Dear Editor:
A comment, that Donald Trump was on track to winning Greenbrier County by a 70% margin made by Ben Anderson, the Republican County Chairman, started this series of letters. The national polls show Joe Biden by a landslide. If Ben is right, this would be a sad commentary on our county. So what is the appeal of Donald Trump?
Trump is the chaos president. Trumpism is not a political philosophy: that’s why this year the Republicans have no party platform. Trumpism is not a movement; it is simply the demagoguery of one man. He is the protest candidate who appeals to the angry voter.
In four years Trump has told over twenty thousand lies, and worse: his followers know he’s lying and approve of it. But why?
The grotesque beauty of these lies is that upon this cloud of chaos, his followers can project anything they want Trump to be. He’s going to build a wall, he’s not going to build a wall. This frustrates the intelligent and well educated as being nothing more than lies, but the attacks of the elitist educated on Trump’s falsehoods are seen as an attack on his followers.
In order to avoid discussing solutions, they need an enemy to blame. With blame you don’t have to take any personal responsibility or be part of the solution. This fits perfectly with the learned helplessness of the Republican Party.
West Virginia needs healthcare. We have an aging population, the highest percent of handicap persons, greatest obesity, and lowest life expectancy of any State in the union.
Republican Attorney General Morrisey and Donald Trump are working to take away the healthcare benefits of one third of West Virginians and cut social security to boot. The only offered replacement is: chaos! So why would West Virginians want to do away with their only healthcare? It’s because West Virginians don’t believe what Republicans say they are trying to do. They sort out the inconsistencies what they want to believe.
Paul Detch
Lewisburg