Changing political opinions

Commentary for everyone

Regarding “Trump’s rhetorical race war disgusting” (Outlook, July 31): After reading Kathleen Parker’s column, I was ready to cancel this paper outright, but Marc A. Thiessen’s column “Baltimore attack by Trump was spot-on” (Outlook, Aug. 1) brought me back to reality. There really can be thoughtful political opinions without calling everyone a racist.

Walt Stabell, Seabrook

Unvarnished entertainment

Regarding “Democratic hopefuls draw ideological battle lines” (Front page, July 31): After watching Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, I again was convinced that these are at best pseudo policy debates.

As someone who has taught argument for 45 years, I believe the current television debate format doesn’t permit a rigorous and thorough clash of different ideas; 60-second soundbites and lightning round responses are not arguments. Worse, it makes little sense for the candidates, prompted by the moderators, to get lost in the weeds regarding who has the best policy to solve a problem or who occupies which political lane: moderate, progressive, etc.

Presidents are not always people with the best or even fully developed policies entering office. Therefore, the question that should have been but wasn’t discussed explicitly is: Which candidate has the best chance of working with a Congress that may be controlled by a different political party to get their or other proposals adopted? To be fair, most of these candidates have good ideas and potentially effective policies, but none of them automatically will have their policies adopted when they are sworn into office in 2021. I think voters want to know who actually will get the job done — and we don’t yet have a clear answer to this important question.

Richard Cherwitz, Austin

New law, bad intentions

Regarding “Trump tax returns required under new Calif. election law” (Nation/World, July 31): Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and his ilk have proven that there is no end to the insanity that has become California. With the new law that will surely be proven unconstitutional, California tries to exert powers they don’t have, but on the bright side, such silliness should help put Trump back in the White House in 2020.

James Connealy, Baytown