Letter to the editor: Looking at logic on Trump

The last time I got into an argument over partisan politics, I tried to explain to someone that the tariffs President Trump imposed on Chinese imported goods were common sense. It was a moderate course of action intended to manage the trade imbalance in a global economy.

I tried to explain that his attempt to open relations with North Korea was potentially beneficial, and that peace and human rights activists should have supported the effort, irrespective of party affiliation. They didn’t. Note how North Korea has been firing barrages of test missiles lately, happy with Joe Biden in the Oval Office. It was all the more dense of me to suggest that the admittedly nauseating club-kid relationship between Trump and Vladimir Putin might have been the greatest hope for world peace. Never mind that the war against Ukraine started during Biden’s, not Trump’s, presidency.

The gent I was arguing with had only one line of reasoning to support his opposing position: that Trump has a narcissistic personality and acted solely for purposes of ego gratification. I tried to explain that if he took the most humane and appropriate course of action, it doesn’t matter that he may have done so for ego gratification.

Democrats have devolved to a childish form of reasoning: It’s wrong because Trump did it. If Trump said 1 + 1 = 2, he would be wrong and deplorable. Naturally, if a Democratic politician said the same thing, it would be correct and commendable. I am not a Trump supporter. As a voting Dem, I am one very unhappy logician.

Bruce Reisner

Perry South