Off the Editor’s Desk 5-29-2024

Presidential Campaigns

I have been around a long time and I have spent many hours over the years listening and watching the campaigns for the election of president of the United States. Most campaigns have issues and that is expected as for every issue there are two sides to every story. But the story of this campaign, that is now ongoing, will not climax until November.

If I remember right, this campaign has more issues than Carter has pills. But one of the issues that is present this time that has not been in the past, is HATE. Hate has found its way into the campaign from protesters to input at public hearings. You can see the hate from a couple of elected representatives in our congress.

But, some of the issues have been around for a long time. In the 1960 election campaign beyween John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon where they were locked head to head in the race for the White House, the race was being dominated by rising Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. That apparently has not changed in the last 64 years.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the first man made satellite to orbit earth and the American people thought war with the Soviet Union was inevitable.

Does the issue with Russia today sound similar to that of 1960? Hate was also present back in 1912. Theodore Roosevelt was on a whistle blowing campaign, running on the Bull Moose Party as a third party candidate, through Wisconsin, stopping in Glenwood City on the rear step of a train. He traveled through many Wisconsin communities and into Milwaukee. He was just ready to make a speech and some nut shot him. The bullet penetrated his glass case that was in his suit pocket and through 50 pages of his folded speech and into his chest muscle. He delivered his speech, with his chest bleeding before he was taken to a hospital. He survived and doctors left the bullet in his chest muscle where he wore it for the rest of his life. The shooter was judged with “Mental Illness.”

See picture of Roosevelt in Glenwood City at the bottom of this piece.

I hate to see the division between the two political parties especially the division within the Republican Party.

Our United States Senator Ron Johnson took the stage at the recent GOP convention to plead with his party members to put aside their differences on issues such as abortion and unify to deliver Wisconsin for Trump. I know that the Democrat party members are questioning whether Biden has the mental capacity for another four years.

I feel that the two election issues for Joe Biden are abortion and gun control in the upcoming race. The NRA has its sights on Biden over his gun control issues.

Here is what Randy Kozuch, Executive Director for the NRA has to say about Biden. “Joe Biden is running for reelection on the most anti-gun platform in American history. At a time when Americans are yearning for leadership on the economy, border security, crime and international stability, he remains fixated on gun control. It sometimes seems as if he has no other major priorities, or if he does, they all depend on a disarmed American populace. His record shows that the Second Amendment, as we know it, cannot withstand another Biden administration.”

So, what are your issues for the upcoming presidential election? I would hope one of them is that we can stamp out Hate. 

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton