I hope the people of our community get out and vote. I hope you vote after you have sorted thru the horrible mess that current politics has become. Ads say we need to be afraid of anyone running for office: They are the reason you need to be scared, or fear someone, or who will ruin America! I’m not advocating how you vote, but I hope you vote intelligently and well informed. Not just the way the Republican party says, because this is a Republican community, ingrained, set by decades of history. But, now more than ever, we need to break that way of thinking, and start voting with informed brains, careful reasoning, and facts. I won’t say one is better than another, since that’s always for each of us to decide; I’m saying now you should decide after you study facts.
The president sets the tone for the country no matter what he says or does; people tend to follow the president’s lead. Our president has done nothing to unite, only planted the seeds for hate and division. Trump is never going to change, or unify this nation, he is a divider. When he speaks to tweets, he’s sowing seeds of divisiveness, no signs of being presidential. His comment on the mail bombs last week: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
He is the reason we are divided, with his constant barrage of hate-filled comments on Twitter or in his speeches; all the media does is report his words.
He doesn’t even wholeheartedly condemn acts of violence. What kind of leadership is that?
His rhetoric will never heal, unite, or help America, but only divide us further. Did you know he has already prepared huge new tax breaks for the wealthy, and does plan to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to pay for them? Remember, Republicans voted 70 times to kill ACA, yet now are claiming they want to “save” it in order to win votes. But the bills in Congress don’t reflect their false claims.
Please study the facts from different sources, not party line, or social media, or biased news. Do research issues of concern. Don’t be followers, be deciders armed with real information, not lies or propaganda.
We face a badly divided nation, facing conflict fueled by unreasoning hatred and bigotry. It’s now clear that America is not heading in the right direction; we are losing respect around the world, we are no longer the country to look up to. Politicians need to be sent a message: that we want to grow and progress, not divide and regress!
We can only do that by voting intelligently. It’s all up to us now.
JIM LANE
Johnstown
