Damage he could do

When a friend mentioned that Donald Trump had dredged up old rumors about the Clintons’ possible involvement in the tragic death of Vince Foster, I was stunned (though not surprised) by another low point in this campaign season.

The image of Joseph Welch, special counsel for the Army, at the McCarthy hearings 62 years ago, flashed into my memory. He faced down the wretched senator from Wisconsin with the question that should be asked of this year’s Republican presidential candidate: “Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

Two days later on the Voices page, John Brummett called Trump out in much the same way, citing the way in which he brings up unsubstantiated attacks as simply repeats of claims made by others.

When will the electorate recognize the viciousness of such methods and begin to see Trump for the cruel, infantile person he apparently is? Could the United States afford to have such a person hold the highest office in the land? If a Putin or Kim Jong-Un crossed him, would he automatically go for the biggest weapon in his arsenal and plunge the world into nuclear war?

When Trump suggested that he was so popular he could shoot somebody in Times Square and get away with it, should we have seen this simply as hyperbole or wondered if his inflated ego believed that? Is it possible to imagine what damage a Trump presidency might do? MARY DEE TAYLOR Little Rock