Opinion: Starkly different views about what the problems are

To the editor: It is my belief that the partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans have in part to do with the rise of for-profit mainstream media and fact-free conservative media. (“Partisan divide grows deeper,” July 30)

Americans are not inherently divided; they just think they are, because their sources of information tell vastly different realities.

Cable news gets ratings thriving on conflict. Conservative news tries to scare people with phantom fears and by completely misunderstanding the Democrats; that they and their Republican Party actually believe those things to be true is the other very troubling reason for the rift.

All of this has left good-hearted and intelligent Americans at each other’s throats.

Zareh Delanchian, Tujunga

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To the editor: The “trust” deficit meme has to stop. It’s self-fulfilling, fake and contagious, infecting “analyses” that exhort Clinton to prove herself trustworthy yet again.

This meme, and the similarly corrosive, partisan narrative about Obama’s birth, originates in the often racist, sexist faux news generated by right-wing media.

Trust? Millions more voters trust Secretary Clinton than they trust her “authentic” opponent. Clinton’s “trust deficit” is a smear designed to de-legitimize Clinton. So is the constant repetition of a few missteps in her very long, meaningful and successful political career.

Interesting that this relentlessly negative focus is unique to the first female nominee of a major political party.

I trust Hillary Clinton. It’s my trust in the media that’s eroded.

Jo Perry, Studio City

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To the editor: I’m skeptical of Clinton’s promise to produce comprehensive immigration legislation during the first 100 days of her administration. Remember that President Obama promised the same thing would happen during the first year he was in office.

He had a filibuster-proof Senate, plus a Democratic majority in the House; nothing happened. Obviously, there was more to its fate than Republican opposition and what The Times called “partisan gridlock.”

Dennis Hinde, Gardena

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