Letter: Dividing nation is part of autocratic strategy

Sunday July 8, 2018

Attacking the media and sowing distrust are common tactics for dictators.

Editor:

As President Donald Trump continues to divide our country, a line from a President Lyndon B. Johnson speech comes to mind: "Now the people that would use us and destroy us first divide us." Though he was speaking of civil rights, those words are as applicable today as they were in 1964.

Attacking the media and sowing seeds of distrust are tactics used by dictators and autocrats. For example, there was no reason for a sitting U.S. president to insert himself into football players' First Amendment rights other than to create chaos and division.

On immigration, rather than promoting fair and humane reform, he uses words such as "invade" and "infect" to create an atmosphere of fear of the other. Lest we forget, Trump's mother and paternal grandparents were immigrants.

How, exactly, does tearing our country apart and alienating our allies make America great? From The Economist: "China is startled by how rapidly American leadership has dwindled."

Jeanette Winkler
Ruscombmanor Township

Dividing nation is part of autocratic strategy