To rebut Richard Bernard (“Today’s politicians should learn from those of yesterday,” Jan. 14), about the fall of the Roman Empire, it was inevitable that the kind of rule it used was too brutal to survive.

Rome’s borders were controlled by mercenaries as well as Romans, and it suffered from incompetent rulers (as in, insane).

Also, the sky is not falling — gas prices and inflation rates are. I believe as long as we don’t “Make America Gag Again” too soon, we will survive.

If President Biden did not ask others to boost production, he’d carp about it.

Also, in Rich Lowry’s column (“The conspiracy theory that deranged American public life,” Jan. 14) “conspiracy theory” is debunked by the fact that the Christopher Steele report was originally a fishing expedition after presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by the GOP, one that found more dirt on Donald Trump than Hillary.

People forget, just before the 2020 election former Special Counsel Robert Mueller felt compelled to say he never exonerated Trump; that was up to the Republican-dominated Congress.

As Trump said, “Russia, if you’re listening …” Obviously, it was.

Rudolph Ziehm, Sabattus