Editor, Times-Union:

It's bad when you don't learn from history and you repeat the same dumb mistakes you made in the past. What is worse is when you condemn people that don't want you to repeat those dumb mistakes and you want to make worst mistakes.  

The so-called inflation reduction act that will make inflation worse, waste money on green energy schemes that won't increase the amount of energy we have available, add 87,000 IRS agents that will attack small businesses and middle-income taxpayers, and do other things that people don't want repeats the big-spending legislation that made inflation worse. But the Democrats that support the legislation think Republicans that care about America more than they do are the bad guys and must be defeated in November.  

The problem I see with the Republican Party is that it doesn't take advantage of the dumb mistakes Democrats make and act like elephants that can be held back by a small chain. Baby elephants have their legs restrained by a chain so that they can't escape. But as they get older they don't try to break the chain because they couldn't escape when they were babies, so they don't try to escape when they're older.  Democrats have controlled Republicans for so long that too many Republicans think they can't take on Democrats even when their arguments against them are so weak just like the flimsy chain holding back a full-sized elephant.  

One mistake that Republicans have been making for over 90 years is that increasing taxing on productive citizens to divert money from the economy to go to the government makes the economy worse. Herbert Hoover did it early on during the Great Depression and made it worse. George H. W. Bush broke his no new taxes pledge and raised taxes to satisfy the Democrats and then was attacked by the Democrats.  Economists have advised for decades that increased taxation is a drag on the economy. But Joe Biden wants to continue that mistake and attacks those that love America and want to make it great again are fascists.  

Fascists are ones that want the government to control the lives of people and attack their opponents by arresting them or invading private property like the Democrats have done. It wasn't MAGA people that toppled statues, killed people and burnt cities in 2020. The ones that protested the Vietnam War and made America lose the war are the ones that call patriotic Americans dangerous and are the true fascists. We fought for independence from a government that wanted to control our lives. Republicans are doing what we did in 1776 by opposing a repressive government. The Democrats have become like King George III and consider Republicans rebels. The rebels must win in November.  

Rick Badman

Warsaw, via email