Finding Daniel Brown’s Feb. 6 guest column “Trump’s brutal promise no joke,” not as “mean-spirited” as a writer suggested in a Feb. 9 letter, I wish to respond in a “kinder” way — not dwelling on “vermin” or “blood poisoning,” the former president’s love of parades, or his latest wish to mobilize “red” National Guard troops to occupy “blue” states. So.

Not wanting, or needing to, exhaust Godwin’s Law argument, I can be kinder to observe that strongmen belong in the circus, Trump isn’t a conservative, and he’s not even a Republican. He’s an autocratic mobster.

Dave Pratt

South Deerfield