Dec 14, 2016 2 min read

Thank you for performing your duty by keeping your readership informed of the facts during the past election, and not falling into the trap of writing what your readership wants to hear so you can sell more newspapers.

Your job is to tell the facts. The truth. If those facts make some people uncomfortable with their choices, perhaps they should do some research in places that do not pander to their interests. Non-partisan fact-finding organizations found that Donald Trump lied 70 percent of the time during the campaign; Hillary Clinton lied 19 percent of the time. However, many news organizations, which had never before seen an election where one candidate lied 70 percent of the time, treated the comments of the two candidates as if they were equal in veracity.

The Observer-Reporter did not. You called a spade a spade, and I thank you for it.

You weren’t alone. Respected conservative columnists, such as David Brooks, George Will and Charles Krauthammer, reported the dangers of electing Trump. Now, as I watch him nurture his relationships with Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and entangle his family business with the business of the country, I am more frightened than ever. I have no doubt that the next four years will be profitable for the Trump family, but I fear for the future of those poor souls who “drank the Kool-Aid” and those of us who are being dragged, kicking and screaming, with them into the Trump administration.

I hope that Trump grows a conscience rather than a longer nose, and that the Republican Congress grows a backbone to hold him accountable. Clinton is not perfect, but I prefer a president that lies 19 percent of the time to one who lies 70 percent of the time.

I am encouraged by another fact: When all the votes were counted, Clinton received 2.7 million more popular votes than Trump. That is a fact; you have my permission to make it a headline.

Linda Price Jardini

Meadow Lands