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Other Voices
We, as voters in a Pennsylvania county located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have immense power: the power to decide the next president of the United States of America.
Pennsylvania is poised to be the state that decides the 2020 presidential election. And Pennsylvania will be decided by turnout for Trump in the rural communities like the Cove.
President Trump won the state in 2016 because we overwhelmingly backed him. And we backed him because he vowed to (and has) stood up to coastal political elites. So vote. And vote Trump. And urge your mother, father, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors, fellow church members and anybody you happen to speak with to vote Trump.
If you have qualms about voting for Trump, do not forget what Democrat politicians think about rural voters. Former President Obama in a speech given to a group of rich liberals in California attacked “small towns in Pennsylvania” because they “cling to guns or religion.” Hillary Clinton called us “deplorables.” Since 2016, we have sunk even further in the Democrats’ estimation and have become “racists” and “white supremacists” simply for valuing things like the nuclear family and hard work.
Writers for the New York Times have described us as “the worst people” and the “enemies of the Republic.” Giving power to people who not only disagree with your politics but despise your very existence is unwise.
Letters from Wentz
I’ve noticed several letters published in the Herald in the past few months written by Capt. James Wentz USN (Ret.) disparaging President Trump and urging readers of his letters to consign Trump “to defeat and the dustbin of history.”
Capt. Wentz is especially adept at appealing to our patriotism in his attacks on the president. In one letter, he contrasted the service and death of PFC Michael Wertman in the Vietnam War with Trump’s medical disqualification (I note that Trump did not, as Capt. Wentz writes, “claim a diagnosis” of heel spurs to receive his disqualification; rather, a military doctor diagnosed Trump as having the condition).
Capt. Wentz – who to his credit does not endorse former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election – hopes to reduce voter turnout for Trump by means of these attacks. Do not let this strategy work. Vote Trump!
I also direct readers to the fact that Capt. Wentz failed to mention that Biden avoided service in the Vietnam War through a series of five student draft deferrals and a 1-Y classification (the lowest and least likely classification able to be drafted) upon his graduation from law school in 1968 at the of 26.
According to a Biden spokesman, the former Vice President, who played football and worked as a lifeguard, received the 1-Y classification because of the lingering effects from asthma suffered “while in high school.”
If Capt. Wentz thought it important to alert Herald readers to Trump’s dubious medical disqualification, he should have at least acknowledged that Biden received an equally suspect disqualification.
The Herald
Lastly, because he has asked several times for examples, I’d like to direct the [Herald] publisher to a specific example of why readers may believe his paper is tilting left: the article titled “Young Democrats Organized in Blair Co.” that appeared in the Oct. 6, 2020, edition of the Herald. I read the Herald every week and cannot recall another article on a club that appears to consist exclusively of Penn State Altoona students. I thought the Herald covered news from the Cove and adjacent communities, not Altoona or happenings on the Penn State Altoona campus.
Editor’s Notes: Fred Metzgar lives in Roaring Spring.
According to a USA Today fact-check article of Sept. 16, 2020, Mr. Metzgar’s assertion regarding Biden’s draft deferment is accurate.
Regarding the Herald’s “tilting left:”
• Publisher Allan J. Bassler has been a conservative and registered Republican since about 1988. He first voted for president by voting for Ronald Reagan in his second term.
• As for the “Young Democrats” article, Publisher Bassler is guilty of being a proud parent. One of the founders of the group is the publisher’s daughter Helena. The group’s stated intent (currently) is to encourage people to vote. The Herald is in favor of Americans voting as along as they are entitled to do so.
• The Herald does not endorse candidates for elected office. Instead, the Herald publishes letters from readers (like this one) and allows readers to speak up and make up their own minds. The Herald does not tell its readers what to think or how to vote.
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