Let Trump start his own country | Letters
Characteristics and traits of effective leadership include intelligence, honesty and integrity, cognitive ability, and tolerance for stress.
Additionally, to be a competent leader in the federal government at any level, you must respect and adhere to laws. The president must consider topic experts who provide facts that are used to develop and implement policy.
President Donald Trump does not exhibit any favorable personal or professional characteristics that successful business or political leaders have. He was before he took office an abject business failure with the Trump Organization now supported by a money-laundering bank, and is likely to be beholden to Vladimir Putin.
Trump did not (he does not and cannot take time to read the President’s Daily Brief) and has not listened to intelligence experts, which is now decimating the country’s well-being in so many ways. His decisions and lack of appreciation for the seriousness of the COVID pandemic have led to many unnecessary deaths and economic devastation.
The only possible way Trump’s presidency could have been a success for the GOP and the country was if he appointed leaders with competence and intelligence in their appointed positions. Unfortunately, “we the people” elected an incompetent, pathological liar, real-estate con man who cares nothing about his presidential oath.
The GOP’s day of reckoning is coming. We would be better off if Trump, his family, and GOP leadership started their own country on a remote island in the north Atlantic off the coast of Russia, and reported directly to Putin.
Mike Bartholomew
Hilton Head Island
No, I’m not grateful for Nancy Pelosi
It’s hard to find words to describe my response to the recent letter, “U.S., be grateful for Nancy Pelosi.”
Ludicrous, ridiculous. absurd and other unprintable words come to mind.
Declaring her to be “the voice of sanity” and claiming she is responsible for “pursuing legislation to bolster the economy despite the White House and Senate leader’s protests and foot dragging” bear absolutely no relationship to reality.
House Speaker Pelosi has and continues to be the chief congressional obstructionist, delaying necessary funds to get our country back on track. After initially holding up funding for the first government bailout program, she went back at it again blocking funding for the Paycheck Protection Program after it was depleted.
She was also one the principals behind President Donald Trump’s impeachment, which proved to be such a colossal waste of time and money. Perhaps if the White House wasn’t so preoccupied with this nonsense, it might have been in a better position to identify and address the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead of being grateful for Pelosi, the U.S. should be outraged. As a country, we do not need an obstructionist, particularly at this critical time in our nation’s history.
Tom Coleman
Hilton Head Island
Risk of COVID-19 not worth destroying the economy
If you compare the COVID-19 pandemic to the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, the long-term effects of what we are now doing is destroying people’s lives.
For someone who is retired and has a steady income stream to only think of themselves and not see the effect this is having on the millions of people that have lost their jobs is appalling.
In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 151,700 to 575,400 people worldwide died from H1N1 during the first year. Approximately 12,450 people died in the United States
No one in 2009 decided to shut down the world’s economy. The United States didn’t add $2 trillion in 2009 to our already massive national debt.
Those who felt that they were high risk could self-quarantine without affecting those who chose not to do so.
There was no hoarding. There were no shortages.
The unfortunate fact of life is people die every day. It is impossible to stop it. The people worrying the most are those glued to social media and television news.
Our feeble attempts to control the virus will not work.
The vast majority of people who get the virus will not die from it. They will then develop anti-bodies that will provide immunity to the disease. That’s how pandemics finally end.
Over time, the virus will be under control no matter what we do or don’t do.
Is it worth destroying our economy, which is happening on the path we are on now?
I think not.
James R. Montgomery
Bluffton
Bizarre, unfounded phrases dangerous
A recent letter included quotes from an article published in The American Thinker that posits that the left wants “integration into global feudalism that would result in ‘a permanent belligerent parasite immigrant class, reduced standard of living for most citizens, Islamism unbound, and subservience to a China-dominated world.’ ” (This is actually happening today, as China steps into the tragic void created by the President Donald Trump-driven U.S. withdrawal from the world community.)
What is The American Thinker, and what is the ideology of this publication? For the sake of transparency, Right Wing Watch points out in Wikipedia: American Thinker “has published an excessively complimentary piece on white supremacy, claimed women ruined public discourse by complaining about rape, and asserted that rainbow-colored Doritos are a ‘gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of homosexuality.’ ”
It is very unsettling to think that any thoughtful person would subscribe to, read from, agree with, and use this as a legitimate source of information.
Triggering, incendiary phrases such as “neo-Marxist dogma,” “global feudalism,” “useful idiots,” and “Deep State” are not just blatantly bizarre and unfounded, they are dangerous.
Surprisingly, I didn’t see the typical, go-to description of Democrats as socialists, which is the standard fare, not just in today’s politics, but for over the past nearly 100 years (FDR was an example of this false accusation).
Voters’ overwhelming support Joe Biden – a moderate Democrat, who is not a “self-serving progressive” – more accurately represents Democrats.
David Schmidt
St. Helena Island
Trump haters refuse to get it
Negativity, pessimism, doom and gloom is all we hear from the media and President Donald Trump haters.
The Mueller/Russia probe proved false and failed. The impeachment proved false and failed. The planned coronavirus pandemic to interrupt the November election will fail. Even Bernie Sanders failed.
What else do you have in your trick bag? Oh yes, no voter-ID and mail-in cheating ballots for aliens and the dead. I forgot. Forgive me.
Remember the N1H1 pandemic during the Obama-Biden years? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 12,450 Americans died in its first year. Remember? Did the media panic the country? Were there hate letters to Obama and Biden? Did the country shut down? No, no and no.
Let’s imagine what “Pay for Play” Hillary Clinton would be doing about the planned pandemic today. How about Obama’s best buddy Joe? They are quiet, in hopes there is a glitch in the restart plan they can seize upon as a Trump failure. Lead from behind. Is that the country you want?
Trump haters refuse to get it. Trump is a businessman. His plan is a businessman’s approach. Thank the Lord the economy Trump built before this was strong so we can endure this tragedy.
Like their Hollywood friends, they pray for the country to fail. Will they be happy then? Will they openly rejoice and pat themselves on the back that their hatred brought down the president? Will the rest of us rejoice with them? Maybe we will hate them instead.
Rick Sweet
Bluffton
Lost Beaufort High graduation of 1939 still painful
A picture of Samantha Foster on the front page of the Beaufort Gazette on April 6 brought back memories of another Beaufort High School canceled graduation that many people never hear of – that of 1939, because of a polio epidemic before there was any cure for that disease.
That was my graduation year from Beaufort High School.
We were notified one Monday morning that school would be closing two weeks early and we would have exams a week early.
Our caps and gowns (which we had to order from afar) would not have had time to reach us in time for our newly assigned graduation date.
Also, we were not allowed to have any guests other than our parents.
We had all selected and purchased our special dresses for what we thought would be a grand celebration, followed by a party.
Instead, we were relegated to having a very simple ceremony with our parents and no party.
I feel Samantha’s pain even after all these years.
Carroll Christensen Sommerville Eve
Beaufort