May 11, 2025
Dear editor;
Dems have to fight back in order to keep our country. The other guys have been destroying unions that built the middle class and increasing economic inequality ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). FDR got us out of the depression with public works initiatives putting Americans back to work and restoring confidence in the economy. Two examples are the TVA Tennessee Valley Authority and Starved Rock Lodge for instance.
FDR started Social Security for us thanks to his choice of workers’ rights advocate Frances Perkins as Labor Secretary, she was also the first woman in a president’s cabinet and longest serving, 1933-1945. With FDR’s leadership, the Federal government worked for us.
Then Ronald Reagan came along and ridiculed that idea saying, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” One of the first things Reagan did was to fire all the Air Traffic Controllers and institute his trickle-down-theory. He argued if we give tax breaks to the wealthiest among us, then the money will trickle down to the rest of us. Next thing you know we were in a recession with his voodoo economics. That was the 1980s that I remember well: Husband unemployed, truckers without product to haul, no Cabbage Patch doll for my youngest daughter.
Now Donald Trump is using similar and worse tactics with his lies about everything, but especially regarding tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on us, plain and simple. Trump as the 45th president gave trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the most wealthy and he wants to do it again as the 47th president, at our expense! Cutting $880 billion from Medicaid, messing with Social Security, the VA and who knows what else the DOGE boys are cutting into while claiming they’re getting rid of fraud and abuse in order to give $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to Trump’s billionaires. Just wondering how firing 121,000 federal employees in Trump’s first 100 days is saving us money or helping to lower the cost of eggs and gas.
It’s the 1980s all over again. Trump says things will be bad for just a little while, then they’ll get better; he doesn’t know history. It’s not a switch you can turn on/off. Too many have believed his lies longer than any logic makes sense and we can’t wait until Election 2026 to make things right.
We need to fight now with the knowledge that Democrats want everyone to vote while Republicans use every trick in the book to deny our right to vote. In many Republican-controlled-states, nearly 20 million of legitimate voters have been and are being purged from the voter rolls just because they are of color and more likely to vote Democratic. Republicans don’t want women of any color voting. What do you think their SAVE Act is all about? Guess you have a lot of catching up to do.
Democrats, just like FDR, want our government to work for us, not like Trump’s payback to Elon Musk to tear our government apart – payback for Musk’s quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected.
As Kamala Harris said, reclaiming the House is Democrats’ last line of defense against Trump’s presidency, so now is the time to fight for our country and make sure our votes count next year for House and Senate members. Protest and fight for America until the cows come home. Vote Democratic!
Thank you,
Judy Siedlecki, Oswego