More from our inbox:
- Trump as Target: Is Another Indictment Coming?
- The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Student Loans, and the Purpose of College
To the Editor:
Re “Trump and Allies Seeking Vast Increase of His Power” (front page, July 17):
Donald Trump plans, if elected next year, to revamp the administrative state, also known to conservatives as the deep state, also known to Mr. Trump as the warmongers, the globalists, the “communists, Marxists and fascists,” “the political class that hates our country.”
Once revamped, this new state would be much more under Mr. Trump’s control, without those pesky independent agencies that are beyond his reach.
We had a state like that in the past, headed by King George III, and decided that we did not like it, which is why we have what are quaintly known as “checks and balances,” designed precisely to prevent the president from amassing too much power.
Are we really ready to replace “Hail to the Chief” with “Hail to the King”?
John T. Dillon
West Caldwell, N.J.
To the Editor:
If someone told Donald Trump that he is merely a tool of the Republican Party, he would be livid. But tool he is, and also a tool of the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and all the billionaires who stand to gain from longstanding Republican tenets, if implemented.
Going back to the Nixon era, conservative Republicans would often say, “The best government is the least government.” During several Republican administrations there have been efforts to reduce the size and the role of government. They have sought a smaller I.R.S., so that earnings of wealthy people would not be audited, and reduced regulation by federal agencies, maximizing the profits of businesses that would otherwise be regulated, at the expense of the health and safety of American citizens.
Mr. Trump is a useful tool to the Republicans, who hope he can normalize discussion about a reduced government in a strongman executive branch. Even if another Republican is elected president in 2024, he will follow the Republican blueprint for the executive branch, and we can kiss our seminal experiment in democracy goodbye.
Ben Myers
Harvard, Mass.
To the Editor:
Those supporters of broader powers for a re-elected President Donald Trump should keep in mind the proverb “what goes around comes around.”
If Republicans are successful in broadening a president’s executive branch powers, those powers could just as easily be used, and abused, by a future liberal Democratic president.
Bert Ely
Alexandria, Va.
To the Editor:
This article about Donald Trump and his allies seeking a vast increase in power for the president almost makes this anti-Trumper want to vote for him. What the article suggests that Mr. Trump will do is long overdue. I just wish he’d shut up and quit social media.
Tom Brown
Kansas City, Mo.
To the Editor:
Donald Trump has said, “I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” This is as clear a statement of intent as Mussolini’s in 1936: “We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them.”
The common goal is to establish an autocracy. With his militarized acolytes, media allies and anti-regulation donors, Mr. Trump presents a clear threat to democracy, rule of law and any hope for equity or equality.
This is the 2024 issue: democracy or autocracy?
Brian Kelly
Rockville Centre, N.Y.
To the Editor:
If people weren’t scared before, they should be after reading this. How fascism comes to the United States.
People of good conscience know what must be done. Save our democracy! Vote!
Alison Goodwin Schiff
New York
Trump as Target: Is Another Indictment Coming?
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Says He’s a Target in Special Counsel’s Capitol Attack Investigation” (news update, nytimes.com, July 18):
Donald Trump announced that on Sunday he received a notice that he is a target in the ongoing federal investigation into the Jan. 6 uprising being conducted by the special counsel Jack Smith. Such notices are almost always followed by an actual indictment.
This is huge news. It felt like a lock that the Justice Department would indict Mr. Trump for his flagrant mishandling of classified documents. But it was far from certain that the evidence would be deemed compelling enough to indict him on charges related to Jan. 6.
In the past it has often seemed as if Mr. Trump was shrouded in an impenetrable Teflon coating and nothing could pierce that protective barrier. Perhaps this, an indictment on charges he helped to incite the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, will prove to be his final undoing.
Whether the news affects his strong front-runner status in the Republican presidential race remains to be seen. But what does seem certain is that it will erode his support in the 2024 general election if he is the Republican nominee and help to ensure that this man never again resides in the White House.
Ken Derow
Swarthmore, Pa.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
To the Editor:
Re “The Hysteria Over Jayapal’s ‘Racist State’ Gaffe,” by Michelle Goldberg (column, July 18):
I write to thank Ms. Goldberg for calling attention to an important point: Israel’s defenders must face the reality that its policies are deeply destructive to the Palestinian people and ultimately to the state of Israel itself.
It is impossible to choose to oppress a people without morally implicating oneself. This is true for a single human and true for any state in our complex and conflicted world.
Unless Israel acknowledges the humanity of the Palestinian people and changes its policies, it is doomed to fail by its own hand.
Marea Siris Wexler
Northampton, Mass.
To the Editor:
Michelle Goldberg’s thoughtful column does not mention the reason the Israeli people and government have turned rightward. The Palestinians refuse to recognize the right of the Israeli nation to exist and have been lax in preventing Palestinian attacks, including murders of Israeli citizens.
Albert Marshak
Atlantic Beach, N.Y.
Student Loans, and the Purpose of College
America’s Student Loans Were Never Going to Be Repaid
During the pandemic, the U.S. paused regular payments for student loans. But repayment was dwindling for at least a decade before that.
To the Editor:
Re “Who Repays Student Loans?,” by Laura Beamer and Marshall Steinbaum (Opinion guest essay, July 16):
Proposed policies to fund or defund public colleges based on students’ labor market outcomes will merely reinforce the notion that colleges are job-training institutions and will further damage liberal arts education at institutions serving minorities and the working class.
Having students rack up more debt will ultimately damage the economy when those indebted former students cannot afford to buy cars or homes, marry or have children.
We should revisit how the interest on student loans is compounded, which forces former students to pay two or three times the original amount of their loans as interest accrues over time.
But in the larger sense, we must rethink the whole system of higher education to see it as a public good rather than a privilege reserved for those who can best afford it.
Max Herman
Bloomfield, N.J.
The writer is an associate professor of sociology at New Jersey City University.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
