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To the editor:
In one of his last interviews as president, Joe Biden told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that he “spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics.” That sums up how American elections have been decided during most of my lifetime.
By any objective measure, Ronald Reagan was a failed president. Inflation was at least double the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target throughout his two terms. Scandals plagued his administration — Iran-Contra, HUD grant rigging, illegal lobbying, the S&L Crisis and more.
Reagan crushed the economy with a devastating five-year recession and violent crime soared. He set the country down the path of ever expanding debt, nearly tripling the national debt in just eight years. Reagan taxed Social Security benefits, worker IRA contributions and interest on personal loans. Yet the “Teflon President” was so masterful at politics, there was talk of adding Reagan to Mount Rushmore and he remains revered among conservatives.
Generally, Republican presidents are good at politics and terrible at policy. George H.W. Bush did nothing to ease the recession or rising crime he inherited, while adding almost as much debt as Reagan in just 4 years. George W. Bush nearly doubled Reagan’s and his father’s combined debt, re-legalized assault weapons, mismanaged the war on terror and plunged the country into the worst recession since 1929. Donald Trump 1.0 added more debt in four years than G.W. Bush had in eight, gifted corporate America their largest ever tax cut, removed personal exemptions and SALT deductions and completely botched the single significant challenge he faced, Covid.
Post-election, media analysts have focused upon the messaging of the Trump and Harris campaigns; style over substance. I guess to win an election a candidate has to be like the American products Frank Zappa described in Flakes —“a little bit cheesy, but nicely displayed.”
Joseph Cannisi
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