Letter to the Editor: The danger is real

To the Editor:

I am responding to Mr. Engle’s letter (July 18) criticizing my earlier letter (July 5). I am afraid Mr. Engle has fallen down the rabbit hole into the post truth world of Donald Trump where shutting your eyes tight, putting your fingers into your ears, and yelling as loud as you can “It is not true” will make any unpleasant elements of reality disappear. Sadly, the real world does not operate that way.

The authors of the book How Democracies Die are respected scholars and diligent researchers who carefully documented all the points they make in their book. In my brief letter I did not have space to cite all the supporting evidence for their arguments, which is substantial.  All the statements I made in my letter are correct.

Mr. Engle needs to break out of the fantasyland of Fox News and seek objective evidence about Trump’s authoritarian behaviors and the worldwide slide of democracies into totalitarian states. How Democracies Die would be an excellent place to start.

Thomas Hill
Lansing