Edward Bell’s letters are disturbing, not because he is an apologist for Trump but because he promulgates wrong information and offers no evidence.

He labels those who disagree with him “socialist elites” and “bubble elites” without defining what those terms are supposed to mean. Is a socialist someone who supports social security (a socialist program if there ever was one)? Are socialist elites the people who share their good fortune with charities and believe that the less fortunate should have equal access to health care? Are elites in general people who educate themselves and seek news from several sources in order to avoid the bias that can come with relying on a single source?

He claims that Democrats “regularly send black-clad thugs … to attack Republican marchers” and pay people to disrupt town hall meetings, coyly prefacing with “I believe.” Belief doesn’t let a person off the hook for making such outrageous assertions. Where is the evidence? Who paid these mystery people? Or does Bell base his accusations off the equally biased and unfounded words of a Republican congressman? And, by the way, which town hall meetings and which marchers?

He says that Democrats should “cooperate to move the country forward.” Is it a move forward or backward to take health care away from the poor and middle class in order to award tax cuts to the rich? Is it a move forward to dismiss scientists from a federal scientific review board (not a policy board) and replace them with businesspeople, as was done this week? Is it a move forward to deny the human factor in climate change when scientific study clearly shows human influence? Or perhaps all scientists should be dismissed as elites because they have put in years of rigorous study in their subject of choice. Is it a move forward to support the dying coal industry’s pollution of the environment instead of supporting alternate means for the residents of coal country to earn a living?

It is the duty of every citizen to support and preserve this country for the present and the future; it is not the duty of citizens to support policies that harm and blindly follow an administration that is clearly doing the opposite of making this country great.

Sherry Rind,

Kirkland