To the editor:

Unlike the writer of a recent letter to the Review that objected to a recent Trump cartoon, I’ve been appreciating the series of Trump cartoons in the Review. Publishing such cartoons is a valuable way for the Review to reflect the concerns about our new presidential regime that are shared, I believe, by the vast majority of the Bainbridge Island community.

Furthermore, the White House occupant who is prompting cartoons of the type chosen by the Review isn’t drawing satirical fire out of “disagreement” with a “political party” (as the writer chooses to say). To the contrary, I hear many Republicans expressing the view that Mr. Trump doesn’t represent the party they’ve embraced over the decades.

Instead, satire about Mr. Trump from so many sources around our country and the world has been provoked at unprecedented levels by this particular White House occupant because his behavior is so unprecedented compared to those elected to that office before him (with Mr. Nixon, at his most paranoid, perhaps a close second).

I have the greatest respect for those, like the previous letter writer, who fought to preserve our democracy and its values. However, Mr. Trump’s behavior demeans and devalues our U.S. Presidential mantle, and is dangerous to our democracy, our U.S. standing in the world, and the safety of those who are the targets of his erratic, divisive and authoritarian impulses. It is not an overstatement to say that the survival of our democracy depends on all of us refusing to normalize the counter-factual statements, and the erratic and authoritarian behavior, of this White House occupant.

Thank goodness we live in a society with a free press and free media where both satire and investigative fact-finding are encouraged and welcomed, rather than suppressed (as the likes of Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin are inclined to do).

BARRY PETERS

Bainbridge Island