Editor,
In his usual acerbic fashion, Fred Wilferth has once again thoroughly distorted President Biden’s record. As he has in the past, and as Mr. Trump does ad nauseum, Mr. Wilferth describes some unrecognizable hellscape and maintains that this is America. In reality, under President Biden the number of undocumented immigrants entering the U.S., who per capita are responsible for far fewer crimes than are U.S. citizens, is below where it was when Mr. Trump left office, murders have plummeted in America, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, stocks have had their best two years since the last century, the economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is near historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The chief economist at Moody’s Analytics commented recently that Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.
Internationally, no U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars. Mr. Biden has reintegrated the country into the international community and reinforced our fraying alliances, in particular NATO. He is responsible for bringing together a coalition of allies which has saved Ukraine from Putin’s bloody aggression, reestablishing the principle that no country is free to grab territory from a neighbor.
In rather stark contrast, just in the last two weeks Mr. Trump, along with Elon Musk, who has developed into a caricature of a James Bond villain, has menaced our closest allies. Mr. Trump has threatened to invade Mexico and Panama, mused about annexing Canada and suggested that we need to “buy” Greenland, apparently with or without the acquiescence of the Greenlanders or the Danes. Mr. Wilferth describes the prospect of Mr. Trump’s presidency as bringing back sanity. One wonders what insanity looks like.
Like all presidents, Mr. Biden is not without his shortcomings. But in the final analysis, he made America and the world a better place and history, which thankfully is written by professional historians and not by FOX News pundits, will be kind to him. He deserves it.
Dr. Bernd J. Fischer
Oak Harbor
