It’s not so much that John Balentine’s opinion piece in The Forecaster (“Truths about Trump, part I,” Oct. 15), offers no special insights. Cheerleading for the home team is not expressive of anything but unexamined tribal loyalty. An opinion writer ought to be offering more than credulous and superficial beliefs. That kind of pabulum is on abundant and instant display on television. Newspaper writers are expected to be more thoughtful and original in their presentations, providing the reader some substantive analysis to contemplate. The gullible repetition of the Republican point of view is dull and tedious with a whiff of propaganda and it does nothing to advance the cause of public discourse. Perhaps if the author takes the weekly interval between publications to think deeply about his topic, he will be able to present a more thoughtful and persuasive essay without labelling it as the grandiose Truth.

Walt Dunlap
Freeport

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