Letter to the editor: GOP must address Trump's hate talk

Up until now, I have believed that the best way to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 is to focus on advocating for the federal government to do more to help the lower and middle classes with their economic and financial struggles to survive and to pay their bills.

So, I have largely ignored his ignorant remarks in which he demeans, degrades, insults, bullies and disrespects minority groups, women and immigrants. I have done this partly because I have believed from day one that this has all been a big act, that he is a master manipulator and con man who really doesn’t believe the ridiculous things he says, and that he cleverly figured out that he could win the presidency by pretending that he believes in what he thinks that 51% of the American people believe in — hate. But his hate-talk has now become too dangerous. He is playing with fire. This big act and game has to stop.

I call on all of the goodhearted conservative Republicans in the U.S. who have a conscience to join former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and call out Trump and for all Republicans in Congress who have been silent about this evilness to also call out Trump on this hate talk. The people who he has insulted and disrespected don’t deserve to hear any more of his brutality.

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, N.Y.

The writer is a former Squirrel Hill resident who taught at West Virginia and Slippery Rock universities.