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Wednesday, March 22, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Obama failed to lead
By Dick Brady
Guest Columnist
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
In reference to Jeff Mackey’s letter of
March 15, here’s just one thought out of all
the head-shaking and confusion I experienced
reading it. I find it amazing how little people
actually know about the history of their own
civilization, even including relatively recent
times. Hitler didn’t start rounding up “liber-
als, gays, immigrants, woman, transexuals,
Jews or Muslims” until several years after his
democratic election in 1933. So Trump still
has time.
First Hitler had to send out continuous
propaganda releases to convince people that
these groups were the enemy and the cause of
all their problems. At the same time, he had
discredited the press and then eliminated it
alltogether. Sounding familiar? Since he was
elected during the great depression (which hit
Germany harder than most countries) it was
easy to convince people that he had the solu-
tions to their fears. They were desperate for
someone to save them and to have someone
to blame.
It’s no wonder people in this country who
remember their history have used the term
“Nazi.” The parallels of Trump’s rise and
Hitler’s are too numerous to list in this small
paper.
Am I worried about a fascist coup in our
country? Not really. For one thing, we have,
for the most part, recovered from Bush’s great
recession thanks to Obama’s slow and stead-
fast policies. The upper Midwest, however,
hasn’t done as well as the rest of the coun-
try (largely because of corporations wanting
to better their bottom line by moving facto-
ries and employing automation) and it’s no
See LETTERS on page 32
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Re: Steve Nugent’s
op-ed “An understandable
reaction,” in the March 8
edition of The Nugget:
A f t e r r e a d i n g M r.
Nugent’s column, my first
reaction was, how, after
only one month in office,
could he come to such neg-
ative conclusions, with no
redeeming values whatso-
ever. In fact, according to
the opinion piece, he ends
with the statement “all of
these things bring serious
doubt as to the legitimacy
or fitness of President
Trump.”
Really?
Reality check — half
the country feels otherwise,
that a change was needed
and needed badly, because
of what Barack Obama
turned this nation into in
eight years. In fact, had
it not been for California,
President Trump would
have won the popular vote
as well. Out of 3,141 coun-
ties in the U.S., he won
all but 57. So, let’s take a
moment and examine some
more facts on why a change
was needed.
For starters, Barack
Obama in eight years added
more to our national debt
($9.3 trillion), than all
other 43 presidents com-
bined, which our children
and grandchildren will
inherit.
Second, the national
economy under Obama
declined to the lowest labor
participation rate since the
1970s; median income a
minus $5,000 per person;
11 million more in poverty;
43 million on food stamps,
and welfare roles at their
highest.
Third, increased regu-
lations on the business
community cost a stagger-
ing $873 billion; 300,000
manufacturing jobs lost;
a global trade deficit of
over $700 billion last year
alone — all under Barack
Obama’s watch. In short,
business growth in the last
eight years has stagnated,
especially in Oregon.
Fourth, the failure of
Obama’s signature piece of
legislation — Obamacare.
Rather than promises of
“keeping your doctor” and
“savings of $2,500 per
family,” the exact opposite
has occurred. Choice in
healthcare providers has
decreased and costs have
increased — as well as
deductibles. Premiums are
up an average of 25 per-
cent nationwide, including
Arizona at 116 percent.
Fifth, what about for-
eign policy, you say?
Surely, there is a silver
lining there. Sorry, no
such luck. There are many
examples of the failures
of the Obama administra-
tion in dealing with foreign
policy, such as giving Iran
$150 billion dollars with-
out virtually any restric-
tions; bowing to foreign
leaders, repeatedly telling
them that America is not
very special; backing away
from terrorists and refus-
ing to call them Islamic
terrorists.
I could go on and on
about Obama’s legacy such
as his administrations lack
of transparency, account-
ability for anything, scan-
dals such as refusing to
take any responsibility for
or prosecute anyone for
Benghazi and the terrible
loss of four Americans
including Ambassador
Stevens, the giving of
arms to Mexican crimi-
nals and the loss of border
patrol agents, to name just
a few.
Let’s just leave it at this
— Obama failed to lead.
But the biggest damage is
how he divided this country
culturally.
On January 20, 2017,
President Trump took
office and truly inherited
a mess. But, he has a plan
— to increase jobs, lower
taxes, reform the tax code,
negotiate better and fairer
trade deals, cut burdens to
corporations, bring back
our manufacturing jobs,
promote energy indepen-
dence, build a border wall,
vet refugees, take care of
our military and our vet-
erans, repeal and replace
Obamacare, and appoint
constitutionalists to the U.S.
Supreme Court. Maybe,
then, we can make America
great again. It sure hasn’t
been great the last eight
years.
I am proud as a
small businessman to
say I support President
Trump. Finally, there is
someone who has my
back.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.