Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jack Bernard

Bernard is a retired corporate executive.

For eight years, I served as a fiscally conservative GOP county commissioner, even though my views are progressive on social issues. Although I stopped supporting the “new” GOP under Trump, I’m still registered as a Republican. Therefore, I receive the usual propaganda, including mailings and emails from Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

Over the last several months, I’ve received high-gloss 8” by 11” cards almost every week. Most are from Perdue with some from Loeffler and some from both together. The one thing they have in common is that each of them falsely portrayed Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as radicals.

In discussions with some Trump supporters, some of them close friends, I have found that there’s no need to argue with people who do not entertain facts. However, if you are open to learning the truth about Senators Perdue and Loeffler, read on.

Lie #1 — These mail-outs label Ossoff and Warnock as supported by the Communist Party USA and Marxists. They go on to accuse them of being “radical”, out to “destroy American capitalism.”

These are outrageous lies. Jon Ossoff is a very moderate candidate who has frequently been criticized by progressives for not taking left-of-center positions such as Medicare for All. Ossoff, CEO of a small television production company, is by definition a capitalist who is employed in private enterprise.

Reverend Warnock, a religious man who preaches in MLK Jr’s church, is no more of an atheist Marxist than Jesus was. He believes in private enterprise tempered by reasonable protections for workers, such as a decent wage, rather than the proven excesses of unregulated capitalism.

Lie #2 — Perdue states that he was part of “creating the greatest economic turnaround in U.S. history”, while Loeffler claims Warnock will “destroy Georgia jobs.”

However, the facts are that when the Obama/Biden administration took office, unemployment was at 10%. When Trump took office, unemployment was already down to 5% due to Obama/Biden policies.

Due to Trumps’ obvious ineptitude in dealing with the pandemic, unemployment’s now at 7%. Net jobs in the USA are down over 15 million since Trump took office.

Loeffler and Perdue both ran and support self-serving giant corporations. However, Democrats like Ossoff and Warnock strongly believe in middle-income job creation. Warnock and Ossoff vocally support small businesses. Due to the pandemic, both want small businesses to receive short term economic help so that they can grow and prosper, creating decent jobs.

Lie #3 — Perdue and Loeffler say that under the GOP taxes were cut for “Georgia’s families and small businesses” and that taxes will go up for Georgians under Warnock and Ossoff.

Again, Loeffler and Perdue are misleading voters. Trump’s tax cuts were very disproportionate, with the highest income taxpayers like him (as well as Loeffler and Perdue) getting a much greater benefit. Per Forbes: “The richest 1 percent received 9.3 percent of the total tax cuts, the top 5 percent got 26.5 percent, the top quintile received 52.2 percent and the bottom quintile got 3.3 percent.”

Loeffler and Perdue are both in that 1%. In fact, with Perdue worth $40 million and Loeffler worth $1 billion, they are in the .1% ultra-wealthy.

Further, they both have not seemed to care tht GOP tax cuts for wealthy aristocrats like them has created a trillion-dollar annual deficit prior to the pandemic. Our children will bear that burden. They are clearly not fiscal conservatives, despite their rhetoric.

In reality, Ossoff has stated his own position is to “lower taxes for all but the wealthiest Americans”. Warnock’s position is the same, indicating that he would close loopholes for the super-rich and oppose middle class tax increases. The deficit must be brought down or our children will suffer. The only question is, will the middle class pay more or will the wealthy? Does anyone seriously believe that Loeffler and Perdue will ever tax the very wealthy like them and their friends versus the common person?

I will be detailing more of Perdue’s and Loeffler’s lies next week.