Editor,

In Fred Wilferth’s most recent letter he tries to take credit for the accomplishment’s of Abraham Lincoln, as many Republicans do. Lincoln was indeed a Republican, but in name only. At this point the Republican Party shares none of the policies or values of Abraham Lincoln and the then, very different Republican Party. He then goes on to try to say “Lincoln did nothing to change their (Democrats of 1860) way of life, they hated him”. Nothing could be further from the truth, he radically changed the entire nation’s lives by ending slavery as it was then practiced. The economy of much of the nation was dependent on slavery and they were forced to radically change their scheme. This is typical of the “revisionist history” Republicans want to rewrite to claim “no harm no foul” with slavery and that slaves were “taught marketable skills” in bondage. The current administration is forcing libraries, museums and National Parks to change their content, displays and interpretations to reflect this benign view of slavery they like to force down peoples throats. Further evidence of the “dumbing down of America”. Our children could end up ignorant of their own history and deluded into thinking slavery was “just an antiquated economic model”.

Democrats have not “declared civil war” and they certainly have not “damaged the citizenry” as the current administration is doing by waging war in our cities using masked federal agents and even active duty soldiers who have never had to deploy weapons against American citizens since Kent State; and you know how that turned out. If you don ’t know, you should. Projection is always lost on Republicans. They always accuse others of their own sins.

Mr. Wilferth then goes on to try to put lipstick on the pig of the “Big Beautiful Bill” which has already wreaked havoc by ending clean energy programs, defunding food programs (SNAP) and terminating the good will we earned by supporting health and well being of those less fortunate then us, in our own country and abroad (USAID). This budget will threaten health care for millions of our own citizens in exchange for giving tax breaks to billionaires, and billions of dollars to Argentina and other authoritarian countries Trump is enamored of. Any sane person must resist this blatant abuse of power and ignore these faulty arguments to try to muddy the water of democracy.

Charles Niedzialkowski

Oak Harbor