The article you published by David Brooks, The New York Times columnist, is more propaganda than news.

He fears the loss of faith in civilization after the age of Obama, Cameron and Merkel, and entering the age of Putin, Erdogan, el-Sisi, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. His combinations are unfortunate, at best.

Obama might be better grouped with Maduro of Venezuela, whose citizens are literally starving under the state-managed economic system imposed on that country. Happily, the U.S. is leaving the age of Obama before we approach such a state.

Trump is hardly comparable to the dictators with whom Brooks combines him. If his administration looks like a “premodern mafia state, run by a family-based commercial clan,” it would come as a great surprise to accomplished people such as Mattis, Tillerson and Ross and other members of his administration. It’s likely that Sen. Schumer would be much subdued in his opposition.

Brooks said the hard-right Le Pen and the hard-left Mélenchon were the final candidates in the French presidential runoff. Actually, the independent politician Macron opposed Le Pen, but the article was published in the opinion section, so the facts were less important than the propaganda.

Please consider devoting a little less space to articles like this one.

John S. Kusenberger

Durango