Dear Editor:
In “Politics – The Theater of the Absurd,” 5/22/24, letter writer El Sellers opens with “Once upon a time, baseball was the American national pastime. Not now. Today it’s politics.”
This is interesting because in baseball, facts, statistics, and reality matter. You can’t lose a game, and claim to have won it. You can’t accuse your opponent of cheating without ironclad proof. You will not get far claiming the Commissioner, arbitrators, the owners, the umps, the media, and stadium security are all biased against you, and are “out to GET you.” This was, and IS, called “bad sportsmanship.”
If you continue making claims, despite being corrected, it indeed becomes a Theater of the Absurd. Following are some claims made in the past by Mr. Sellers, along with rebuttals I offered. The rebuttals were never responded to with correcting evidence, a response explaining why Mr. Sellers’ claim was correct, or any information adding validity to the claims (perhaps he sent such a response, but it didn’t make it in the newspaper letters column). And yet, Sellers continues to make the claims.
The essence of propaganda is to keep repeating a lie, or an untruth, or a characterization until it becomes thought to be “true.” This only works with people susceptible to propaganda, and who have no desire to be made aware of truth or reality.
Biden’s foreign policies have totally failed
(I’ve addressed many foreign policy issues, but for a more specific answer, would need to have Sellers’ definition of “totally failed.” For example, Trump abandoned any idea of a ‘two state solution’ between Palestinians and Israel, gave Jerusalem over to Israel, officially recognized it as their capitol, and moved our embassy there. Could these actions have led to Hamas launching an attack on Israel, and if so, would THAT be a “totally failed policy”?)
Afghanistan’s shameful departure
On 2/28/24, I supplied, “In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. Who was president in February of 2020? Donald Trump.”
wide open borders
On 2/23/23 I questioned the use of this term thusly, “One way to test this would be to make a quick trip to Mexico and observe if that trip was unlimited and unrestricted … then make a quick trip to Oklahoma (which HAS a ‘wide open border’) and make the same observations.”
failure to help our friends in Gaza and Ukraine
On 10/19/23 I addressed this claim, “the Republicans …held our national budget hostage with the singular concession demanded to cut off aid to Ukraine.” And on 5/22/24 I noted, “Biden in April signed a $94B foreign funding bill that includes military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan,” also noting, “the President does not have the power of the purse, the Republican controlled House does.”
A NEW claim Sellers makes is that Trump is “neither mentally impaired nor for sale.” I would point out there are at least an equal number of videos of Trump misspeaking, freezing, or babbling incoherently as there are of Biden (easily LOTS more of Trump), and also we recently had Trump promise to get rid of pesky regulations for the oil industry if they would just pony up $1B for his campaign. Mentally impaired AND for sale. Who does Sellers think he’s fooling?
Jeff Harrison
Buffalo, Texas
