Editor,
I don’t know where Mr. Hickey (April 6 letter) gets his information about Donald Trump. Traitor Tucker Carlson? One America Network? Russia Today (RT)? Trump has long praised Putin as his fellow traveler, his idea of a smart man, the kind of man the world needs more of. He prefers Putin’s word over that of our intelligence agencies (see Helsinki and the vanishing Summit notes). Notice also how both men talk about “fake news” and “cancel culture?”
Mr. Hickey seems to have forgotten a few things when he writes: “Trump has not been president for well over a year and has nothing to do with Russia, Russians, the Ukraine or the war.”
Thank God. For if Trump were still president, I’m 100% certain that NATO would not have been organized to respond, Europe would not have had the leader in America that pulled it together to respond, and thus Putin would now be in total control of Ukraine. Trump bad-mouthed NATO and Europe throughout his term, while Biden saw the invasion coming and rallied our allies from the day he took office. All of the western democracies’ responses we see reflects long preparation by Democrats and Biden.
Does Mr. Hickey recall Trump trying to strong-arm Zelenskyy in that famous phone call, holding up the weapons needed to hold Putin off in the Donbas? Only after being caught red-handed did he release the weapons that had been approved months earlier by our Congress. Which self-dealing on Trump’s part brings us to John Kennedy’s good phrase, here bastardized to accurately describe both Trump and Putin: Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what it can do for me.
Mr. Hickey then finishes with the usual bull, that Democrats believe Trump “’stole’” the election from Hilary Clinton. I have yet to hear that from any Democrat. Perhaps it is a talking point of the “news” outlets I noted before: They always seem to know what Democrats “really” think.
He says Joe Biden has made a “complete mess” of our country. Gas prices are a bit higher than we’d like (thanks, oil companies and producers, including Putin and his war of conquest), but what else? Employment is strong; people are switching jobs to find something better (the American Way, Mr. Hickey); he has been excellent on Ukraine.
Republican officeholders uniformly say “No!” to everything Biden and the Democrats try to do. It is said they are responding to their base (a good chunk of it being Nazis and white supremacists – I read their website endorsements in 2016 and 2020). But that is not a mark against Joe Biden. It’s a mark of how people like Mr. Hickey continue to find common ground with those Nazis and supremacists. If I found myself a political bedfellow of such people, I’d rethink my beliefs and views. Perhaps Mr. Hickey will consider doing the same?
John Seyfried
Bayview
