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Editor:

A recent article, “America Has Become Fatally Indoctrinated” by Mr. Karl Schmidt, is exactly the sort of misinformation Americans must avoid.

He refers to the President’s “record breaking numbers” in unemployment. Well, the record, according to The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, is 2.6 percent in February and March of 1953. He refers to energy independence. Is he referring to the declining dependence on foreign crude oil which started in 2011 under President Obama or is he referring to our declining dependence on foreign natural gases which started in 2006 under President Bush?

He claims “Bernie Sanders (and others) frequently compare Trump to the likes of Russian, ‘butcher’ Joseph Stalin.” Not one shred of evidence supports this. Anywhere. I believe today this is called ‘Fake News.’ He also claims that Democrats would “abolish the Second Amendment and enact a Socialist form of government to replace our present Bill of Rights.”

Socialism is an economic structure, not a form of government. And speaking as a gun-loving Democrat, out of my cold dead hands. I believe the GOP is the party of restricting rights like riding a bus, eating at the counter, getting married, dying with dignity if one wishes and free worship.

The shame lies with us, the citizens, for not educating ourselves and our children as to the proper functions of government and the role of the citizen in a Republic. Everyone should know that the Congress drafts legislation, not the President.

We have allowed propaganda to fill our lives and we have become so jaded by politics that we do not care. Benjamin Franklin was quoted when asked about our new form of government, “A Republic if we can keep it.” We have lost our Republic.

We are adrift in a sea of misinformation.

Tom Noehren

Farmville