Far too much extremism on both sides | Letters to the editor
A reader sees an Orwellian reality in the U.S., with far too much political extremism on both sides.
The disturbing vision of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is coming to pass in America.
Right-wing and left-wing elements have joined hands in their attempts to destroy the American experiment by adulating autocrats and calling for book censorship at one extreme, or defunding the police and promoting the ambitions of terror networks on the other.
Both have unleashed the specter of antisemitism by their respective embrace of extremist groups at both ends of the political spectrum. Trump excites his MAGA base with Nazi references to root out the radical left thugs “that live like vermin” and promises to build vast camps for undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, progressives hawk their vision of “liberation theology” in which the American founders cared for nothing less than perpetuating slavery and white oppressors violently suppressing the aspirations of people of color.
As Orwell feared, it is now impossible to distinguish the two sides in their contempt for the norms of American democracy and their shrill demands to shatter the body politic.
Jonathan Rubin, Deerfield Beach
Hold powerful accountable
Congratulations on the Sun Sentinel editorial, “Senator’s lucrative but questionable insurance sideline.”
You have recognized the obvious conflict of state senators who invest in homeowners’ insurance companies while at the same time sidestepping legislative action that would reduce outlandish insurance premiums.
Any reduction in premiums would reduce the return on their investment. Yet, according to your editorial, the problem is only one of optics. It appears that ethics don’t seem to exist.
At any rate, please continue to provide journalistic integrity. Investigative reporting is a hallmark protection in American society and it must continue.
Charles K. Stein, Boynton Beach
The links between oil and war
The last time I looked, Muslims and Jews were both Semites.
Their bones break alike, they bleed, they feel pain and terror alike. Almost none of them wish to kill or be killed. Religious fanaticism and too much money available for killing makes for war. I wish that neither the United States nor the Muslim oil-exploiting nations would give Israel and Hamas financial aid and weapons.
There is a connection here. Global warming makes it smarter to drive less and to force the U.S. to implement oil conservation measures like we did in World War II. The sooner we get serious about preparing for it, the more likely it is that industrial civilization will survive.
Robert Cogan, Boynton Beach
Trump must be stopped
My school roommate back in 1979, before he died on his motorcycle, worked in the forensic unit at Florida State Hospital (in Chattahoochee, near Tallahassee).
At 6-feet-4 and always “down to” 260 pounds, this marvelous fellow from Chattahoochee once explained to me that when a patient said, “I’m going to change the shape of your face,” meaning from a vicious attack, that he was really asking to be stopped. Surely that was the hidden and better side of a human trying his best to do good rather than evil.
I hope everyone sees now that Donald Trump suffers from “malignant psychopathy” (check the definition). By telling us that he would install in the White House a much more effective team of democracy take-down artists than was available in his previous administration, a remnant of humanity in him may be fighting its way to the surface as he subconsciously gives us a shot at stopping him.
The voters of America will determine the future of not only our democracy, but of many around the world. Like it or not, as our stability goes, so goes the world’s. We must not fail to stop this dangerous, sick man.
Rick Soskis, Havana, Fla.