US electorate can deal with Trump’s bluster

Terry Prone tells us in relation to the American presidential election that ‘the rest of the Republican candidates for the nomination ... have to cope with rampant hatred, as a tool deployed by (Donald) Trump’ (Irish Examiner, January 11).

This is a much more serious issue than what Terry Prone calls “media noise”. It is not just the Republican candidates who have to deal with it. It also has to be dealt with by the free media and the electorate in the most powerful democracy in the world.

It raises the question for example as to whether a campaign by Hillary Clinton to the be first woman to fill the most powerful political post in the world can be damaged by the fulminations of someone who even embarrasses the patriarchy.

If all the democratic discourse can come up with in reaction to Donald Trump’s rampant hatred is that, as Terry Prone says, “vulgar personal abuse ... with all the terrifying strengths tapping into underlying national hatred can deliver”, then neither the media coverage nor the intelligence of the electorate can be rated too highly.

Surely we can expect more from the free media and the electorate in the most powerful democracy in the world, when confronted with rampant hatred, than being described by Terry Prone as “mesmerised and impotent”.

A Leavy

Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin