Rusty Strait | Senior Reporter
President Harry Truman once said, “The lessons of history we don’t learn can come back to bite us. How quickly we forget things in politics. One thing I never forgot is the 1948 presidential election. The media were all agog over New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey beating “Give ‘em hell” Harry Truman. Prior to election day, the vaunted Gallup poll rated Dewey at 53.2 and Truman at 32.1 in its pre-election poll. The press was so excited that one newspaper came out on election night with headlines that read DEWEY WINS. The publisher, Robert McCormick, had mud on his face for a long time. It is simply a matter of pollsters not being trustworthy with facts. They quickly adapt to something they hear or read about a candidate.
Adolf Hitler told everybody what he would do in his book, Mein Kampf. A book that, according to Donald Trump’s daughter, he kept by his bedside. Today he is quoting almost verbatim from Hitler’s book. Hitler called the Jews vermin to be gotten rid of. Trump calls Americans who don’t support him vermin and publicly vows to get rid of them. He is talking about many of us honest and patriotic citizens who respect and honor the Constitution that he would like to replace with his own set of rules. Not on my watch.
Joe Biden has proven his merit. He doesn’t come close to the percentages of Harry Truman. Let me list the things he inherited from the Trump Administration: a humongous deficit. He left just as inflation was gathering wings. It rose to 9.1% in June and is now at 6.5 per cent. That is quite a drop. It continues to fall. High prices, for instance, gasoline and fuel bill increases due to the greed of the corporate giants who, like Trump, couldn’t care less about ordinary citizens. What has Biden given us? I’ll tell you:
1. 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person, down from a peak but still historically high.
2. $24.2 billion, the amount of U.S. Security assistance committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion over a year ago.
3. 2.38 million ending in September 2023, for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It stopped migrants at the U.S. border nearly 2.4 million times, a record surge driven by sharp increases in Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans making the trek. The previous yearly high was in 2021 when CBP stopped migrants at the border 1.66 times.
4. The number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket known as HIMARS that the Administration has committed to send to Ukraine. The mobile advanced rocket systems have been a game-changer for Ukraine forces, allowing them to fire at Russian targets from dozens of miles away and quickly drive away before Russian armillary can target their position.
5. Biden won Senate confirmation for 97 of his picks to the federal bench, including Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson during the first two years of his presidency. Biden has outpaced his two immediate predecessors.
6. The president has granted nine pardons and 80 commutations, far more than any of his predecessors at this point in their presidencies. Donald Trump had granted 11 at this point, and George Bush, seven. Barack Obama didn’t take any clemency action in his first two years.
7. The average price per gallon that American motorists are paying at the pump has fallen since peaking at $5.02 per gallon.
8. 660 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to Americans under Biden.
9. Twenty million had received the jab before Biden took office. Donald Trump said that COVID would disappear in a week. We know how that turned out.
10. Deaths from the Corona Virus had already taken 416,750 when Biden was elected.
11. One trillion dollars has been allocated for roads, bridges, ports, and more in Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation, arguably the most significant legislative achievement of his first two years in office.
12. 43,000 bridges in the U.S. are rated as poor and needing repair, according to the White House. He also brought down the price of insulin and other medicals.
These were things he did to make America safe and comfortable for you. It is hard to compare what Candidate Trump would do. I don’t understand why the Republicans fear him so much. As you look at all the bangles and beads being flashed at you like a carnival shill, don’t be swayed. Remember, all that glitters is not gold. Don’t give up what you have to a traveling salesman. I’m an American, and I’m concerned because I love this country just like it is. Just sayin’.
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