Brunswick Beacon, 12.14.23
When Louisiana’s Republican Sen. John Kennedy questioned Dr. Megan Ranney at last month’s senate hearing on gun violence, he regurgitated Republican propaganda. Kennedy called Chicago “America’s largest outdoor shooting range,” and blamed Chicagoans with “rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm, a previously unknown simile. Dr. Ranney ignored Kennedy’s blatantly racist invocation of an enormous homicidal black gorilla and replied: “Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates.”
In fact, the firearm death rates of New Orleans (65.3/100K), Baton Rouge (45.0/100K) and Shreveport (27.2/100K) ALL exceed Chicago’s (23.3/100K). Did Kennedy not know the firearm death rates of his state’s three largest cities? Or was he “catapulting the propaganda” (as George W. Bush famously recommended) to suit Republicans’ partisan political purposes?
Our congressman, David Rouzer, catapulted the propaganda when he accused President Biden of pursuing an “anti-American energy agenda” increasing “our energy and economic dependence.” In fact, Biden has an “all of the above” strategy. He supports green energy, but has also pressured oil companies to increase production and approved Alaskan and offshore oil and gas drilling. US oil and gas production broke records in 2023. America is more energy independent now than under Trump.
When a Harris poll asked Americans about the economy, 60% of Republicans catapulted party propaganda by falsely claiming that unemployment is near a 50-year high. In fact, it’s been below 4% for 21 months and near a 54-year low!
Republican Ralph Benko is a former Reagan deputy general counsel. Writing for Newsmax (“Hey GOP: What if Prosperity Is Returning to America?”) Benko praises Biden’s economy, which grew at 5.2% last quarter. Trump averaged just 1%. Benko says Trump “tanked the dollar,” causing inflation, which Biden has dramatically reduced: October’s inflation was literally ZERO!
Benko calls GOP attacks on Bidenomics “tribalism” and a recipe for defeat if Republicans continue to ignore reality and simply peddle partisan propaganda.
Michael P. Rush
Leland