To the editor: I grew into maturity 50 years in the past. We had issues — however saying it was a worse time (“America was much more of a mess at the bicentennial than it is today,” June 9)?
That Supreme Court docket didn’t give king-like powers to a president. We didn’t have eight billionaires wielding sufficient wealth to basically management the world. Healthcare was still largely nonprofit.
We didn’t have Fox Information. Information organizations nonetheless had to make use of honest-to-goodness details.
Again then, our president put his peanut farm into a blind trust to keep away from conflicts of curiosity. He didn’t hawk golden Bibles or president-branded telephones.
Fifty years in the past, our president didn’t spend hours writing hate mail, nor was he an previous good friend of a convicted sexual predator. “Conservative” meant one thing again then.
Jimmie Robertson, Dana Level
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To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s column misses the primary purpose why we really feel nostalgia for the previous. It’s as a result of many people have been younger and we miss all the pieces about our youthful days. We miss our unlined faces and powerful our bodies. We miss our now-deceased family members. Our issues of yore didn’t appear insurmountable as a result of our naive outlook on life gave us the misunderstanding that we may finally repair all of it. We nonetheless had hopes for the longer term as a result of we felt we had a very long time earlier than we reached it.
And now, right here we’re, having reached that future — the mirror, the headlines. No marvel we wish to return.
Jill Chapin, Santa Monica
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To the editor: Goldberg writes fact when he recounts the troubles of fifty years in the past and concludes, “You’re grading the current in opposition to a previous that by no means was.” At age 73, I do not forget that time clearly. But Goldberg’s fact is incomplete. As we speak’s world has more than twice as many people, stressing each side of life.
And 50 years in the past, we didn’t have nor may we have now ever imagined having a sitting president who would instigate an revolt to overthrow our authorities.
Bob Wieting, Simi Valley
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To the editor: As a liberal, it’s a pleasure to search out settlement with Goldberg’s column. I graduated highschool in 1970 and skilled the ’70s up shut and private. It was not a great time.
Nevertheless, I’ve one quibble with Goldberg’s thesis. President Nixon was horrible, and specifically a horrible risk to our democracy, however President Trump is worse.
Frank Gruber, Santa Monica
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To the editor: I lived by way of the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, the racial tensions of the ’60s and the Vietnam Conflict. So, regardless of his highness within the White Fortress, as we speak isn’t as painful.
Saul Saladow, Los Angeles
