Letter: We should have listened to Northwest Herald Editorial Board

To the Editor:

We should have listened. A little over four years ago, the Northwest Herald published the following non-endorsement for the 2016 presidential election. In hindsight, it was beyond prescient.

“The Northwest Herald’s editorial board evaluates candidates running for political office based on a set of core values. Among those core values are fiscal conservatism, limited government, personal responsibility and accountability, a belief in a strong family structure, and a staunch protection of First Amendment rights.

Apply these values to the two major party candidates for U.S. president, and neither passes.

The Republican, Donald Trump, is a shallow, narcissistic – perhaps sociopathic– bully who treats women as sex objects, belittles the handicapped, and has skin so thin he lashes out on Twitter against anyone who opposes him.

Just when you think Trump’s campaign has hit bottom, a new, far-worse scandal breaks.

Take the 2005 video and audio recording of Trump’s conversation with then ”Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that broke recently. On the recording, Trump vulgarly discusses kissing and groping women who “let you do it” just because he’s a celebrity.

He later apologized for his words, but attempted to deflect the criticism away from himself by cowardly criticizing his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, for her husband’s, former President Bill Clinton, sexual affairs.

Trump also dismissed his words as “locker room talk.” Make no mistake – his words went well beyond “locker room talk.” In the audio, Trump was bragging about sexual assault.

On policy, Trump is ignorant and dangerously uninformed. He outrageously claimed to know more about the military than U.S. generals.

He touted the ridiculous plan to build a thousand-mile-wide wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. He said the U.S. government should close mosques for no other reason than because Muslims worship there.

He said he would place new restrictions on the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press by opening up libel laws. These are just a few of his policy positions that are either unconstitutional, economically impossible or, well, scary.

Dennis Dreher

Bull Valley