Neither side can be trusted

To the editor:

A Jan. 4 ceremony at the White House gives us an idea of why the Democrats have trouble gaining and retaining power even though the Republicans are so horrific. One of the people presented with the highest civilian honor, the presidential Medal of Freedom, is the one Democratic presidential candidate who is even worse than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton.

In 2016, Clinton advocated to set up a no-fly zone in Syria while Russia had military forces in that country. Thankfully, President Barack Obama ignored the advice.

If he had not, it would have meant that if Russian planes had entered that zone, U.S. forces would have been obligated to shoot them down. That would have initiated World War III. Now the one thing scarier than Trump is Armageddon.

She also supported her husband's presidential policies. This included the signing of NAFTA, which increased the exporting of U.S. jobs. This included limits on how long people could stay on welfare, without the minimum wage being raised to a livable level. In 1996, I predicted this would create a new group known as the “working homeless.”

I am not a psychic, if there is such a thing. I simply have common sense.

President Bill Clinton also signed the repeal of Steagall-Glass, which would later lead to the 2008 Stock Market crash. He also gave the rich a tax break by lowering the Capital Gains tax from 28 percent to 20 percent.

Contrary to Democratic Party myth, Clinton was never popular. He never got a majority of the vote and only won because independent candidate, Ross Perot took votes away from Clinton's Republican opponents.

Democrats, just like Republicans, tend to listen to the concerns of their wealthy donors rather than their constituents. They act on fear over principal. President Joe Biden was afraid Democrats would lose support of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd, so he refused to stand up to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand an end to his war crimes. That resulted in many Democratic voters staying home on election day.

Vice President Kamala Harris initially supported Medicare-for-all and opposed environmentally damaging fracking. She reversed herself on both issues and that did not help her on election day.

The Democratic establishment has repeatedly done all it can to keep Senator Bernie Sanders from getting the presidential nomination. After all, greedy rich Democratic donors don't want to pay higher taxes anymore than greedy rich Republicans.

Here's more advice for the Democratic Party leadership to ignore. This includes those so-called progressives in the City Council who won't stand up to another Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams, in his efforts to force Medicare Advantage on city retirees. Try coming up with messages and policies that are better than "We're not as bad as the Republicans."

Richard Warren