Columnist Don Roberts describes the absurdity of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee (“It’s midnight in America,” Jan. 30). However, he makes crude attempts to re-write history in order to elect a Republican president in the end.

When Roberts writes of “the least successful president since Jimmy Carter,” he has perfectly described George W. Bush. I suppose if you are involved with the military-industrial oligarchy, you probably consider Bush’s presidency a success. Otherwise, it was a total disaster.

Bush embroiled us in two major wars: one (Afghanistan) mismanaged and the other (Iraq) totally unnecessary. Refusing to properly fund his wars by raising taxes, he left us with a massive increase in our national debt.

Bush’s Supreme Court appointees led to the infamous Citizens United decision, which unleashed an unlimited flood of money into our electoral process. His refusal to properly supervise Wall Street led to the Great Recession of 2008.

Roberts then tries to label the Obama terms “years of homeland security and economic decline.” Once again he’s described the Republican presidency of George W. Bush. Americans surely haven’t forgotten that 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch; American deaths due to homeland terrorism during Obama’s presidency are about one-100th those of the Bush years.

As for “economic decline,” anyone who thinks that our current economy is worse that it was during Bush’s Great Recession definitely hasn’t been paying attention.

Roberts knows, of course, that for Americans to be suckered into voting for a Republican, the dismal record of the Bush years must be erased.

Is it possible for Roberts to stop channeling his inner Rush Limbaugh? His use of “Democrat” rather that “Democratic” (the party’s actual name) is childish. Would he write about the “Republic” Party or the “Islam” State?

John R. Merrill

Augusta