Response to Emmerich column
Wyatt Emmerich’s column in the Wednesday Dispatch was in some ways a welcome explanation of the positions many Republicans may hold about Trump’s supposed strengths. He said that letters like mine would be “hate mail.” I assume that he takes the position that those who disagree with him have hate in their hearts; or he didn’t really mean HATE? Several opinions in his column stand out:
1. “His openness and honesty can be refreshing.” The obvious truth to anyone is that Trump is a pathological liar through and through. Truth to him is whatever he says it is, regardless of anything else. Thousands of examples.
2. “Conservative judges”. The Senate rejected considering a middle-of-the-road justice in 2016, yet reversed their “rules” to nominate and approve a candidate with a clear social agenda and limited judicial experience this month after many millions of people had already voted in the upcoming election. Judges should be as impartial as possible. I do not see this happening with Barrett or Trump’s other nominees. Will we go back to the days of back-alley abortions and loss of health insurance for millions, among other things?
3. “Learn to live with COVID” would be better expressed as “learn to die with COVID” (over 200,000 and counting), with the worst yet to come largely because of incompetence and inaction at the federal level. Trump continues to mouth myths about COVID, such as calling mask wearing unnecessary. In Kansas, counties with mask mandates have had half the COVID cases as those with no mandates.
4. “Global Warming” is dismissed in one sentence as apparently nothing to worry about. Contrast this with the consensus opinions of scientific experts who argue that this is the largest and most dangerous problem facing the world over the rest of this century.
5. “Biden’s son”. First, his son is not running for president. Why even mention him? Even if this one unproven “scandal” pans out, it pales in comparison to the dozens of scandals in the Trump administration leading to prison sentences and in Trump’s personal life, many of which are transgressions punishable with prison time for other, less sheltered people. In deciding to vote I think the highest priorities for our entire country are those that have potentially the largest effects on the most people. These are climate change and covid-19. Trump is failing miserably in both cases. Most everyone will suffer from these failures one way or another.
Bill Parker
Columbus
Correction: A letter to the editor in Wednesday’s Dispatch was incorrectly attributed to Bill Parker. Wednesday’s letter was written by Bill Gillmore.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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