To the editor: Growing up, I was taught and instilled certain values.
Treat everyone with respect. Be tolerant and learn from a diverse population. Take care of those who need help. Do not bear false witness. Don’t steal. Think critically when evaluating someone’s motives. Make your life what you want your eternity to be.
My definition of democracy has become the metaphor of a table with room for everyone. With this electionAmerica has chosen to become selfish and exclusive. President-elect Trump has none of the values I was taught, and apparently that suits the majority of Americans.
After World War II, I remember we were all against fascism; now it becomes a preference. Are we seriously thinking about “realignment”? Individuals and their rights do not thrive under authoritarian regimes.
James Severtson, Reseda
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To the editor: Despite hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) wasted, hyperbolic rhetoric invoking Adolf Hitler, relentless politically motivated legal policy that has undermined confidence in our justice system, assassination attempts and insults towards more than half of the Americans who supported him, Trump prevailed.
Instead of trying to end the warmongering, enact sound fiscal policies, and resolve the myriad domestic problems facing our struggling country, Democrats have chosen to focus on “getting” Trump. This only elevated his status to martyrdom, and now the American people have responded accordingly.
I pray that Democrats will do some soul-searching over the next four years to understand that Americans want their elected officials to focus on them and not personal vendettas.
Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nev.
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To the editor: “My last grocery bill was $500 for five days of groceries,” my cousin from Texas wrote on Facebook, just two days before the election.
As I read the exit poll results from Wisconsin, I am struck by the pain, anxiety and fear that animated average voters in this election. The America that Trump voters see is very different from the one that Vice President Kamala Harris’s voters see in these polls: most perceive the country’s economy as poor, feel worse off than there is four years old and are angry at the direction the country is heading.
Democrats failed to clearly communicate how they were going to solve these problems for the average American. For many of us, the fear of losing our rights becomes secondary when we struggle to put food on the table.
Polls have painted this fact in red strokes in America’s heartland.
Christina Coupe, Van Nuys
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To the editor: Not only did Trump garner enough of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency, but he also appears to have secured the popular vote – which is quite telling. What this tells me is that America has spoken. But who and what is America (and are the Democrats listening)?
America certainly doesn’t have a bunch of A-list celebrities in the entertainment industry, and I’ll throw most of the mainstream news media into that barrel – not all of them, but most of them. “Real” journalists supported neither Harris nor Trump; they were too busy doing their job, covering the chaos as objectively as possible.
Finally, America is not a mega-donor (there aren’t really many relative to the general population).
America, to me, is the average person on the street, with an average job and an average family. They are not rich, famous, or powerful. They are just people, and on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, these people spoke up. And they said they preferred what Trump represents to what Harris represents.
Simple enough?
Arthur Saginian, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: It was so hard to get up Wednesday morning (after not sleeping), look at my two daughters, and think about the America I brought them to.
Then one smiled at me, blissfully unaware, and the other said happily, “Hello Dad.”
The next four years will be difficult, the damage will last even longer, but they have four presidential cycles to grow and then vote and move this country forward into the America it should be.
This gives me hope.
Michael Smallberg, Menlo Park, California.
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To the editor: I thought I had seen just about everything in my 93 years. I think I know now that a lying, cheating, morally bankrupt snake oil salesman was elected to the highest office in this country.
Our Supreme Court is a sham, and Republicans put party over country. I have lost all respect for just about everything in this country.
Trump’s only intelligence is knowing how to manipulate, know and lie. He’s very good at that.
God bless our country; we’re really going to need it.
Ardyce Martin, ban
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To the editor: Remember less than 40 years ago, when a photo of a man with a woman who wasn’t his wife sitting on his lap was enough to disqualify him for president in the court of public opinion?
Gary Hart was clearly a man ahead of his time.
Ronald O. Richards, Los Angeles
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To the editor: To everyone who voted for Trump, I welcome you to the real world. The Great Illusion will soon be revealed and unmasked.
A drop in prices of consumer goods such as groceries will not occur. The deportation of millions of immigrants will never happen. You won’t find “vermin” because it never existed.
Tariffs that will improve the economy – no question. Making America a better place for all, including equal justice under the law – forget it.
Those under the Great Illusion will soon be “harvesting the whirlwind” of reality, but we all better buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride over the next four years.
Rex Altman, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I…can’t…breathe.
Judith Braun, Woodland Hills
