Letters

The good thing about reading Letters to the Editor from Ed Surgan is that I don’t have to watch Fox News to get a glimpse into right-wing thinking.

Mr. Surgan starts out his letter [“Significant Danger, Letters, 27east.com, September 7] decrying “Democrat(ic) hysteria,” listing several issues troubling to him, including that Democrats “conjure up nightmares of America succumbing to global warming.”

If I may: It isn’t just Democrats who oppose the Trump presidency. The growing number of prominent Republicans supporting Joe Biden is too numerous to list, but to name the former Republican governors: Christie Todd Whitman (New Jersey), Bill Weld (Massachusetts), Tom Snyder (Michigan) and John Kasich (Ohio).

Then there is the Lincoln Project, founded by prominent and highly skilled Republican campaign strategists, where anti-Trump messaging is plentiful and devastating. Glad they’re on our side.

In 2020, these esteemed opponents of the Democratic Party share with us an appreciation of a democratic system of government that functions best in a realm of truth, reason and logic. Policy differences aside, they see the same gaslighter-in-chief we do, and, like us, they see fundamental harm being done to our country by Donald Trump.

In the words of Gov. Kasich: “I happen to think it’s the soul of our country that is being damaged, and that’s what I’m concerned about.”

Moving on, Mr. Surgan’s dismissal of the damage climate change can cause is willed ignorance. I won’t reference the analysis of the thousands of climate scientists to point out the threat, but rather I’ll point out what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found: “A world wracked by frequent and devastating shocks from climate change cannot sustain the fundamental conditions supporting our financial system.” That’s scary.

Some insurance companies are beginning to incorporate the damage climate change can cause in their risk management analysis.

Smart money people, as well as the Defense Department, know that climate change is life-altering. Trump calls the threat a hoax.

There is plenty to rebut in Mr. Surgan’s letter, but I‘ll close with his claim that “voter fraud is no myth.”

In 2016, Donald Trump couldn’t believe that he lost the popular vote, so he established a Voter Fraud Commission headed by Kansas Republican Kris Kobach. That commission was abandoned after a year with no finding of widespread voter fraud.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has found very few voter fraud cases. In a sampling of five states (Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Hawaii, Washington) they found 97 cases out of millions of votes cast during the period under investigation.

There is a real distinction to be made between voter fraud and voter suppression. Voter fraud is illegal but extremely rare; voter suppression is systematic and outcome-changing.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Mr. Anthony is a former chairman of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee — Ed.