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June 28, 2024
Editor, The News-Gazette: Trump demonstrated his mastery of a rhetorical strategy called “gish gallop” in last Thursday’s debate as he unleashed a veritable firehose of misleading statements and outright lies. Here are some of my favorites: He lied about the January 6 insurrection: “A relatively small number of people that went to the Capitol and in many cases were ushered in by the police.” That whopper falls to the thoroughly documented videos and testimony by people that were there, including the Capitol police.
Trump lied about Biden’s tax plan: “He wants to raise your taxes by four times.” Biden’s tax plan calls for no increases for people earning less that $400,000 a year. Biden’s tax plan would partially correct the unfunded 2017 cuts that lopsidedly benefited the turbo wealthy and added billions to the national debt.
Trump claimed “during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever” and that he supports “immaculate” air and water. In fact, he undercut the Clean Water Act, pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accord, eased regulations of coal, oil, and gas companies, denied climate change and tried to cut the budget of the EPA.
On abortion he declared: “The problem they have is they’re radical because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth.” First, there is no such thing as an “after birth” abortion. Full stop. Moreover, abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy are less than 1% of the total and occur because of fatal fetal abnormalities or danger to the mother.
Trump habitually lies. The only thing I believe he doesn’t lie about is his desire to become a dictator like the totalitarian despots he admires. Nov. 5 is our chance to say no to Trump’s lies and yes to democracy.
WALTER C. BOUZARD Rockbridge County
