Dear Sir,

Opening my newspaper this morning, I was greeted with yet another confused and meandering opinion piece from Al Seymour.

The heading shouted “Respect and decency”, but the photograph of Donald Trump left no doubt about the subject.

The sentence “Somehow Trump has managed to appeal ...” tells us that Mr Seymour has no idea about Mr Trump’s appeal, but is willing to speculate.

Mr Seymour thinks that Donald Trump is a misogynist racist who also hates Mexicans and Muslims.

Who would vote for that?

In fact, Donald Trump received more than 60 per cent of the vote in liberal New York and has dominated his rivals all while holding what many would consider to be fairly moderate positions on gays, the use of the military and the effect of free trade on unskilled workers.

Mr Seymour frets that Donald Trump is unstable and might be driven by some “impulse” to engage in military action.

Well, Donald Trump was against the war in Iraq, unlike Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. He also did not leave four patriotic Americans to die a terrible death in Benghazi while pretending that their killers were motivated by a scurrilous filmmaker.

He probably would have avoided the fiasco with Isis that has led to American soldiers being sent back there to die.

No, it is in fact fairly easy to see why Donald Trump is getting the support he is, much of it coming from states that have traditionally leaned towards the Democrats.

It is also not surprising to see supporters of Bernie Sanders and Clinton trying to disrupt Trump rallies, shut down traffic and even get arrested for bomb threats.

The success of Donald Trump may come as an unexpected shock to Al Seymour, but it shouldn’t to those who have been paying attention.

A DISPASSIONATE OBSERVER