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Jan. 8, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Worryingly, Rep. Ben Cline seems to be losing his grip on reality.
Cline recently endorsed Trump for POTUS. No surprise there. Like the seeds of a dandelion, Cline floats wherever the foul wind from Florida directs him.
Nevertheless, the language of Cline’s endorsement is troubling. He claims that under the former president (now an openly wannabe dictator on day one) the economy was strong, the border’s secure, and we saw global peace through American leadership. None of those things are actually true.
Take the economy. Trump’s bet that further tax breaks for the turbo wealthy would be more than offset by import tariffs failed and put the nation further in debt. Biden’s policies have spurred the growth of 14 million jobs, far outpacing Trump. Worker incomes are up. The stock market thrives while the threat of a recession fades. Inflation is falling.
As for European respect for U.S. leadership: does no one remember the video footage of European heads of state snickering at Trump’s antics at a G7 meeting? Or his toady relationship to the likes of Putin and Kim Jong Un? Was any of that actual respected American leadership?
As for our southern border: what wall that was built proved to be predictably ineffectual. President Biden has implored Congress for funds to change the border situation, but Cline and his cronies would rather prolong human suffering in order to clutch at the one issue they hope will stick to the proverbial wall in the fall.
Still, Cline endorses Trump. Trump the 91 times accused felon, the sentenced sexual assailant, the guilty New York real estate swindler, the person who disregarded the emoluments clause of our Constitution (Article 1, section 9, par. 8) to the tune of $7.8 million, and the individual who — at the very least — gave “aid or comfort” to insurrectionists in violation of Article 14, section 3. This is the person Cline thinks should be in the White House?
This is why I worry about him. Cline appears to be living in a delusion. He has my thoughts and prayers. WALTER C. BOUZARD Rockbridge County
