Dear America,
I fail to understand why no one, not even those who oppose Trump, ever seems to confront him with the vagueness and grandiosity of the promises he makes. For example, he has said over and over again that if he is elected...rather, when according to him...he will put an end to inflation. It surprises me that no one ever asks him how he will accomplish this feat that, he says, Joe Biden seems not to have been able to as of this date. I should point out that the current inflation rate is under 3% and that the conventional desirable rate is 2%, not zero. And it is also to be noted that the current Federal Reserve Board has managed to cut it to this level from the 9%+ it was at a few years ago with its fiscal policy adjustments. As far as I know that is the only systemic method of inflation control available other than restrained fiscal policy in congress. Of course, the president has the power to persuade at his disposal, such as when Trump persuaded a Republican house and senate to pass tax cuts favoring the economic top 10% of our society and thus expand the federal deficit and the national debt, the latter by about $8 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office at one time. And in fairness, Biden added about $3 trillion with his bills to save millions of the unemployed from losing their homes and small businesses from folding in consequence of the pandemic that Trump insisted was no worse than the flu, but we all benefited from that smaller budgetary insult, not just Trump and his wealthy cadre. The question would be simple to ask; How are you going to do that?
And that isn't the only such question that someone should be asking Trump. For example, he insists that he would end the Ukraine war as soon as he took office, Trump insists. Never mind that it has been raging for over two years and that Putin, the instigator and prosecutor of the war, is unwilling to withdraw from another sovereign countries territory, killing thousands and committing some of the most broadly inhumane war crimes with his forces seen since the holocaust. Trump says he will prevail upon the parties to the hostilities to just walk away from the battlefield, apparently just because Trump says they should. Maybe someone should ask him what the magic words will be. I'd like to know, and I'm sure that everyone, including his supporters would too.
And he says that if he had been president over the past nearly four years, neither the war in Ukraine nor the war in the middle east would have occurred in the first place. I think asking him how he would have prevented them would be the apposite question. How could one man by some expression of his will have controlled the acts of nations? If he couldn't get Mexico to pay for his wall, which he assured the nation they would do with the stock Trump assurance, "believe me." About three million voters fewer than Hillary Clinton got believed him, but apparently Mexico just ignored Trump's promise.
All of this and more reminds me of all of the other promises he made in business only to declare bankruptcy six times and walk away from them. It seems to me that anyone who believes Trump's promises should just send me $5 so they can have a share of stock in the bridge I'm building in my back yard. Are all you Trump voters listening? Just to stay on the right side of the law, only kidding. I don't have a bridge in my back yard. But if you want to send me $5, please feel free to do so. I promise to spend it wisely.
Unfortunately, I don't foresee any of these questions, or any other tough questions being asked before the election. And frankly, I think those who wind up voting for Trump will care because their reason for voting has nothing to do with veracity, candor or honesty. The people who are going to vote for Trump, including evangelical Christians who purport to be guided by morality and Christian values, will do so despite the obvious truth that Trump is a miscreant liar, cheat, philanderer and amoral bounder because his despicableness is, under it all, shared by them in principle, if that isn't an oxymoron. Speaking of morons...oh, never mind. What is imperative today isn't that anyone acknowledge what a despicable villain Trump is. What is imperative is that everyone who has any integrity at all vote for Harris, not just because she's the better candidate, but as much because she isn't Trump. His political ascent is an American scandal. As I say on the occasion of every election, on election day, the American people get what they deserve. God help us if we deserve Trump.
Your friend,
I fail to understand why no one, not even those who oppose Trump, ever seems to confront him with the vagueness and grandiosity of the promises he makes. For example, he has said over and over again that if he is elected...rather, when according to him...he will put an end to inflation. It surprises me that no one ever asks him how he will accomplish this feat that, he says, Joe Biden seems not to have been able to as of this date. I should point out that the current inflation rate is under 3% and that the conventional desirable rate is 2%, not zero. And it is also to be noted that the current Federal Reserve Board has managed to cut it to this level from the 9%+ it was at a few years ago with its fiscal policy adjustments. As far as I know that is the only systemic method of inflation control available other than restrained fiscal policy in congress. Of course, the president has the power to persuade at his disposal, such as when Trump persuaded a Republican house and senate to pass tax cuts favoring the economic top 10% of our society and thus expand the federal deficit and the national debt, the latter by about $8 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office at one time. And in fairness, Biden added about $3 trillion with his bills to save millions of the unemployed from losing their homes and small businesses from folding in consequence of the pandemic that Trump insisted was no worse than the flu, but we all benefited from that smaller budgetary insult, not just Trump and his wealthy cadre. The question would be simple to ask; How are you going to do that?
And that isn't the only such question that someone should be asking Trump. For example, he insists that he would end the Ukraine war as soon as he took office, Trump insists. Never mind that it has been raging for over two years and that Putin, the instigator and prosecutor of the war, is unwilling to withdraw from another sovereign countries territory, killing thousands and committing some of the most broadly inhumane war crimes with his forces seen since the holocaust. Trump says he will prevail upon the parties to the hostilities to just walk away from the battlefield, apparently just because Trump says they should. Maybe someone should ask him what the magic words will be. I'd like to know, and I'm sure that everyone, including his supporters would too.
And he says that if he had been president over the past nearly four years, neither the war in Ukraine nor the war in the middle east would have occurred in the first place. I think asking him how he would have prevented them would be the apposite question. How could one man by some expression of his will have controlled the acts of nations? If he couldn't get Mexico to pay for his wall, which he assured the nation they would do with the stock Trump assurance, "believe me." About three million voters fewer than Hillary Clinton got believed him, but apparently Mexico just ignored Trump's promise.
All of this and more reminds me of all of the other promises he made in business only to declare bankruptcy six times and walk away from them. It seems to me that anyone who believes Trump's promises should just send me $5 so they can have a share of stock in the bridge I'm building in my back yard. Are all you Trump voters listening? Just to stay on the right side of the law, only kidding. I don't have a bridge in my back yard. But if you want to send me $5, please feel free to do so. I promise to spend it wisely.
Unfortunately, I don't foresee any of these questions, or any other tough questions being asked before the election. And frankly, I think those who wind up voting for Trump will care because their reason for voting has nothing to do with veracity, candor or honesty. The people who are going to vote for Trump, including evangelical Christians who purport to be guided by morality and Christian values, will do so despite the obvious truth that Trump is a miscreant liar, cheat, philanderer and amoral bounder because his despicableness is, under it all, shared by them in principle, if that isn't an oxymoron. Speaking of morons...oh, never mind. What is imperative today isn't that anyone acknowledge what a despicable villain Trump is. What is imperative is that everyone who has any integrity at all vote for Harris, not just because she's the better candidate, but as much because she isn't Trump. His political ascent is an American scandal. As I say on the occasion of every election, on election day, the American people get what they deserve. God help us if we deserve Trump.
Your friend,
Mike
P.S.
Just a note...probably a futile gesture. I doubt that any Trumper reads these letters, so I'm preaching to the choir when I say this, but there's a graphic message to voters everywhere that I think Harris should send. Even though this message is a jape when it's used in other circumstances, I think it would make a serious point that nothing else seems to have made when it comes to Trump supporters, and it's this printed under a picture of Donald Trump:
WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN? SERIOUSLY. WOULD YOU?
What more do I have to say.
Just a note...probably a futile gesture. I doubt that any Trumper reads these letters, so I'm preaching to the choir when I say this, but there's a graphic message to voters everywhere that I think Harris should send. Even though this message is a jape when it's used in other circumstances, I think it would make a serious point that nothing else seems to have made when it comes to Trump supporters, and it's this printed under a picture of Donald Trump:
WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN? SERIOUSLY. WOULD YOU?
What more do I have to say.
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