Let's not take the president's bait

I like your recent "Our View" opinion discussing non-binding referendums, which seem to do little more than rile the voters. I would like to add my thoughts to that issue if I may.

I see more of that behavior in the national news which, I believe, is counterproductive to meaningful change. A waste of time. A recent issue in the news seems to equate "nationalism" to racism. The argument is that "nationalism" is somehow related to "white nationalism." Is the next step in this type of logic going to be that nationalism is synonymous with patriotism? Therefore patriotism will become racism, too.

My fellow Democrats should think about how silly this sounds. This type of hype makes it look like the progressive mission has little to offer in the way of promoting substantive issues. Maybe we should try to rise above this pettiness and try to spend our talents and energy on problems that actually affect a range of Americans.

How do these issues become part of the national discussion in the first place? Could they be coming from the Trump administration, hoping we will make fools of ourselves? Maybe we shouldn't take the bait.

Jason Harper

Wheeling