Letters: Ruling Washington | Deserving better | Trump’s dark side

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Tech honchos will
rule in Washington

We who are distraught over Donald Trump’s electoral victory should focus more on two deeper causes than voter stupidity and Democratic mistakes.

First, U.S. public opinion is now formed more by seductive lies promoted by libertarian, high-tech bros than by thoughtful truths. Anyone with a cell phone or a computer screen knows this. The lust for power and wealth among the Elon Musk and Pay-Pal Mafia types are now as boundless as their mind-controlling algorithms are powerful. They will control Trump, not vice versa.

Second, most congressional Republicans have abandoned ethical norms. Few Republican defenders of constitutional priorities remain, those like Liz Cheney, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins. The others voted in 2021 not to convict Trump and allowed him to remain eligible for reelection. The Republicans who rid us of Nixon in 1974 would be disgusted.

Ramsay Thomas
Lafayette

Biden deserved better
than Trump victory

Yes, I too am angry and dreading the next four years (at least), but I found myself thinking of what Joe Biden must be feeling.

Imagine if you had spent more than four years working to better the lives of the people you work for, building a more just society, contributing to the health of your country, and cooperating with our international partners, only to have the people turn on you and put all that at risk of the stroke of a pen by the most repugnant president we have ever been saddled with.

I marvel at the strength he is showing in orchestrating a smooth transition for the next administration. It’s going to be a clown show, and we will be thinking fondly of the Biden administration that deserved better than he got.

Nancy L. Morris
Walnut Creek

Trump’s dark side
will come to the fore

Now that Americans have sold their souls for a promise of thirty pieces of silver, the consequences begin.

Donald Trump is organizing a government, not based on qualifications, but on loyalty. The warnings that went unheeded by Americans are being played out. He has been handed unlimited power backed by a cowardly Republican Party and a Supreme Court that refuse to hold him accountable. Trump is not appointing people who will protect Americans but himself.

Like remarrying an abusive ex-spouse, we ignored his dark side. This time it won’t end in divorce, it’ll end in the morgue with the death of democracy, rule of law and American standing in the world. I hope that second cheeseburger was worth it.

Ross Tandowsky
Tracy