Two echo opinions - Donald Trump is not qualified to lead

One letter is from the the Press Democrat in Southern California and the second was published in the Kansas newspaper the Topeka Capital-Journal. 

Press Democrat:  Trump’s failed strategies

EDITOR: Every American should Google the show, “Frontline: The Choice 2016.” It details the histories of then-candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Two things stand out in the Trump history. His father taught him to “win at all cost.” (Fred Trump had no tolerance for “losers” in the family.) Second, an old family friend, Roy Cohn told him, “If you don’t win, lie and say you did, and people will believe you.”

When Trump won the election, he started acting out on this advice consistently. He always pretends he is a winner, even when he isn’t. He tells huge whoppers that people actually believe, such as the “birther lie,” the denial of global warming, the lie that Trump is the top expert in every field, etc.

He added a third behavior: attack and blame your opposition when they expose your lies. When he claims “fake news,” look closer and fact check. You’ll find it’s his words that are fake, and the opposite of what he says is actually true.

It’s scary to realize the free world is run by a sociopath whose whole goal is to manipulate others, and that many do believe him. 

From: Susan Joice in Guerneville California

President shouldn’t ignore law

Richard Nixon, who at times seemed to be grappling with sanity while he lived in the White House, told a reporter early in 1974 that if the president does something then it cannot be against the law. In other words, Nixon was above the law.

Now we have another Republican who thinks he too is above the law. And he, evidently, is not alone in that belief. Just weeks after taking the oath in 2017, Trump asked his special counsel if he could pardon himself. Pardon himself for what?

Some legal scholars weren’t too sure that Trump could not pardon himself. Really? And what law school did these opinions develop from? Sometimes it is like living in a parallel universe where reality is being challenged at every turn. Have the Republicans forgotten there is something called the Constitution as Trump increasingly governs with executive orders?

All of this might lead us to believe that the old song in which Judy Collins says to send in the clowns had actually become the norm as the rule of law is being ignored by the president.

From Michal Betz, Wichita Kansas