Sunday letters: Our new scapegoat; Democrats hating Trump

Creating a racial scapegoat

Recently we witnessed history being made. A new racial stereotype − the cat-eating Haitian who is stealing our country − was created out of thin air.

We are all familiar with other such stereotypes: the greedy Jew who uses Christian blood to make matzoh; the watermellon-eating Black man who rapes white women. These revolting stereotypes have lived for centuries, like embers that smolder on a forest floor until someone fans them into a frenzy of violence − a lynching or a Holocaust − whenever society needs a scapegoat.

Never in my lifetime have I actually seen a new scapegoat being created. It is a lie − Donald Trump and JD Vance admit it − to whip up the mob against immigrants and harden it against the miseries of ethnic cleansing that it will carry out on their behalf.

Already, the MAGA mob is making bomb threats against innocent children, and more is on the way now that Trump has sent the hounds on his prey. Could anything be more evil?

James Dealy, Providence

Democrats persuaded to hate Trump

In her letter to the editor, "Unlike Trump, Clinton conceded her race" (Sept. 8), Gloria J. Fish resorts to wordplay lying and misleads the readers into considering that Hillary Clinton made the honorable gesture of conceding her race that she lost in 2016.

Avoiding the widely held truth that actions speak louder than words, Ms. Fish omits any mention of the myriad of videos and newspaper accounts that prove beyond all doubt that, while Clinton may have "said" she concedes, she was lying because, in a short time after the election, she proclaimed Trump to be an illegitimate president. The number of Democratic voters, such as Ms. Fish, who have not only been persuaded to hate Donald Trump by the Democratic machine but also to hate U.S. citizens who want to Make America Great Again saddens me.

While Ms. Fish and other Democratic voters are doing all this hating, the Democratic machine took away their right to vote for the presidential candidate of "their" choice and deviously forced a candidate who never got one vote on them. Trump and the Republicans have never done this nor ever will.

J. Edward Toole, West Warwick

Clinton and the electoral college

Michael J. DiStefano (“Hillary Clinton as election denier,” Sept. 1) declares that on “multiple occasions” Hillary Clinton has said that the 2016 election was stolen from her. I don’t remember ever hearing her say such a thing. I do remember Donald Trump’s constant whining about a stolen election. Maybe it’s the echo of that that Mr. DiStefano is hearing.

But there is truth here. Maybe “stolen” is too strong a word, but it’s a fact that more than three million people were robbed of their votes by an archaic, patriarchal, and totally unnecessary system − the Electoral College. More than three million people in the 2016 election who voted for Hillary Clinton were disenfranchised because of the states they lived in. Their votes − votes that would have won her the election − simply did not count.

The Electoral College assumes that ordinary citizens don’t know what they’re doing when they vote for their president. It was instituted in the early days of the Republic by the powers at the time − white male land owners, who didn’t believe that the people knew enough to be trusted to vote for a president after Washington left office.

Today, we no longer need a small, elite group to decide who should be president based on the states where they live rather than on their individual votes. It is long past time that this system was abolished. In a modern democracy, every citizen’s vote should count, no matter where he or she lives.

But will we ever have politicians bold enough and brave enough to step forward on this issue? As long as the system favors one political party, our elections will continue to be unfairly weighted and unrepresentative of the democratic ideal.

Elaine Kehoe, Providence

Reminder of a political party

Richard Donelly writes in his letter that the movie "All the King's Men" reminds him of a former president who is rallying his troops. He does not specifically mention Donald Trump but you know it is about Donald Trump.

To this I would answer by watching the 1984 Apple Macintosh TV commercial where the leader proclaims "a garden of pure ideology" and the masses are hypnotized by an all-powerful central government, and determine for yourself which political party that reminds you of.

Tony Ricci, North Providence

The congressman and the school shooting

Moments following the Georgia school shooting, Congressman Mike Collins, whose district includes the targeted school, offered his thoughts and prayers − an all-too-common response in such tragedies. These sentiments seem hard to reconcile with one of his 2022 social media posts, in which he vowed to “blow up the Democrats’ cover-up” of the 2020 Presidential election and ended his remarks by firing an assault rifle.

Congressman, what’s it going to be? Will you use your position of public trust to foster constructive dialogue across the aisle and contribute to meaningful solutions for public welfare? Or will you continue to champion violence and maintain the status quo?

Fred J. Franklin, Providence

The dark side of deregulation

Many MAGA adherents as well as many mainstream Republicans support the idea that government regulations are over-bearing, and that de-regulation is the answer to economic growth and prosperity.

So, during the Trump administration many regulations were repealed or modified to allow industries greater freedom in how they handled the manufacture of their products including ensuring the public's safety. One such deregulation permitted the meat industry to conduct self-safety checks rather than the USDA conducting regular safety inspections. How has that worked out? At least nine people have recently died from listeria infections found in Boar's Head meat distributed from a plant that, on its best day, would be viewed as having atrocious conditions.

This is just one example of what can and does happen when de-regulation is conducted in a thoughtless and reckless way endangering the public safety just for the sake of fulfilling a campaign promise. While over-regulation can be burdensome and perhaps unnecessary, not all regulations are bad, but thinking they are without a clear understanding of the consequences of eliminating them is definitely bad.

On election day, ask yourself if the country's safety net of regulations can really afford to be put back in the hands of reactionary zealots ... and vote accordingly.

Louis Sperling, East Greenwich

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Sunday letters: Our new scapegoat; Democrats hating Trump