To the editor:

I had to respond to Tim See’s letter, “Obama can’t win on his record.”

First off, Tim, I don’t see myself as a “far left Democrat” but more of an Eisenhower Republican, the last truly great Republican president America had. Today he would be referred to as a “commie/socialist” by your current Republican party.

I guess you don’t get it yet. I see Obama apologizing to a people for damage done by burning their holy books as a very statesmanlike thing to do, not as you say, “bowing down to another foreign leader.” I should think that for Obama to add that “we shouldn’t be here to begin with killing your men, women and children for a lie told by my predecessor so we will leave in peace” would have been appropriate.

We are in Afghanistan and Iraq due to lies told to America by Republican administrations. The fact that Democrats bought the lies doesn’t make them less guilty than the liars. It makes them culpable because they are going along with war crimes and crimes against humanity to get along politically at home. These political parties are more alike than not. Nevertheless Republicans lied to start these wars and instead of admitting them as mistakes, America sends more troops and exposes more of our young people to risking their lives for this lie. When it comes out that these were lies the current Republicans/Democrats double down on this losing hand.

Your scattergun rebuttal including campaign promises, unemployment, national debt, “Obama care” and gas prices with the attendant “sound bites” to go along with them do the readers and myself a disservice. As we will see, Tim, historical context is important.

Regarding the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, you don’t mention that the profound debt we see today started with Reagan in 1981. He increased the debt by $660 billion in his first term and by $1.04 trillion in his second term.

George H.W. Bush increased the national debt by $1.4 trillion in his only term.

Bill Clinton, in trying to bring the national debt down, began cutting back. In his first term the national debt went up $1.18 trillion. In his second term it went up $450 billion. This was a huge downturn from the “lower taxes and borrow more” terms before him.

George W. Bush in his first term increased the debt by $1.73 trillion and in his second term by $2.63 trillion. To point at Obama and say that “Obama has by far outspent any president in history” is disingenuous at best and gives most everything you say in your scattergun essay an air of fantasy. I have to laugh out loud at the idea of a Republican candidate running on their party’s record. I’m not even going to get into how much is spent each year on the military because of America’s wars of empire and arrogance started by Bush.

I think blaming Obama for the high gas prices is ridiculous in the extreme. The oil industry isn’t nationalized in America and what we are experiencing is the “miracle of capitalism.” This “drill here, drill now, pay less” simplistic approach is beyond just shortsighted; it is, in my opinion, idiotic. For some people “capitalism” is a religion. Getting cheaper and cheaper “stuff” is a prayer, but what these people don’t seem to realize is that the earth is finite. Extractive industries are using up finite resources at an alarming rate. This is unsustainable and these political parties pander to this shortsightedness and ignorance.

Aside from that I liked your letter, Tim.

Dan Freeman

Clinton