It is tragic that Lawrence McSwain's response Feb. 21-23, to my letter Feb. 14-16, was so full of errors, fumbles and fouls.
First, in response to my question in my letter, he apparently would have no objection to Trump destroying regulations that have the purpose of protecting investors, depositors and the economy in general. I think this attitude is unwise.
Second, McSwain is the one who needs a history lesson, not me. His explanation for the "2007-08 recession" ends with the "Fox News-type analysis and conclusion": it's all the fault of those liberal Democrats. The real truth is that the recession was due to: i) greedy-selfish behavior in the financial industry, and ii) complex financial products such as credit-default swaps and collateralized debt obligations. Many books have been written about this. One of the easiest to read is The Big Short by Michael Lewis. I have read that book and several others.
Third, McSwain casts doubt on my observations about the polls and public opinion about Trump. All of you readers have the right to pay attention to news that you like and ignore the news you don't like, but if you are like me you will pay attention to or be aware of all of the news.
Fourth, McSwain ties the low world opinion of Trump to his "America First" philosophy because every country but America would be "Number 2" or lower and, according to McSwain, it would be understandable that they might give Trump some negative payback. Is "America First" a good idea? It is a debatable question whether the USA is - overall - better today than, say, three or four decades ago. Although a detailed discussion on this question is beyond the scope of this letter, I also recall that American foreign policy always included a positive attitude toward egalitarian participation in world democracy through United Nations procedures and compliant participation in the world economy according to World Trade Organization processes. Imperialism declined to nothing in the 20th century, and that included the USA giving the Panama Canal to Panama as evidence of the end of American imperialism.
During about the same period, Europe backed out of Africa, and British imperialism ended by giving India its independence and relinquishing Hong Kong to China. Thus, it might be a big mistake for this country to become isolationist and start treating its neighbor countries as second class citizens.
Fifth, McSwain asks me to tell him how many times Trump has been charged with or convicted of a crime and then said "none" and "none" to answer his own questions. On the internet, at www.quora.com, it is stated that there are about "75 open lawsuits against Trump" as of Oct. 25, 2016, and "over a 30 year time span, Trump has been involved in roughly 3,500 lawsuits." At Lawnewz.com it says "Donald Trump is named in at least 169 federal lawsuits." Recently he was the defendant in a class-action lawsuit over Trump University and he decided to settle rather than risk a full trial that could end in a guilty verdict. Reading about these and related details is just breathtaking. Who is McSwain kidding? Other Trump crime? Why won't he release his tax returns like all the other presidents during their campaign? What is he hiding? Oh, the IRS is auditing him? My money is on a smoking gun there! And, his business conflicts with his official job? Off the scale! Finally, his recent immigration executive order didn't very well survive a trip through our court system, and that showed us that King Trump is neither as omnipotent as he would like to think he is, nor full of perfect justice, either.
Arthur E. Sowers
Harbeson
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