Perplexed about the 'alt-left' 

I read Al Fonzi’s March 2 op-ed “Inflammatory rhetoric versus reason” with great interest—and increasing consternation.

It would seem that Mr. Fonzi, a great American patriot, is more disturbed by the fact that the American public learned of the Trump administration’s alleged (by the highest levels of our intelligence apparatus) contacts with the Russian government than by the administration’s possibly illegal—if not treasonous—but indisputably inappropriate, relationship with the Putin administration. I find this disturbing, and quite perplexing, given Mr. Fonzi’s bona fides as a great American patriot.

Also perplexing is his accusation that the “alt-left” has been quite willing to use any means necessary to attack their opponents. Tapping my admittedly age-compromised memory, as well as a Google search, has failed to turn up any “alt-left” bomb attacks on a federal building that killed scores of people. Or racially motivated murderous attacks on a Bible study group. Or assassinations of abortion providers. So perhaps Mr. Fonzi could edify us on some of the heinous acts perpetrated by the “alt-left.”

In his penultimate paragraph, Mr. Fonzi takes the left to task for what he describes as attempts to “destroy the Trump presidency at its birth.” Given that he is so perturbed at a particular political party attempting to de-legitimize a duly elected POTUS, I assume he penned a similar paragraph at the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency to express his outrage at Republican obstruction and birther claims.

-- Richard Neidhardt - Los Osos