Apply standards for Obama to Trump

The number of readers' anti-President Trump letters appearing in the Daily Herald has been extraordinary; and the level of vitriol in them has been unprecedented. Of course, all writers don't say the same thing, but there are commonalities in their criticisms.

Writers believe that Mr. Trump is: stupid, dishonest, a liar, an egomaniac, crude, wholly unqualified for the office, a disgrace, divisive, dangerous, a horrible leader, arrogant, embarrassing, dismissive, demeaning to the office and to others, a dictator, one who thinks he is king, unconcerned about the national debt, one who plays too much golf, one who spends too much time flying himself and his entourage around on the taxpayer's dime, not a military veteran, etc.

Well, perspective is a quirky thing. Probably 50 percent of eligible voters would look at the letters I've seen and conclude that if, in them, one crossed out the name "Trump" and substituted the name "Obama," then the writer would have had the facts straight.

They would conclude that the descriptors noted by the original writers accurately characterize President Obama's behavior and presidential performance as much or more than as they might characterize President Trump's.

Are those on the left unable to discern that President Donald Trump is doing many of the things that their guy, President Obama, did? It was OK if their guy did it, but not if Mr. Trump does it? If they don't like what Mr. Trump is doing, where were they when Mr. Obama did the same things? If that's not blatant hypocrisy, I don't know what is?

I don't like a lot about either of these presidents. But, I'd like future anti-Trump writers to kindly explain how their complaints about him differ from what his predecessor did - then I'll pay more attention to their thoughts.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg