Here’s a provocative thought experiment. Consider the presidents of the past 100 years – 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Those eight Democrats – FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden – brought about a host of progressive, life-improving programs. To name a few: The New Deal, rural electrification, the TVA, Social Security, the WPA, the National Labor Relations Board, UN and NATO membership, the War on Poverty, the Job Corps, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. More recently, we can add Joe Biden’s Infrastructure, CHIPS and Inflation Reduction acts, which have begun to rebuild the nation’s public facilities, ensure semiconductor independence, promote renewable energy and lower health care and drug costs.

With the honorable exception of Dwight Eisenhower (the interstate system and integration), the positive achievements of the 10 Republicans – Eisenhower, Calvin Cooledge, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Regan, the two Bushes, and Donald Trump – pretty much add up to zilch. Most have offered business and billionaire-friendly policies they said would trickle down but somehow never did. Instead of making ordinary people’s lives better, they stoked their supporters’ fears, warning against everything from communism to drag shows and promising to slay that moment’s imaginary dragons.

The lesson of the last 100 years is clear. If you need protection from Bud Lite, children’s books, cross dressers, Mickey Mouse or whatever scare they drum up next, vote Republican. If you’re more concerned with dignity in your old age, a living wage, health care, discrimination, economic fairness, consumer protection, clean energy, climate change or freedom to live as you wish, you’re far better off with the Democrats.

Joe Glaser

Bowling Green