Anti-Trump protests

Do the “Hands Off” demonstrators recognize that our deficit and rapidly growing debt place us on an unsustainable trajectory which, in the past (Weimar Republic), has a very unappealing ending? To have any impact, activists should be offering constructive proposals for solution rather than just criticizing President Trump. Complaining about a problem is one thing. Finding corrective action that will solve the problem and gain sufficient support for implementation is the challenge. As anyone who has been in a similar situation can relate, there are only two courses of action: Reduce spending or increase revenue (taxes). No matter how ridiculous some of the expenses being identified, activists appear to favor increasing taxes — so long it is on someone else. Bernie Saunders used to ask millionaires and billionaires “to pay their fair share.” Now that he is a millionaire, he has shifted sights to billionaires. Question: will billionaires pay the increased taxes necessary to zero the deficit and pay down the debt?

— John Mitchell, San Juan Capistrano

Hands Off protesters

I have a handful of friends that are on board with these protests. Funny thing is, when pressed for any details of what cuts they object to, they only regurgitate the latest Democratic talking points of doom and gloom. I’ll just take one aspect of the April 4 article. There is a huge complaint about 2,000 redundant jobs of a 400,000 bloated workforce being cut and suddenly the veterans, whom the Trump administration loves, are going to be without necessary services. Like I tell my radical friends, at least the ones who will still talk to me, get out of your radical California bubble, most of America is on board with cutting the waste that is necessary to get us closer to being able to sustain our obligations for our next generation. But they won’t. They will do their American right of demonstrating for the small minority instead of what is good for the majority. God bless.

— Shawn Ferguson, Westminster

Protesting Trump policy

As a lifelong Democrat, I am appalled at the idea of presenting the president in a 20-foot balloon wearing a diaper. What 5th grader came up with this idea? This depiction makes a mockery out of the substantive issues we desperately need to resolve. It is not only insulting, it is bordering on obscene.

—Barbara Doss, Hawthorne