Readers sound off on playing on ethnic tensions, homeowners’ interests and SIDS

Trump outplayed the Dems using timing and fear Manhattan: As I watched the news after the debacle of Democrats in the recent elections, all the theories put forward subsequently didn't explain the real reason, hence this letter.

I come from a civil rights background and I have some understanding of strategy and tactics. In politics, timing is important, and if I time it right, things happen. What I do not understand is why all those cases were brought against Donald Trump just before the elections and not earlier. They waited too long. That went to his advantage. It gave Trump free publicity and made him a martyr. That is enough for him to win the election.

As I traveled through Western Europe in the last decade, I noticed that the immigration issue there was used by neo-Nazi parties to come back to power or into the limelight in many countries. There is what is called white privilege in the U.S., and what Trump did was use the immigration issue to instill fear that whites are going to lose that privilege. That appealed to many. I think that's what drove them to give Trump a thumping victory. Every other argument or theory that pundits are putting out there are nothing in light of that.

As an actor, I understand this primordial, animal instinct of fear, and I understand why the electorate acted the way it did in this election. In my opinion, Trump exploited it to its fullest extent, and with his need to stay out of jail. Rao Rampilla

Reeling & reflecting Cincinnati: Democrats must feel concussed following the beatdown and will take some time to figure out next steps. They must figure out just what went so wrong before formulating new plans. That is a problem because there are many reasons for the resounding defeat of the Kamala Harris ticket, and isolating the major ones is like selecting the best girl group of the '60s. Were The Shirelles really better than The Ronettes? What about The Supremes? One thing we do know for certain is that The Shangri-Las' 1964 classic "Leader of the Pack" was never going to be the Harris campaign theme song. Paul Bloustein

Ruinous ruler Princeton Junction, N.J.: Donald Trump wants to ruin this country to the core and then stand on the pile of crap he created. Judith L. Cabral

Foreign body Manhattan: Does anyone else feel like they are in the real-life version of "The Manchurian Candidate"? Trip Plymale

Sycophant circle Bronx: A Fox News host for secretary of defense? Matt Gaetz for attorney general? With no more generals or serious conservatives, this will be the worst cabinet in American history. Randall Borra

Method to the madness Mamaroneck, N.Y.: I thought he was going to nominate Hannibal Lecter, so Matt Gaetz really isn't so bad. And RFK Jr. and Kristi Noem can trade dead animal stories, perhaps inspiring a new generation of Disney characters. There just might be an ingenious master plan here somewhere. Paul Matthews

Bent-knee bully Edgewater, N.J.: America was so terrified of electing a female president who might appear weak on the international stage — wilting, maybe even crumbling, when confronted by brutal foreign dictators — so instead, we elected the guy who stood up in Helsinki in 2018 and proclaimed that he gave more credence to persuasive arguments made by the Russian president than the hard evidence gathered by our own world-class intelligence agencies. Way to show strength, America! Jay K. Egelberg

Reproductive rampage Danbury, Conn.: Leave it to a bunch of yahoo, road-apple-kicking Southern dimwit judges from Alabama — which brought you Tommy "CTE" Tuberville and his anti-U.S. Armed Forces, anti-women antics — to rule that frozen, non-implanted, non-viable embryos are children (most IVFs fail upon implantation). Watch out, all you GOP men of Congress: their next target will be sperm — yessiree Bob, those millions of swimmers looking to score with an egg and actually get the ball rolling on a real child. So, for all you GOP guys — talking to you, Tommy T, Matt Gaetz, Mikey Johnson, et al — watch your nether regions. They're comin' for you next! Michael Eddy

Home turf war Flushing: Re " Grousing on housing " (editorial, Nov. 14): The editorial states that "loud NIMBY voices care more about immediate property values or neighborhood character than about the long-term sustainability of their communities." Is it surprising that people in these neighborhoods care about their property values since they invested their life savings in purchasing their homes in the first place? Nobody wants to see the single biggest investment of their life lose value because some bureaucrats decided to build low-income housing or saturate their neighborhood with pop-up residences in backyards and garages. Painting them as selfish for not sacrificing part of your life savings is offensive and absolutely tone deaf. How dare you! Craig Louttit

Passed over Utica, N.Y.: Granted, I never liked listening to John Sterling, as he was always more about himself than the team. I also have nothing against Dave Sims. Yet, I'm having a hard time watching Suzyn Waldman again relegated to color commentary while a new man is hired for play-by-play. Maybe it's just my post-election PTSD, but she seems pretty qualified for the job by now. Is it her Boston accent or is it something else? By the way, Chris Oliviero's absurd comment, "From Allen, Barber and Rizzuto to Sterling" is like saying, "From Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR to Trump"! Jeff Ganeles

Brooklyn: The Knicks' Tom Thibodeau has to learn how to rotate his players. My question is what is he doing? There is a lot of talent on that bench and Thibs is not giving them any real playing time. He should take Josh Hart out of that starting rotation, move Karl Anthony Towns into the #4 spot and insert Ariel Hukporti into the #5 spot until Mitchell Robinson returns. Thibs should let Tyler Kolek, Pacome Dadiet, Jacob Toppin and Matt Ryan shine and stop running his starters into the ground. Ronald L. Badger

SIDS scenario? Bronx: I have known about sudden infant death syndrome for some time. Something recently caused me to connect it to an incident that occurred decades ago. When I was in my 20s or early 30s, I lived on the fourth floor in a five-story Bronx walkup building. One night, I decided to go to bed, but decided to do something different and buried my head in the blankets. Sometime thereafter, I woke up underneath the blanket literally unable to breathe. With whatever wherewithal I had in me, I unburied myself enough to breathe again. Apparently, there was oxygen in the pocket underneath the blanket when I went to sleep. During my sleep, that oxygen was depleted. Unlike a baby, I was able to remedy myself out of that situation. How many parents don't know any better? This problem is very easy to duplicate. You don't need to involve a baby! Jose Rodriguez

The shoe drops Maspeth: Well, we all knew that congestion pricing was coming back once Trump won the presidency. This is a direct "F you" to all New Yorkers who voted for him. It's really a shame because this is going to destroy New York City small businesses and taxi drivers instead of fixing the real problem: no one's paying for the subway. I watch hundreds of people just walk through or hop the turnstile on an everyday basis. Fix the real problem with the MTA and put turnstiles that you can not hop over, and an agent stationed at the gate who only lets in people who have swiped. Stop punishing the hard-working taxpayers of NYC. Lance Lovejoy

Toll trolls Woodside: Congestion pricing is a joke. It's about votes. There are fewer drivers than mass transit riders. It's not about what is right or wrong. It's about how many votes I will get if I don't raise the transit fare. I expected no less from the city and state. Richard Tobiassen