We know what we’ll get

With Donald Trump, we know what we will get. He will secure the border, deport known criminals and gang members, promote all energy sources to lower costs, reduce taxes for everyone, and eliminate regulations that stifle large and small businesses.

With Kamala Harris, we don’t know what we will get. She says she is not Joe Biden, but she would not change a “single thing.” She said they did the “right thing” about the border. She does not answer a simple question about anything from anyone.

So, do we vote for the devil we know, or the devil we don’t know? The devil we know has policies that work. Who knows what the other devil will do?

— Dennis A. Helander, White Bear Lake

Cartoons exaggerate, but …

A cartoon on your Opinion page of October 26 showed Donald Trump blowing a kiss toward Vladimir Putin and saying “He’s cute when he’s angry.” A reasonable citizen, of the type who reads a newspaper, would not likely take the cartoon literally to mean that Trump has expressed romantic feelings of a personal nature towards the Russian autocrat. The reader would likely know that editorial cartoons exaggerate to make their point, and would understand that the reference here is to Trump’s occasional public expressions of admiration for Putin. There is very little risk that reasonable readers will misconstrue the truth of the matter. The truth as to what Trump has actually said about Putin is well known or easily ascertainable. Conclusions drawn from his statements may reasonably differ.

I fear, however, that there is a greater risk of misunderstanding presented by another cartoon appearing the same day, the one depicting Kamala Harris as hysterically shouting that “Trump is Hitler!” The cartoon appeared after Trump’s longest-serving chief-of-staff expressed his belief that Trump met the definition of a fascist and posed a risk to democratic institutions. The host of a TV town hall later asked Harris whether she agreed that Trump met the definition of a fascist. Direct comparisons of any leader to Hitler almost always appear, on their face, to be ridiculous and usually instantly discredit anyone making them. I think there’s a risk that reasonable citizens seeing this cartoon, and not having dug deeply into news accounts, might actually think Harris made this ridiculous comparison, discredit her on the subject, and not look more deeply into the truth of the matter. The truth is that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Trump has autocratic tendencies, and poses a risk to democratic institutions and the rule of law. This is true regardless of whether he meets the definition of a “fascist” and regardless of the fact that Trump is clearly not Hitlerian. What distinguishes Hitler from almost any other authoritarian leader, or even any fascist, is his waging of aggressive wars of conquest and his genocidal crimes against humanity, all on a massive scale. Trump is not Hitler, and poses almost no risk of becoming Hitler. Yet JD Vance, in 2016, asked in a private Facebook message whether Trump — whom he had also called an “idiot” in a tweet — could be “America’s Hitler.”

No, J.D., Trump is not America’s Hitler, and Harris did not say that he is. But Trump could be America’s Viktor Orban; and he certainly could be much more cozy with Putin than would be good for our nation or for democracy around the world, even if we know he doesn’t really want to kiss him. As a faithful reader of your newspaper, which I find overall to be very fair and balanced, I ask that you take a more nuanced look in choosing which cartoons to publish.

— J.K. Callahan, Eagan

Aunts give the best advice

My aunt’s a social justice warrior, and I love her.

She said Donald Trump lacked a redeeming trait to love.

Donald Trump is a human, just like you and me, and his humanity is a trait that deserves love. He may have lost his way, but he’s still human. When we reject someone’s humanity, we reject our own.

I’ve observed that when we demonize humans, they’re way more likely to go full demon.

I told my aunt all that. I also told her I almost lost my humanity the other night when the bone-rattling trap music from the lively bar across the street from the crib shook me on a soul level and out of my slumber.

She advised me to get earplugs or play relaxing sounds on headphones to tune out the noise.

Aunts give the best advice.

— Josh Williams, Minneapolis

One a pariah, the other a saint?

Remember when interest rates peaked at 18%, you read that right, unemployment and inflation were 11%, gulp, and budget deficits caused a recession? Ronald Reagan, father of Reaganomics, was president. Remember how Republicans hung their heads and shouldered the crushing blame, nah, didn’t happen. Instead, the bad economy was pinned on Jimmy Carter’s mistakes and the unfortunate events of the previous administration, a mostly correct assertion.

The rest of the story from the ‘80s shows interest rates, inflation, and unemployment fell dramatically under Reagan. He rightly got credit for the improved economy.

Supply chain disruptions of Covid-19, high unemployment from shutdowns, pent-up spending demand from Covid checks in 2020 and large deficit spending of the Trump administration laid the foundation for massive shocks that needed time to gain momentum before slamming the economy, similar to Reagan in the ‘80s.

Consider the Biden-Harris administration: Inflation peaked at 9% in 2022 but is down to 2.4%. Unemployment went from 6.3% to 4.1%, and the stock market soared to record highs. Bidenomics has worked, when considering the length of the whole administration, giving its policies time to work and consider the fundamentals when it started. Be fair, use the same rules for Biden that were used for Reagan.

Most financial indicators show an economic comeback for the ages. But, but, inflation, say the detractors. Biden’s cumulative inflation is near 20% over his 4-year term. The cumulative inflation of Reagan’s first term was 25%. One a pariah, the other a saint. Please be consistent.

— Rod Greder, Pine City

Don’t forget the Block-Heads

Maddie Robinson’s story on Jerry Fearing in on Sunday, Oct. 20, was a wonderful tribute to the artist who brought so much whimsy and thought to the editorial pages, but it missed mentioning one of the great influences on his humor: Laurel and Hardy.

Jerry was a dear friend and a lifelong fan of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and co-founded the Twin CIties Laurel & Hardy club, the Block-Heads, with fellow Pioneer Press columnist Bill DIehl. Jerry designed many T-shirts for the club and sculpted, cast and hand-painted a series of Laurel & Hardy “Cartoons in Clay” as fundraisers for the group. His love of “the boys” was often seen in his political cartoons, where Stan & Ollie might turn up in the background, as was the case in his final cartoon for the paper on July 29, 1994, which depicts Jerry’s departure from the drawing board that is surrounded by clippings — including Laurel & Hardy.

— Tracy M. Tolzmann, Sunrise

Sainted

I want to say I’m thankful for the five employees at Kohl’s in Cottage Grove.

I fell in their store. They picked me up and gave me water. Someone made an ice pack to put on my neck. They even wheeled me to my car.

Great employees!

— Carol Brandt, Cottage Grove