To the editor:

Two startling items arrived in our mail Saturday. One was a bit of campaign mail from the Republican Party of Minnesota. It claimed, “American workers can’t afford four more years of Joe Biden selling them out to China.” WHAAAAT??? Another bizarre attempt to drop the blame of the country’s fire, violence and disease on Biden’s shoulders. Sorry, but that all belongs to Trump and his supporters. Since 2016, they had absolute control of the Presidency, the House, the Senate, and a politicized Supreme Court, losing only the House in 2018. Through ineptitude, the Trumpists failed to kill expanded health care, and only managed to slow but not end the economic recovery and expansion created during the Obama/Biden years. Their one real accomplishment was a tax giveaway to the wealthiest that, no surprise, undermined the nation’s economic stability.

What was even more jaw-dropping was in my copy of Scientific American. For the first time in 175 years of strictly avoiding politics, this venerable magazine actually endorsed a political candidate, Joe Biden, for president.

Scientific American states, “The evidence and science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people – because he rejects evidence and science.” It goes on to cite the many instances where Trump has lied, how he has pressured states to ignore effective public health policy, and in short has single-handedly crippled our ability to deal with this disaster, putting our health and economy in increasing danger.

The editors also list other issues where Trump has failed, and outlines why Biden can be trusted to do the right thing. This was written in mid-August, when the death toll was 170,000. Correctly, it points out that things would get worse under Trump’s misdirection, and it has, with the toll of 200,000 continuing to climb and even Brown County seeing a surge.

What is so frustrating is that Trump could have played this differently. He could have been the strong, authoritarian leader with fierce admonishments to follow the dictates of “his” CDC, then trumpeted his success at protecting the people and the economy. He could have breezed into a second term. But, as usual, he took the lazy path, the stupid path, of bluster and lies. The same path that led him to disaster and bankruptcy of the companies he controlled in 1991 and 1992, when he shut down the warnings of his advisors and bullied them into silence until it came crashing down and he lost it all.

Back then, he lost his investments but was saved from personal bankruptcy by the banks. No bank can save us from this. Scientific American is right. Biden for President.

Jim Bodine

New Ulm