Letters

I have become inured to the insults that reader Ed Surgan peppers his Letters to the Editor with and have refrained from responding for some time. But a statement in his latest missive must be challenged.

Speaking of the vice president, he says, “She does have the indispensable attributes of color and gender that indisputably qualify her for the leadership of the free world” [“Campaign Commercial,” Letters, September 12].

What an appalling statement. It is an insult to any woman, and especially any nonwhite woman. For, according to Mr. Surgan, women, and especially Black women, no matter how brilliant or successful, have reached the heights they have because of some hidden advantages that come with being female and nonwhite.

Kamala Harris was elected district attorney by the citizens of San Francisco. According to Wikipedia, she cleared 27 of 74 backlogged homicide cases. She also pushed for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun-related crimes.

The voters of California twice elected her as the state’s attorney general, in which office she secured two of the largest recoveries in the history of California’s False Claims Act over excess state Medi-Cal and federal Medicare payments. She obtained a $1.2 billion judgment against for-profit Corinthian Colleges for false advertising and deceptive marketing targeting vulnerable, low-income students.

The citizens of California rewarded her by electing her to the U.S. Senate in 2016. I doubt if the majority of California voters chose to back her because of her gender or racial background.

Mr. Surgan’s favorite candidate, Donald Trump, on the other hand, has achieved whatever success he has because his rich daddy bailed him out time and time again. The self-proclaimed “stable genius” actually bankrupted a casino. Thankfully for him, Daddy was there to help him.

And as for who is actually qualified to be president, I would listen to those who have worked closely with the former president. His vice president, Mike Pence, said he could not back him “in good conscience.” (Maybe threatening to be hanged is a real mind-changer.) Trump’s Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, said, “His use of the presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.” Marine Corps General John Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff, described Trump as “a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.”

His first Secretary of State simply called him “a [expletive] moron.”

John Neely

Westhampton Beach