Kudos to column

Dear editor:

I want to thank Melinda for her “guest editorial” of last weekend. Her gentle admonishing of our president should be done more. He was elected by the Electoral College and that should end the matter for all of us. But I must say, in the 60 years I have been voting for president and experiencing both wins and losses, I have never seen such an egotist and sore loser as the present winner. One would think he never won when we continue to see him parading from place to place campaigning as if the election had not ended.

One does not have to be a psychologist to realize that such regular display indicates an extremely strong lack of confidence in himself. He seems to require that everyone on his staff agree with him on every point of every issue. Further, his fickleness shown in flip-flopping on serious issues demonstrates a very childish attitude.

Now I have not voted GOP on the national ticket for 25 years, even though several GOP candidates of recent years garnered my interest, except for their running mates, notably Sen. McCain. And only an immature adult thinks that either party has all the answers for any given issue.

Those favoring the POTUS who think that all Democrats agree on all the major issues do not understand politics very well, regardless of those critics using the label “liberal” or “progressive” for all who supported Clinton. (One should remind present GOP supporters that it was a Republican who created the Progressive Party in the early 20th century (Theodore Roosevelt, one of my political heroes), and it was Nixon (later to be shamed by the Watergate catastrophe) who created the pollution agency so much in the news today, as well as opening the gates of China to its commerce.)

Of course, our POTUS is not a Republican in the GOP tradition — he is an independent populist (much like Andrew Jackson, and they share certain egotistical traits). If he were, he would listen to senior members of Congress on the GOP aisle more and he definitely would not “tweet” bold, off-the-cuff comments about serious issues that affect all of us, issues that deserve much thought and attention.

Let us hope that although the POTUS will probably not change his style for the next three years, that both sides of the aisle in Congress will work together more. We, the public, deserve a much better compromising attitude than we have seen in the last 12 months.

Thank you again, Melinda, for reminding us that civility and tone play a great role in the leadership of the president of the United States.

God bless him, Congress, and this great country of ours. John W. “Doc” Crawford Hot Springs