Nikki Haley 'polite'? Only if you don't care about trans people

Letters to the Editor: Nikki Haley was ‘polite’? Only if you don’t care about trans people

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign rally in Gilbert, S.C., on April 6.

June 9, 2023 3 AM PT

To the editor: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said this at her recent CNN town hall:

“How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year. We should be growing strong girls, confident girls.”

In his column on former President Trump’s bullying, Jonah Goldberg wrote this about Haley’s town hall performance: “Haley was generally polite, polished and coherent.”

So the fear of biological boys in a girls locker room is why one-third of our teenage girls contemplate suicide? Seriously?

Does Goldberg think this kind of incredibly dishonest statement reflects a polite, polished and coherent performance?

Fred Gober, Playa Vista

To the editor: Magicians know that once an illusion has been revealed, it ceases to amaze or draw crowds.

The GOP already knows what to expect from a one-trick pony that will now have to dance on a legal minefield. Trump’s parlaying of his legal issues into campaign contributions may help with the legal bills and deepen the devotion of his supporters, who are plenty loud, but it is not enough to win a general election.

The novelty of brash behavior and brazen claims has lost its entertainment value and instead fomented division and disinformation. We’re too exhausted for the “retribution tour.”

Dan Mariscal, Montebello

To the editor: Goldberg aptly shares a mid-20th century quote to explain how Trump maintains such undue political prominence: When 1950s presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson was told that “every thinking person” in America would vote for him, he replied, “That won’t do — I need a majority.”

Stevenson’s take reflected an era when TV newscasts were dominated by the likes of Walter Cronkite and John Cameron Swayze, iconic anchors whose reporting shunned politicized slants.

In those halcyon days, American audiences were not nearly so polarized as today — nor so fond of media outlets that abide demagogic misinformation.

The devolution of TV newscasts and proliferation of debased entertainment programming betray how the dearth of intelligence that Stevenson lamented has steadily grown over time.

Whether our once-noble democracy can survive another Trump-tainted campaign seems ever less likely.

Kendra Strozyk, Cameron Park, Calif.