By Jeff Gorke
SUWANEE, Ga. | It’s always fun to read Jack Bernard’s missives. They tend to be short on data, long on aspersions while often slamming 50 percent of the population for being mindless rubes. Understand, I’m no Trump supporter, but he isn’t one of the Riders of the Apocalypse, either.
Gorke
He didn’t weaponize big tech to spy on Americans. He didn’t lock up his political opponents. He didn’t remove anyone from a national election (14th Amendment) for something that person was neither tried nor convicted of. No, certainly though, he’s a “threat to democracy.” We truly are in Orwell’s 1984.
First, I’d like to address a few of Jack’s tired dog whistles that are endlessly dredged up. To wit, this oft lobbed quote attributed to Trump: “You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” This, as Jack knows, was taken completely out of context. The remainder of that quote was, essentially, “…except for the white supremacists.” But, don’t stumble over facts while trying to raise the standard of virtue. (By the bye, all of this is provable with a little search on the Internet of Things.)
Next, Trump might “..do away with social security as we know it…” That’s a touch short on depth and detail, no? What does that mean, exactly? A little rhetorical precision would go a long way toward a rational conversation.
Lastly, where’s the voter suppression? If I’m not mistaken Georgia’s last election had some of the highest, if not the highest, turnout in state history so who was “suppressed” and/or disenfranchised? Sidebar, has Stacey Abrams conceded defeat in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race? Or ’22 for that matter? Does Hillary Clinton still think that Trump was an “…illegitimate president?” And by what metric? What does all that mean?
So, on to Jack’s fiscal argument re: “conservatives.” We can all agree that fiscal management makes sense in our government and in our homes. So, a little about the “deficit,” or, maybe more importantly, the debt.
While for some reason Jack touts Obama managing $500B a year in deficit spending, he grew the debt 80 percent in his time in office; $10T or about $1.25T per year, on average. In the meantime, Trump grew the debt $6.9T, 30 percent, or about $1.73T per year.
Now look at our present leadership; Biden has grown the debt $6.74T in only 3 years, that’s 21 percent growth and ~ $2.26T per year. (“Nominal” numbers used.) Our debt service costs us $1T a year, 16 percent of our budget. Our debt is approximately 145 percent of our GDP. Not a good thing. So, while we can all agree “debt bad,” please spare the proselyting. There’s plenty of blame to go around. Oh, and as you know, Congress has the purse strings. (But I use these data elements since he mentioned spending by administration.)
Jack, you got me going!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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