Mr. Wisotsky’s rose-colored glasses seem to have become completely opaque and he encourages us to “fiddle while Rome burns” (“Understanding Trump’s Strategy” August 30, 2018). His statement that we should just give Trump a little more time (now 18 months) to reveal his profound strategies is simply delusional.

He extols Trump’s “art of the deal.” Trump’s negotiating strategy consists of a primitive zero sum game. While this may have been effective in intimidating small vendors, it stands revealed as completely impotent when dealing with world powers, e.g., China/N. Korea debacle. We have launched a trade war, justified by “national security,” with our ally Canada, one of the few countries with which we have a trade surplus.

This is a president who spends one day out of three on the golf course at the cost of over 180 million taxpayer dollars. Trump’s strategy seems to be based on the random appearance of tarot cards. He is a uniquely petty and venal individual who has perfected the “art of betrayal” in his personal and business relationships. He doesn’t believe in the basic tenets of American democracy. Our unindicted co-conspirator-in-chief has refused to defend our national security in the face of Russian attacks. He has attacked the FBI, DOJ and the First amendment (Stalinesque statement that the press is the “enemy of the people”).

The required response is not the denial that Mr. Wisotsky posits, but emergency action. True conservatives, Ronald Reagan and John McCain conservatives, must rally to take back the Republican Party and drain the Trump swamp of its autocrats, grifters and con artists. Defending and maintaining our democracy cannot be a spectator sport.