TARRED BY EXTREMISTS

In the old days of fair journalism, a footnote would have been added to Scott Taylor’s Jan. 12 column, “Motley crew of extremists who stormed Capitol should give Trump loyalists pause.”

After detailing the blatant anti-semitism of some of the extremists who participated in the Jan. 6 Washington protest, he should have added that while some of President Donald Trump’s followers may revel in anti-semitism, Trump is regarded by many as the most pro-israel president in history. Because of his strong stand against Iran (which won him a bounty on his head), to the U.S. finally officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, to the Abraham Accords, most Israeli Jews consider him their most powerful international ally.

There’s an ideological disconnect between Trump and some of those who choose to support him. We tend to associate radical white supremacists and anti-semites with Trump and radical Black supremacists, anarchists and Marxists with Joe Biden, which is not fair to either, as neither has solicited those extremist groups (anarchists such as Antifa support neither Democrats nor Republicans but chaos).

Trump has sought “patriots,” perhaps better termed populists, who yearn for America to return to its position as the “greatest” country on the planet — free, proud and, at times, overbearing to everyone else.

D.G. Fletcher, Smiths Cove