Mar 29, 2024 2 min read

The Observer-Reporter’s recent opinion piece by Gary Stout, “Study History to Gain Perspective,” which appeared in the March 17th edition, was shallow and unconvincing.

It was shallow because Stout suggested he would give readers a “study of recent historical events” to provide them with “unbiased information” about present and future events. Turns out his historical analysis was based on a third party’s observations about a fictional account of pre-World War II Germany. Not surprisingly, this shallow historical examination allowed him to conclude that Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany was “eerily” like (wait for it) “the rise of Donald Trump in America.”

Moreover, Stout referred to a book by the ever-unbiased Rachael Maddow to conclude that today’s (wait for it) Republican Party is marching the country toward fascism. He states that today’s immigrants are to “Republicans” what Jews were to the Germans of the 1930s. And, of course, he warns that white Christian nationalists are knocking on the door. No examples offered-just shallow opinions.

Finally, Stout summarizes the deteriorating world situation, including war in the Middle East and Ukraine, Chinese aggression, and a potential partnership between Russia, China and Iran. He then unconvincingly opines that these conflicts and dangers stem from (wait for it) “Republican foreign policy positions.”

One would think that since none of the dangers to which he refers occurred on his predecessor’s watch, the Biden administration’s actions-or lack thereof-in the last three years might have had a bearing on the “darkening international scene.” Stout might have considered the effect on the world scene of such U.S. failures as the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the waiver of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for Russia, Biden’s suggested tolerance for a Russian “minor incursion” into Ukraine, the refusal to enforce sanctions against Iran while concomitantly providing it with cash, permitting a Chinese spy balloon to traverse the country, or permitting 8 million illegal crossings of our nation’s border with the attendant induction of drugs, human trafficking, and potential terrorist threats into the country.

If the objective of this ppinion was to “gain perspective,” it came up empty. An unbiased, thoughtful analysis more likely would have concluded that repetition of past errors and blame for the darkening world scene can be laid at the feet of politicians and parties of both stripes.

Steve Johnson

Washington