Editor, The Beacon:

A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Trump.

Remember 2016? Many voters were unhappy with their choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They wasted their votes on Gary Johnson, who got 3.3% of the vote. Most people don’t remember who Gary Johnson is. More folks probably remember his running mate, William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts.

Johnson and Weld were good people. Johnson failed to acknowledge, however, that the U.S. electorate is not ready for a third-party candidate. We as a nation haven’t reached that level of voter sophistication (sorry but it’s true). The moderates and Libertarians who voted for Johnson would likely have voted for Clinton had there not been a third-party choice. That’s called having a “spoiler” in the race.

Wisely, William Weld understood this, and in the closing days before the election he basically endorsed her, but it was too little too late.

People I know, people I thought were smart, voted for the Johnson/Weld ticket. It was foolish and ignored U.S. history. Those people elected Trump and ushered in four years of emoluments violations, embarrassment on the world stage, insults to our Gold Star veterans and their families, tax cuts to the wealthiest individuals and corporations that increased the deficit $2 trillion, and an overall deficit increase of $8 trillion, loss of reproductive rights resulting in women dying, coming close to death and losing their ability to ever get pregnant again.

The other really bad thing that happened is when Trump lost the 2020 election, he assembled a mob and incited that mob (Mitch McConnell’s words), to storm the Capitol, murder a policeman, cause the deaths of eight others, some of them Trump’s own supporters. That’s the definition of sedition.

There was a debate the other night between President Biden and Donald Trump. Joe had a cold and a bad night, resulting in a poor performance.

I’m young(ish), and very healthy, but when I had the flu, I couldn’t think straight either. For his part of the debate, Trump told at least 30 bald-faced lies, according to a post debate fact-checker.

Here’s the point: President Joe Biden’s superpower is sitting behind the Resolute Desk, making rational and shrewd decisions, taking advice from other smart, patriotic, altruistic people to benefit and protect all of the American people. I don’t care about his golf swing or how fast he can walk. I would rather vote for Joe Biden, even if he were in a wheelchair, than a venal, unbalanced, narcissistic person like Trump.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the most effective and successful presidents in U.S. history, spent his entire four terms in a wheelchair, quite ill in the last years. Biden is healthier than that and of sound mind.

Have we forgotten about Mitch McConnell’s recent episodes, where he completely froze up at the microphone and couldn’t speak? He appeared to be having a stroke, but it turned out to be something less serious, we are told. The morning after President Biden’s debate (while he was sick), he was once again full of vigor.

So, get over it, people. Stop your hand-wringing, and back the president, who pulled us from the brink of recession post-pandemic, lowered prescription-drug prices, reinvigorated U.S. infrastructure projects, made renewable power the No. 2 source of electricity in the U.S., expanded NATO, passed more bipartisan legislation than any other president in 50 years, saw the introduction of over-the-counter birth-control pills, expanded health care for veterans, and introduced the CHIPS Act, and whose economic policies are reducing inflation, increasing jobs, and growing the economy resulting in record stock-market gains. That’s just scratching the surface.

Most importantly, we have a president who will actually protect our constitutional rights and respect the rule of law.

Don’t waste your vote on an anti-vaxxer, who has no chance of being elected and whose powers of reason are questionable. You will be repeating history and increasing the chances of putting a truly dangerous wannabe dictator in the Oval Office.

Go to the library, and take out a copy of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (before antidemocratic forces try to ban it). Berzelius Windrip is Donald Trump. The Lee Sarason character is Steve Bannon. The similarities are uncanny.

Nancy LaRiviere
DeLand