Let’s dispense with the “Are you better off today than four years ago?” pitch.
Most people for whom this might matter only see the price of eggs – statistical evidence be damned.
Job figures? Great. Stock market? Soaring. Inflation? Moderated. Ah, forget it.
Anyway, my wife has a better question to jog political memories:
If another killer pandemic knocked on our nation’s door, whom would you trust to govern us through it?
Do you think Kamala Harris would sandbag the American people about the danger?
Do you think Harris would mock life-saving vaccinations and precautions urged by health professionals?
When providing aid to states, do you think Harris would favor one region and screw another?
Not a chance. None.
You can believe Kamala Harris when she says she would represent all Americans as president.
You can’t believe a word Donald Trump says except that he’d wage war against political enemies (and if necessary, use a health emergency as a political cudgel).
“Retribution” is the only Trump utterance we can believe. Otherwise: Every time Trump’s lips move, a lie enters the atmosphere.
Joe Rogan, they say, is a tough guy — a man’s man. But given the opportunity and three hours with Trump Oct. 25, the Podcast King wasn’t man enough to extricate evidence of the “steal” that justified the acts for which Trump is indicted in multiple jurisdictions.
Trump had all day, as they say — the floor all to himself, so much time he was three hours late to a rally in Michigan. All that time, and Rogan’s bated breath, and Trump couldn’t produce so much as a micro fiber of election fraud to share. He’s had four years to come up with it, folks!!
If Rogan were a tough guy, he wouldn’t have accepted sweet nothings from someone facing a raft of criminal charges.
But of course, that’s what MAGA wants to hear. Sweet nothings — and lies.
Lie to us. Please. Tell us about Haitians “eating the dogs! Eating the cats!”
Lie to us about the micro force of Venezuelan teens who somehow subjugated Aurora, Colo. Show us their scary pictures — all two of them — as you did at the breathless rally in Aurora, population 400,000.
Lie to us. Tell us how tariffs somehow are paid for by trade partners as opposed to the people — we who would pay for the dramatically marked-up products. Lie to us about how that will end inflation.
Tell us how you tamed the federal deficit, leaving us with only an additional $8.4 trillion 10-year debt because of tax cuts big corporations didn’t need and work-a-day Americans barely noticed. “Big-spender” Joe Biden borrowed half that and built bridges, highways, sewers, water projects and so much more.
Lie to us. Tell us you don’t have a love affair with Vladimir Putin, to whom you secretly sent COVID tests when the rest of us were desperate for them. What did he send to you in return? No doubt a gushing promise to help with your next attempt to gain power.
Lie to us. In the absence of anything to bolster the claim in the desperate moment after killer storms, tell people FEMA is going to let them rot.
Lie to us. Tell us public schools are programming children’s genders right out of them, surgically if necessary.
I would love to hear Trump’s followers explain away each of the above claims. On second thought . . .
If Kamala Harris committed even one untruth that compared to any of these whoppers, the week-after-week non-stop hammering on it — surely there’s something that exceeds 24/7 — wouldn’t be enough for Fox Spews. Rupert Murdoch would have to launch Fox Spews Deux.
Yessir, give that audience what it wants. For certain, it’s not the truth.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
