Washington residents march through the Columbia Heights neighborhood in protest of President Donald Trump’s seizure of local police and anti-immigration policies, on Aug. 22.DOMINIC GWINN/Getty Images
Follow the leader
Re “What Donald Trump’s crackdown looks like from the streets of Washington” (Aug. 30): In 1990, I was teaching English in Barcelona.
One day, I noticed people wearing black armbands. When I asked my students why, they told me it was in recognition of Francisco Franco’s birthday.
I was taken aback. Why would anyone mourn the loss of a fascist dictator? I was told it was because they believed that, under him, the streets were safe.
No one is angered by a drop in crime, but I would remind Americans that the streets were safe under Franco; they were safe from East Berlin to Kamchatka under the Soviet regime; they were safe in Santiago under Augusto Pinochet, and so on.
But were they safe for dissenters, minorities, political opponents, the press or other “enemies of the people?” Those endorsing Donald Trump’s deployment of troops in Washington seem happy with yet another strategy from the authoritarian playbook.
There’s a price for that.
Rob Ruttan Barrie, Ont.
Re “Donald Trump is on the brink of becoming a dictator. Can he be stopped?” (Opinion, Aug. 30): If columnist Andrew Coyne is right about America’s imminent slide into totalitarianism, Canada better hurry up and learn to stand on our own two feet.
I’m not sure what odds history books give for the continued “independence” of poorly defended, resource-rich, overly dependent neighbours of aggressive superpowers, but they can’t be good. All it would take is the imposition of hardline U.S. sanctions on Canada.
With major U.S. corporations falling in line, most everything our government, society, infrastructure and military use to function (think Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc.) would stop, leaving us ripe for takeover with nary a shot being fired.
Patrick Winter Toronto
Is the U.S. Supreme Court very smart?
Right now, these U.S. justices have themselves cushy positions. They have prestige and what many would say is a noble calling: upholding the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law it supports.
But for some reason – complacency, or political leanings? – their legal rulings have failed to recognize that Donald Trump’s likely intention is to remove their power. So will they wake up in time and stop his drive toward absolute power before it is too late? It may depend on how clever they are, and how motivated to hold onto their oh-so-privileged positions in American life.
And on that shaky foundation must rest our hopes of limits being placed on Mr. Trump, would-be dictator. The self-interest of nine lawyers in black robes may save us all.
Colin Beattie Ottawa
Donald Trump is well on his way to heading a fascist government, but I see him as just the frontman for a movement that has worked hard, and with great organization over several decades, to position itself to take control of the United States.
Much of this has been aided by a conservative movement which itself does not seem to wish to destroy, but to slow down change. One may think, for instance, of speechwriter David Frum creating slogans for George W. Bush, yet now decrying the results of his own success in leading Americans to this point.
Meanwhile the centre, exemplified by U.S. Democrats, has too often gotten lost in slivers of cultural debate. There does not seem to be any effective left in either Canada or the U.S.
W. B. Yeats comes to mind: “What rough beast” indeed?
Lucretia Martenet Calgary
For me, the most disturbing aspect of this column was not in the text, but rather the photo of workers hanging a massive Trump portrait on the exterior wall of a U.S. federal building.
It seems the likes of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong Un now have competition in the realm of institutionally sanctioned leader worship.
Jeff Goldman Toronto
Man up
Re “The complex crisis facing men today” (Aug. 29): In scholar Richard Reeves’s 2022 book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It, one of the policies he promotes is the “redshirting” of boys, where they start school one year later than girls.
He talks less about the biological differences between male and female brains, and more about the timing of brain development. Girls’ brains develop earlier than boys’ brains, specifically the prefrontal cortex of the brain that is critical for executive function, decision making and emotional regulation. Consequently, the education system naturally discriminates against boys.
“There is strong evidence that both men and women are presently in distress,” but we neglect the problems of boys and men at our peril. The left seems to avoid the subject of male disadvantage for fear of appearing anti-feminist; the right exploits the same problem in its partisan culture wars, drawing more and more young men into unsavory corners of the manosphere.
Lauralee Morris MD Brampton, Ont.
The likely most obvious challenge facing men’s employment, and its resulting sense of purpose, in our day and age? Technological advances and automation.
The conversation regarding the disorientation of men in society tends to focus on the progress of feminism or sex differences, but I believe much of it has to do with the loss of man-powered labour. There are certainly machines that make traditional “women’s work” easier, but “men’s work,” especially in the lower-educated echelons, has been nearly eradicated by technology used in farming, mining, construction, etc.
The irony here is that it is largely men who have invented the machines replacing themselves.
Anita Jain Vancouver
Phone it in
Re “Do school cellphone bans work? The results are mixed” (Aug. 30): Whatever happened to just saying no?
We hear of many schools in Australia and Florida that have simply banned cellphones during the school day. What is the problem here?
Are school administrations afraid of pushback from parents who feel the need to communicate with their children at all times? Are teachers themselves addicted to cellphone use? Do schools no longer feel they have the right or means to enforce rules?
Cellphones have contributed to a generation lost to anxiety, depression, lack of social skills and challenges in literacy and critical thinking. In author Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, he makes clear that children should have no smartphones until 14.
Carol Lewis London, Ont.
As a recently retired high school teacher and guidance counsellor, I was privy to considerable cellphone use.
One memorable moment occurred when an engaging student raised her hand 25 minutes before the end of class and asked, “Sir, can I leave class? My Uber Eats is here.”
“What?” I exclaimed.
“Yes, I know, he’s early.”
Greg Enright Hamilton
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