Mar 18, 2025 2 min read

Richard Robbins’ March 10 column about the Franklin Roosevelt spirit was quite one-sided. He had such high praise for that Roosevelt spirit, but used Donald Trump as his foil to compare. And he, as any typical Democrat, couldn’t find anything positive about the 47th president, only disdain.

So does Robbins find fault with Trump for wanting to deport criminal illegals for raping and murdering young girls and women? And does he fall into lockstep with the Democrats in Congress who wouldn’t pass a bill Trump wanted to stop biological men from dominating women in sports? So much for their protection and regard for women. Now on the other hand, do you think the Japanese Americans felt that spirit of Roosevelt when he sent them for internment during World War II? Internment is a euphemism for incarceration. FDR himself called these concentration camps. These were prisons. Compounds of barracks surrounded by barbed-wire fences and patrolled by armed guards. These people were American citizens, and Roosevelt reaped economic gains from the farmlands and property these people lost. These poor people lived in these harsh conditions and forced confinement for nearly four years.

Robbins didn’t divulge any of this, because Roosevelt’s terrible treatment of these people didn’t fit his narrative of that tremendous spirit. So now was Roosevelt a good president? Absolutely, but he surely wasn’t perfect.

And today’s president has flaws, but isn’t it amazing that the letter writers and Democrats can never compliment this man for anything, not once, and not ever.

So writers like Robbins and others who only criticize Trump, expose themselves for who they are, and for all to see, total hatefulness to an individual.

Robert BonAnno

Washington