To the editor:<\/p>\n
In response to increasing criticism of the President\u2019s foreign-and previous\u00a0domestic-threats and military actions there has been an uptick in letters supporting Trump\u2019s behavior, no matter how capricious or self-serving it has seemed. This is as it should be in a democratic (small d) republic (small r). Vigorous debate should be the hallmark of our system of three coequal branches of government, unlike authoritarian regimes\u00a0whether left or right wing. The key word in the previous sentence is \u201cshould:\u201d our country no longer functions as our founders enshrined in our Constitution. Two branches of our current government, arguably, are in thrall to the third: the Executive Branch, which is the opposite of what our founders intended through our Constitution.<\/p>\n
Another obstacle to a functional democracy is an ill-informed electorate. There should not be disagreement as to what is true-factual-and what is not true, did not take place, is not based on evidence. Yet here we are. Despite fact checking ability at our fingertips many\u00a0have difficulty distinguishing fact from opinion, reporting from propaganda; we are easily manipulated by media which are controlled by supporters of \u201cour\u201d party or we are in fear of the abuse of regulatory resources by the opposition party currently in power. Aside from the corrosive systemic influences on us, as individuals we tend to believe what is consistent with our preconceptions, expectations and assumptions; this is called confirmation bias.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the risks of armchair psychology, I have attempted to understand what makes President Trump tick.\u00a0As a youngster Trump was described as a \u201cbully\u201d who was repeatedly expelled from private schools until he was placed in military boarding school. He did well in that environment which was both highly structured and hierarchical, tolerating (if not encouraging) \u201cbullying behavior.\u201d This has become Trump\u2019s most consistent approach to business, reinforced by his formative relationship with Roy Cohen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump \u00a0has demonstrated admiration for many authoritarian leaders and highly questionable behavior toward several, notably Putin, our major enemy. He also has shown disregard for various norms and traditions if not our actual laws.\u00a0Perhaps equally\u00a0serious are Trump\u2019s violations of\u00a0legal\u00a0behavioral standards, not least his 20-year friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, most of which remains hidden in Trump\u2019s DOJ files.<\/p>\n
The preceding was the foundation for expressing my most recent concerns about our President. I fear he is decompensating before our eyes: Trump\u2019s gait, speech, thinking and now judgment are impaired. He lacks basic filters which is associated with dementia. It\u2019s time to take away grandpa\u2019s keys, especially since he has the launch codes.<\/p>\n
Billy Herman\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: In response to increasing criticism of the President\u2019s foreign-and previous\u00a0domestic-threats and military actions there has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-225865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}