The comparison of Donald Trump to Spiro Agnew on your excellent oped page ("Is Trump another Agnew?" Dec. 19) was enlightening. The case was made that both were opportunists of no fixed ideology who gained favor by finding scapegoats to bully and by scornfully dismissing press coverage.
Particularly striking to me was the coarsening of invective in the intervening 45 years. Mr. Agnew's reproofs contained explanatory content, sometimes stated eloquently: His critics, he said were "a little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal [but also] wield a free hand in in selecting, presenting and interpreting the great issues of our nation." Mr. Trump, by contrast, can only lash out in empty one-word insults: "corrupt," "sad," disgusting," "loser," "liar."
Interesting as the contrast may be to linguaphiles, it does not make me nostalgic for the tax-evading, "corrupt, sad, disgusting, loser, liar" Agnew.
Hal Piper, Glen Arm