Ignore ‘cringe-worthy’ rabble rousers, and focus on the loyal opposition

I was glad to read Diane Hessan’s report on voters’ reactions to the many gratuitous and well-publicized insults to President Trump (“Need a blue wave? Twisting and shouting won’t work,’’ Opinion, June 21). Name-calling is not just “cringeworthy,’’ as one of the voters Hessan’s been surveying puts it, but it’s also clearly counterproductive on the part of those who oppose the administration’s policies. I can see why many voters feel that they too are on the receiving end of those insults.

I sympathize, but only so far. Look at the offenders’ names: Samantha Bee, Bill Maher, Robert De Niro, Tom Steyer, various self-appointed “pundits.’’ Those people may get the microphone (often when they shouldn’t), but that’s it. Nobody voted for them. They’re not the members of Congress, the judges, or the local and state representatives who are working with intelligence, passion, and yes, respect, to stop or at least slow the damage being done to our country at home and abroad.

Whether it’s football or politics, the mobs will always shout, throw mud, and worse. Yell back, and you will be rewarded: The other side will yell louder. It’s great entertainment to many; me, I’m with those who would rather not pay attention. But when it’s time to vote, please, remember that your moment in the ballot box gives you more real power than any shouter could pretend to have.

Richard Saffran

Southborough

Critique of Democrats’ ways is curiously tilted

I think Diane Hessan needs to take a deep breath and really look at what she is doing here. If she is tracking an equal number of Republicans and Democrats in her research, and coming up with such a consistently negative portrayal of liberals and the Democratic Party, I begin to wonder. Who is she tracking? What questions is she asking? To what purpose? When she writes an op-ed and offers up opinions such as this one, from a voter named Mark — “It pains me to say this, but spin and condescension are the new code of the liberal media’’ — and can find no other perspective to report, I really wonder.

She does have a point. Name-calling and spin only go so far. I would add that the Republicans seem to be better at it (see Donald Trump’s presidential campaign). Republicans seem to be better at compartmentalizing and at party loyalty as well (note the behaviors of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell these past two years).

Yes, there must be a better way. I agree. But to give the impression that Republicans and Democrats largely agree that the media are liberally biased and that Democrats aren’t doing anything but name-calling and criticizing is to promote a vision of what is going on in this country that is very dangerous to our democracy.

Jana Howe

Merrimack, N.H.

Can’t fight bullies with pleasantries

“Reasoned analysis’’? It’s been done, and the verdict is that bigotry, cruelty, ignorance, and demagoguery rule the day. I’m ever so sorry if Trump supporters don’t like those rude words. Can we really fight bullies and thugs with pleasantries? Or do you call things what they are?

Will Jackson

Pawtucket, R.I.