In the Aug. 3, 2016 News Times Newspapers, Dr. Wayne Roth wrote a letter in response to Jerry Kremer’s column criticizing Donald Trump.
While Mr. Kremer does not need me to defend him, several of Roth’s statements are so ludicrous that I need to respond.
Early in his piece, the line “I applaud America First,” appears.
I’m certain that what Roth is saying is that he, like Trump, puts our country first. What is missed by both gentlemen is the history of the phrase America First which makes it controversial.
Founded in 1940, the America First Committee opposed U.S. entry into World War II as well as aid to England.
Many joined the AFC as a way of opposing FDR and the New Deal. Others had more sinister motives such as anti-Semitism.
A good example of this point of view was Charles Lindbergh who was virulently anti-Semitic in speech and actions.
The lesson to be learned here is that Trump critics were not questioning Trump’s love of America, so much as his abject failure to know and understand our country’s history and why “America First” was an unwise slogan.
Trump’s abysmal ignorance was referenced at the Democratic National Convention when Mr. Khizr Khan took a copy of the U.S. Constitution from his pocket offering it to the Republican nominee.
Roth acknowledges that “Trump made disparaging remarks about Muslims and Mexicans.”
He excuses this behavior pointing out that “Mr. Trump is not a politician. He only entered the political arena one year ago. He does not have the handlers and advisors who groomed him…in the art of political doublespeak…”
Here is an admission that, as a neophyte, Trump knows little, and worse, has yet to surround himself with knowledgeable advisors.
No person aspiring to be the leader of the free world should use inexperience as an excuse for bigotry.
On excluding Muslim refugees to America, Roth states: “I want them to answer as to whether or not they believe in Sharia law.”
This seems reasonable, but how does one ascertain such information. Surely, one cannot expect a terrorist to admit to being a member of ISIS and a follower of Sharia law.
In a convoluted discussion of Mexicans and criminality, Roth references Ann Coulter as his source.
Is this the same Ann Coulter who espouses public flogging? Is this the Coulter who said: “I think that there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote.”
Such antedeluvian ideas have no place in reasonable discourse any one spouting them is a buffoon.
Roth, like Trump, is convinced that Mexicans are rapists and engage in homicide, kidnapping and drug dealing.
Here too, Trump has an adversarial relationship to the truth.
Here are the facts. The main reason the undocumented have a high crime rate is because the mere entering the U.S. makes them criminals.
In the highly respected journal the Economist it is noted that “…cities such as San Diego and San Antonio have many undocumented Mexican immigrants, but relatively low crime rates.”
Data shows that illegal persons are actually less likely to be incarcerated then U.S. citizens.
How does Trump manage to get it so wrong?
He does so by generalizing from a very small sample.
For instance, he cites the murder of a young woman in San Francisco several weeks ago and extrapolates that this is a nationwide phenomenon.
While Trump brags about his excellent grades at the Wharton School of Business, he must have slept through any course on statistics.
Also, Trump has no incentive to tell the truth.
He realizes that his loyal followers do not care what he says, to wit,
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Roth mentions the exchange which took place between Trump and Putin assuring us that Trump “never praised Putin.”
Michael Morrell, former Deputy Director of the C.I.A., has another version. Putin complimented Trump and Trump reciprocated:
“Look at it from Putin’s perspective…he’s a trained intelligence officer, worked for the KGB…manipulated people much smarter than Donald Trump. He played this perfectly…He saw that Donald Trump wanted to be complimented.
He complimented him. This led Donald Trump to defend Vladimir Putin’s actions in a number of places around the world. Donald Trump didn’t even understand that Putin was playing him.
If Morrell’s scenario is true, we should all be very frightened.
One of the two major political parties has nominated a man who knows next to nothing about governance, very little about foreign policy, but has his finger on the nuclear codes which could start World War III.
As Hillary Clinton has repeatedly pointed out, Trump does not have the temperament to be president.
I will go one step further. Trump is emotionally challenged…a loose canon…and unfit to lead the free world.
Hal Sobel
Great Neck
Readers Write: Trump unfit to lead the free world
