Various trade moves have not worked out for this country

In the past two years, President Trump has initiated haphazard trade policies, including tariffs, with no thought process as to the consequences. The trade deficit in 2019 was $853 billion while in 2016 it was $735 billion. Thus his policies have made the situation worse, especially for farmers who are experiencing huge declines in their exports. We need policies that improve the situation but they have to be analyzed by experts and not put forth based on the president’s ego.

Blanket tariffs only result in retaliation by other countries. Most of the president’s other policies are based on his ego. For example, he indicated that his tax cut would increase economic activity and the result will be that the federal budget deficit will be eliminated.

The yearly federal deficit was approximately $450 billion when he entered office and now it’s over a $1 trillion a year. The exact opposite of what he put forth. The president’s policies, although they seem good when proposed, actually cause more harm them good.

John Georgiton, Columbus

Things aren’t shaping up for timely election results

Surveys indicate there is a huge partisan gap in planning to vote absentee vs. vote in person this year. This is especially true in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, where Joe Biden leads by upwards of 60% among voters planning to mail in their ballots and President Trump leading by 40% among voters planning to vote in person. This will lead to a massive undercount of Biden voters on election night and an election that won’t be settled for days or even weeks while all the ballots are counted.

It is not hard to predict what our president will do in this case. He will declare victory and proclaim, as he has been doing for months, that absentee ballots are all fraudulent. If all the votes are counted and it turns out he lost, he will claim the election was stolen.

The past months have shown us that when Trump, or even just anonymous trolls on Facebook, put the word out to his supporters that someone somewhere is going to wrong them somehow, it’s easy to summon large heavily armed gangs to mete out vigilante justice against their perceived enemies. Do we really believe that if hundreds of armed goons will storm the Michigan statehouse over COVID-19 lockdowns, they’ll stay home and let all the votes be counted when Trump declares that the election is being stolen from them in real time?

We need to plan for this scenario right now, including planning for armed security for ballot counters. Otherwise it is all too likely that, in fact, the election will be stolen by Republicans aided by their growing ranks of armed paramilitary citizens.

Judson Dunham, Bexley

Community is interested in civilian review guidelines

After reading the Associated Press article “Guidelines proposed for disciplining NYPD officers” in Wednesday’s Dispatch, I’m curious as to how Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s citizen review board will develop. Has he been reviewing what New York, with the nation’s largest police department, is developing? With so much focus on “post incident” protesting and rioting, let us not forget the reason for such actions; use of excessive force by police.

Wouldn’t defined and public guidelines for use of force and subsequent discipline measures help all of us?

Come on Mayor Ginther, share with your community what is being developed.

Fritz Monroe, Dublin

Dispatch Opinion page veers left more often than not

It gets tiresome. From our daily dose of Los Angeles Times liberal-think to Editorial Page Editor Mary Yost’s Opinion section, and even nearly every political cartoon, we readers get inundated with the tainted view from the political left. If a reader wants to know how far left The Dispatch has gone, he or she only needs to read the Wednesday editorial “Voters need to note who is stoking violence,” and it’s certainly not an aberration.

Donald Trump causes violence, Joe Biden speaks the truth and illegal aliens should count in our census are some of the messages we got from the Opinion page. On neither of the two pages in the section was there a single mention of an opposing thought.

I understand that it’s an “opinion” page, but many of us seek some sort of balance in the news and opinions we read. Can Yost and others at The Dispatch not find anyone with a different view?

Jeff Hiltbrand, Powell