Whatever happened to civility in this country? Even if the charges against Hillary Clinton were true – and they are not – calls to “lock her up” and Trump’s shouts of “crooked Hillary” would still be reprehensible, especially so when directed at a presidential candidate. Remember “Lyin’ Ted?” This atmosphere of hate has been fostered by Trump’s disrespecting of women, Hispanics and the disabled – to name but a few – and has lowered the level of political discourse to the gutter.

As for the charges of dishonesty against Clinton, where is the evidence? The Benghazi tragedy has been fully investigated by Republican-dominated committees of the House, none of which found any evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton. As secretary of state, she had the ultimate responsibility, but day-to-day security for the hundreds of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world was not hers

Clinton’s use of a private email server was ill-advised but not unprecedented (Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell), and did not compromise national security. The FBI, while condemning her actions, concluded that there was no legal case against her. Her claim not to have sent or received classified messages has not been shown to have been anything other than her honest belief, and while the FBI found 110 such messages, this was out of 30,000 emails. Sloppy, to be sure, but not venal.

I notice that no one on the right is calling for David Petraeus to be locked up or shot, despite the fact that he knowingly shared classified material with a mistress.

No evidence whatsoever has been presented to suggest that she lied about any aspect of either the Benghazi affair or the email issue or, for that matter, about anything else in her long public career. Charging her with dishonesty solely for political gain doesn’t make it true. Is this what it means to “make America great again?”

Dan Purrington

Durango