Glenn Melancon/Contributing writer
Boxers and soldiers often train fighting dummies. It is easy to understand why. Dummies don’t fight back. Eventually, however, a good fighters needs to train against another human as an opponent if they want to win a real fight.
Debates work similarly with words. Some debaters only fight strawmen; others, preferring a challenge, argue against a real human opponent. Competitive debate requires a person to use logical facts or risk exposure as a charlatan.
Watching political commercials it is easy to see that conservatives prefer to argue against strawmen. Every election year they manufacture a mythical liberal. Several years ago they created the lie that Barack Obama wasn’t American. Millions of conservatives believed and spread this lie.
The commercials this year demonize President Joe Biden. The commercials distort his record, creating a straw man easy to defeat. The logical evidence tells a different story.
Despite conservative efforts to sabotage America, Joe Biden has a remarkable record of success. Domestically, job growth was steady over the last year. The unemployment rate fell.
Biden guided meaningful legislation through Congress. Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It limited out of pocket Medicare expenses to $5000 and capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35.
The Inflation Reduction Act also prioritized “Made In America.” It provided tax incentives to companies that provide alternatives to foreign oil. The tax code will reward companies that manufacture solar panels, wind turbines and batteries in America.
Joe Biden also signed into law the CHIPs and Science Act. The Covid 19 epidemic exposed America’s vulnerability to foreign manufacturing of semiconductors. Semiconductors are the brains of most modern machines from cars to cell phones.
President Biden also had success overseas. He rallied US allies against Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. NATO has imposed some of the harshest economic sanctions ever against Russia and supplied the Ukrainian freedom fighters with weapons to defend themselves.
NATO’s united front has made Putin’s potential allies think twice. Both China and India have backed away from their earlier support. Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey, told Putin that he needs to leave all of Ukraine, including Crimea, before any peace deal.
Conservative political ads understandably leave this record out. They don’t want voters to know the truth. They create a straw man. Conservative politicians want to continue raising our property taxes, defunding public schools and neglecting our future energy needs.
Fighting against a straw man will never make us stronger. American needs the truth.