic, religious-oriented attacks, etc. Many other kinds of discrimination unprotected by special laws will cause crimes to rise because certain groups don’t fit the white American Christian fundamentalist ideal. Without some economic laws to offer protection from Wall Street and bank abuses, laws like Dodd-Frank, the financial sector will once again win, and the gap between rich and poor will be widened. Without higher taxes on the wealthy and closing corporate loopholes, good programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, will be cut or abolished.
Of course, it seems that Trump supporters are cheering his appointees: climate deniers, anti-environmentalists, oil and gas executives, opponents of public education, unions, and food programs. Well, when our public lands and private properties are drilled and piped to death so that there beauty is gone and pollution of air and water is rampant, where will our Environmental Protection Agency be? Floating in the debris left behind!
What will we and our children inherit? The United States will be a country that offers limited opportunities for those who are not well-trained, well educated or born into wealth. Water and air pollution and more chemicals in our food system will be sickening all of us. Public education , of course, will not be receiving the support it deserves as well as unions which protect workers, No special laws will be around to help sustain us and the environment.
I believe we are going backwards, over the cliff and falling into the abyss. Unless we all join together to fight injustice, protect and help those institutions and people being targeted, the American Dream will fail. I predict that the new president and his cabinet will unfortunately mislead.
—Elaine Peters
