To the Editor:

Reading two letter writers in the June 29 issue, I immediately remembered Ronald Reagan’s famous campaign retort, “There you go again.” Both letters are based on disgruntlement and emotionality rather than facts and logic.

The first writer extols Trump as a “breath of fresh air” — a blast of hot air would be a better description. The writer attacks Smoky Mountain News Editor Scott McLeod for telling the truth about “The Donald.” The writer called the truth “misguided beliefs.” 

The fact is that Trump is a liar as confirmed by the impartial organizations that document the truth or falsehoods of statements. He has more “pants on fire” comments than anyone, including Hillary. His business “success” consists of bankruptcies leaving someone else holding the bag and lawsuits averaging two a week often involving avoiding commitments.

Trump’s most recent outlandish statement was praising Saddam Hussein. That should have come as a shock for the families of the solders killed fighting his army in Iraq. You can’t really blame Trump for ridiculous statements because he does not seem to know the difference between fact and nonsense.

The second writer is all gloom and doom because we have lost our “natural rights” — cue dog whistle for old white men are not in charge. He does not list a single “right” that we have lost because there are no lost rights other than the “right” to suppress people who don’t look like us.

He goes on to assert that Rome fell because it “lost its virtues.” He should have watched the “Rise of the Barbarians” on the History channel. Rome fell because of its brutal suppression of all those who were not Roman. This is not a virtue. They used extreme reprisals for any slight, which made every people outside of and under their immediate control hate them. When their territory got too big to defend, the forces outside the empire were able to bring them down.

The reality is that America is not the gloom and doom place the Bush administration left us with in 2009 — the worst recession since the crash of 1929. More people are working and stocks are back up. It’s true the middle class has not had the same benefits as the rich because wages have been suppressed and the tax burden has been shifted from the rich to us. Nobody has taken away anyone’s gun. Not perfect, but getting better.

Norman Hoffmann

Waynesville