Readers Write: Trump critic ignores the facts to make case

The Island Now

[Letter-writer Ken] Grossman sticks to the time-honored strategy adhered to by many Trump haters. 

They find the president so detestable, they cannot recognize anything good that has been accomplished in the last 18 months. Evaluating a presidential administration after only 18 months is like evaluating a baseball game after two innings.

It is ridiculous, to say the least.

Grossman says my letter is filled with “selective rants” and “factoids.” 

The points I make are indisputable, available by using Google, and were cited by CNN and the New York Times, not exactly the bastions right-winging thought.

If Grossman read my previous letter more carefully,  he would have known that. But when you cannot respond intelligently, you do not. You resort to name calling and ad hominem attacks which clearly fits Grossman’s debating style.

Readers may note that he can answer none of the undisputed facts.

Like all elitists, he speaks in generalities, emotion and moralism, and he has to stoop to questioning my credential by referring to me as a “would be” Ph.D. He argues against a fictional depiction of my position and answers none of the points made or facts cited.

Grossman is quick to imply that I am a racist because I had the nerve to criticize Obama’s red line in Syria, his do nothing strategic patience and leading from behind in North Korea and the terrible Iran deal which guarantees a nuclear weapon for Iran in seven years.

In addition, Obama made certain that Israel was branded an international criminal at the UN by having Samantha Power abstain on the anti-Israel UN resolution instead of casting a veto. 

Grossman thinks that makes me a racist which exposes the quality of his thinking.

If the art of the deal were embraced by Obama, perhaps he would have demanded something in return for the $150 billion he gave Iran in cash in the dead of night.

Maybe he would have asked for no sunset clause, independent inspections of Iran’s military facilities (as opposed to the lying mullahs word) and an end to ballistic missile testing. Obama asked for none of these things when we had all the leverage.

A high school student could have done better.

The intellectually superior Grossman probably thinks that these requirements were unimportant. Any intelligent person, even from the esteemed Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton should know better. He assigns thoughts and opinions to me that I do not express.

Then, he argues against his fictional depiction. 

The point of my last letter was simply to point out the good things that have happened in the last year and one half. Readers will notice he has not responded to any of the things that have been accomplished.

Does Grossman deny the existence of things such as the unemployment level, the booming economy (please google what Warren Buffet said about this economy), the extraordinary rise in the stock market, the defeat of Isis, the tax cuts,  and many more things that positively affect millions of Americans? 

Or, does he just think they’re unimportant?  Grossman purports to be a clear thinking Princeton scholar, but he will not answer these points because he cannot.

As usual, Grossman guesses wrong about my opinion and my beliefs.

He says I have no concern for our country. In his narrow view, only Trump haters care about our nation, our children and our grandchildren. This is of course patently ridiculous but not beneath Grossman’s standard of respectful debate.

The articles I suggested he read were cited by CNN and the NY Times, and I did not include any right wing opinion pieces in my previous letter.

I would have thought such a brilliant historian would know the difference between an opinion piece and a news article.

Saying he assumes that I would have described Hitler as having a character flaw is nothing short of morally repugnant.

Quite disappointing for such an educated and fair-minded scholar. He suggests that I have admiration for Mussolini so he can argue against that straw man.

This is quite a juvenile strategy.

If Grossman thinks that teaching at the Senior Center in Great Neck is an indicator of his intellectual brilliance, he is sadly mistaken. 

I taught at an accredited university and have an actual, not a “would be” Ph.D. degree. from a real university. However, this conversation is about the ability to process and analyze information.  Perhaps Princeton didn’t teach that.

Like so many who cannot engage in respectful dialogue, Grossman denigrates me, calls me names and dismisses my academic credentials. He holds this elitist attitude because he attended Princeton. 

He tells extraneous lies and tries to make points that should be beneath him. It is too bad that Grossman is unable to participate intelligently and to the point.

Barry Nathanson, Ph.D

Sands Point

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