GUEST VIEW: Column about Trump went too far

When Barack Obama was elected president, and for the next eight years, I wrote many letters criticizing his policies. I knew that he had voted against bills outlawing partial birth abortion, in favor of gun control laws on law-abiding citizens, forced health care and more regulations, etc. At no time did I write about him personally. How could I? I didn’t know him.

That is why a lot of us have a hard time seeing all the hate for President Donald Trump. He runs a gauntlet every day from dawn to dusk and beyond. He just puts his head down and goes. The way I see it, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. savage him every minute. Why the hate? No wonder people want him impeached.

When the Pine Knot News started up, we were excited and expecting a paper that would bring us the news fairly and without bias, as there is plenty out there.

A case in point: one of the larger area newspapers relies too much on articles reprinted from the New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others. If this paper didn’t use them, it would be the size of a shopper. Using these articles seems to allow them to print what I think are lies. I was told flat out — according to their editor — that they didn’t fact-check them. That almost floored me.

In last week’s Pine Knot News, one of the owners of the paper and “Harry’s Gang” columnist Pete Radosevich showed his hate for President Trump. There is no other way I can explain why a person in business tries to drive customers away. I guess he must think there are enough people who hate our president and will sustain the paper.

He wrote in his column that “I blame mostly those people who didn’t see through his [Trump’s] sham and elected him.” Wow. He thinks so little of us peons, I mean, customers.

Read his column for yourself and in the last paragraph, you will see one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in print, when he theorizes that Trump thinks impeachment is better than losing an election. And I’ve seen a lot.

Whatever President Trump did in his past is past. Now, among other things, he is pro-life and will protect the little boys and girls that die by the thousands.

In President Trump’s time in office, the country has added 5 million jobs. More of us are employed than ever in our history, with more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs added, according to whitehouse.gov. Unemployment claims hit a 49-year low, and median household income is at the highest level ever recorded. African-American unemployment, Hispanic-American, Asian unemployment are at record lows. Women’s unemployment, youth unemployment are near record lows too. Veterans’ unemployment is at the lowest rate in 20 years. Some 3.9 million of us were lifted off food stamps and 95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future. The president opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [to drilling] and approved Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. A record number of regulations have been eliminated. The president secured $6 billion in new funding to fight opioid epidemic, continued VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, and secured $700 billion in military funding. NATO allies have spent in more than $69 billion for defense since 2016.

Pine Knot editor Jana Peterson said Radosevich couched his column as his “opinion.” So can you say anything — truth or not — as your opinion?

Writer Tony Sheda is chairman of the Carlton County Republican Party and an outspoken community activist who lives in Wrenshall.