I see Republican hypocrisy on a regular basis, but rarely is it so clearly on display as it was in the side-by-side columns in your ad on page 16 in the July 18th edition of The New Irmo News.
In the first column you touted the endorsement you received from former president Donald Trump. In the second column you dropped a list of worn-out campaign promises.
You say you will “Combat Illegal Alien Invasion, Reduce Crime and Support Public Safety.”
First, when you say, “illegal alien invasion” people get KILLED. (Remember the 2019 mass shooting at the El Paso Walmart? The gunman echoed Trump’s use of those words.) It’s time to eschew the racist fear-mongering. And the correct term is “undocumented immigrants.”
The fact is that undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that “undocumented immigrants had substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens . . . across a range of felony offenses. Relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.” Although much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico, more than 86 percent of fentanyl trafficking crimes are committed by U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
That said, it was Donald Trump who sabotaged the bipartisan immigration reform bill in Congress. He would rather have an issue he can exploit in his campaign than a solution to the problem.
You also said you will “Defeat Dictators Overseas.” Trump’s consistent admiration for foreign strongmen is well documented. He exchanged “love letters” with Kim Jong Un. He called China’s Xi Jinping a “brilliant guy.” He described Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine as “savvy” and “genius.” He hosted Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orban, at his Florida home just two weeks ago. Trump has said that he himself will be a “dictator on day one.”
Joe, if you really want to “defeat dictators” maybe you should forget the “overseas” part and start at Mar-a-Lago.
You said you will “Hold Washington Accountable.” What about the guy who promoted a violent coup to overturn an election? You know, the guy who did nothing for three hours while his supporters bludgeoned capitol police officers with flagpoles, soaked them with bear spray, and crushed them in doorways. And then said he will pardon the convicted insurrectionists if he gets re-elected. That guy.
And what about the same guy who stole dozens of boxes of classified documents, hid them in his bathroom, and then lied about it, in a clear violation of the Espionage Act? Does he get a free pass?
You’ve welcomed an endorsement from that guy.
Actually, there is no Republican Party now. There is just the lawless, xenophobic, grievance-obsessed, anti-democratic Personality Cult of Donald Trump. And you, Joe, are a charter member.
Miriam Johnson
Columbia
