As I read the letters and editorials in your paper, it seems as if Republicans must really hate this country. Everything to them is doom and gloom, and they seem to believe Biden is ruining the country.
On the brighter side, this country has now had seven straight quarters of economic growth and unemployment is at the lowest levels in 50 years. Inflation has gone from about 9 percent at the beginning of 2020 to just under the long-standing yearly average of 3.48 percent. Even conservative economists are saying that Bidenomics is working.
We’ve invested in roads and bridges for the first time in years, and, despite what the Republican presidential nominee says about our cities, the FBI says that violent crime is down across the country. These are verifiable facts, and we as a nation have every reason to be positive. Do we have problems? Yes, we do, and we should work together to fix them. Should we trust a failed businessman, convicted felon, and wannabe dictator to fix them? No, we should not.
I believe Trump when he says he wants to be a dictator on day one, enforce loyalty, possibly ban contraceptives, seek revenge on his suspected enemies, and enable the police to deport suspected immigrants—I just don’t want to live under a government like that. And since we won’t likely support police just stopping people on the street based on race alone, would the new law add police powers to stop and search all people? Are we all going to have to carry identification papers proving citizenship?
Do you believe that the president of the USA should be able to force every federal employee to take a fealty test to the president, instead of the law? Donald Trump does, and he has a plan to make sure that happens. Republican congressional leaders are reportedly working on a list of names to replace key federal employees with people who are loyal to Trump. I would vigorously recommend that every American voter read the Heritage Foundation plan called “Project 2025.” It is the 920-page plan embraced by Trump and his supporters. Look it up and read through it for yourself—and then ask yourself if this vision of the country is truly the kind of America you want for your children and grandchildren.
This paper published a letter by a writer who tried to minimize Donald Trump’s obvious dictator-like tendencies by comparing him to an American president who has been dead for 85 years (“Dictators,” June 13). Trump’s potential to be a dictator has been discussed in depth by many scholars from both sides of the aisle and should not be so casually dismissed. I believe that trying to deflect the modern danger to democracy posed by Trump by comparing him to the long-dead FDR is a big stretch of misguided imaginative reasoning.
(As an aside, I’d also like to point out that Mayfield’s poorly thought-out attempt at editorial humor in the same issue belittles the American justice system and all the good citizens who give their time and energy to make it work. Your paper is published in a conservative town, but that is no reason to publish conspiracy nonsense. I would hope the majority of your readers expect better of you. In fact, maybe you should consider running a few pieces on the ideas and plans written in Project 2025 to help explain it to the people in this town.)
Gary Murray writes to the Sun from Orcutt. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 4-14, 2024.