I take issue with Jeff Jacoby’s faulting President Obama for leaving us with a deeply divided country (“Barack Obama’s legacy of failure,’’ Opinion, Jan. 8). Jacoby cites polls showing that 60 percent of Americans say we’re on the “wrong track.’’ But when Obama’s approval ratings are well into the 50s, and those of Congress are in the low teens, I’d say Jacoby has misplaced the blame.

What’s more, on the night of the president’s first inauguration, leading Republican legislators got together and agreed to all-out obstructionism.

No doubt the current president-elect’s abject failure to act like a respectful leader-in-waiting, his profound ignorance, his petulant tweeting, and his disdain for leading intelligence professionals have many of us thinking “wrong track,’’ even though we hoped for some glimmer of emerging statesmanship.

Adding immeasurably to the rift in our politics has been Fox News, the unabashed propaganda arm of the GOP. As one wag put it, the contract of every Fox newscaster stipulated that he or she must mention “Benghazi’’ or “Hillary’s e-mail’’ at least once every half hour — an exaggeration, to be sure, but far too many voters lapped up so-called news that comforted them in their hyperpartisan views, when the role of journalism in a democracy is to strive for balance.

Dave Griffiths

Mechanic Falls, Maine