Dear Editor,
Under Biden, the national average price of gasoline hit $5.02 per gallon in June 2022, the official weekly peak reported by AAA and the EIA. Under Trump, the current national average is approximately $4.30 per gallon.
Is that still too high? Absolutely. Nobody is pretending otherwise. Families feel it every time they fill up, buy groceries, or pay a utility bill. But what makes no sense is how the left was okay with it then, didn’t complain about the higher number, and didn’t blame Biden, even though his policies crippled domestic gas production and his out-of-control spending caused record inflation. But Democrats today lose their minds over the current lower gas price and blame Trump for higher prices. That is not economics. That is not consistency. That is partisan politics.
Too many people have reduced politics to a scoreboard with one number. They stare at the price on the pump and ignore every other issue that determines whether a country thrives, stagnates, or collapses. Gas matters. No serious person denies that. But when it becomes the only thing you care about, you become easy to manipulate.
What Democratic policies will bring prices down? We hear them talk about affordability, but they offer no solutions. They are like an arsonist lecturing us on fire prevention. They caused prices to go up under Biden, with record-high inflation, spending, and energy-hostile policies and regulations. But Democrats never offer solutions. They are quick to blame Trump or the war in Iran, but again, gas is still lower than the peak under Biden. Where are the Democrats’ policies?
Ask a Democrat for an example of a well-run, low-crime, blue city doing well today. Seriously, is it Los Angeles, New York City, Minneapolis? They will stare at you blankly because there are no well-run blue cities. People who vote for these socialist, woke, DEI-peddling candidates haven’t learned that woke is dead. DEI is dead, and We the People will no longer tolerate liberal policies that put Americans last while rolling out the red carpet for illegal immigrants. Taxpayers should not have to pay for healthcare for illegals just to be denied services themselves because of shortages or budget concerns. This is wrong, and it’s why the President is enforcing deportation laws Congress passed years ago that too many past Presidents failed to enforce.
The border is being secured after years of dysfunction. Crime is down to record lows, and ICE is removing the worst of the worst. The economy is showing signs of life after years of mandates, spending binges, inflationary policies, and attacks on domestic energy production. You can debate the pace of progress. You can argue over which policies deserve the credit. What you cannot honestly do is pretend that nothing is changing.
And then there is manufacturing.
For decades, Republicans and Democrats alike made promises while America’s industrial core was hollowed out. Politicians from both parties signed off on policies that sent factories overseas, outsourced jobs to countries with cheaper labor, and told American workers that the future was somewhere else. Entire towns watched mills close, plants disappear, and good-paying jobs evaporate. Communities that once built things for the world were told to accept decline as the price of globalization. Presidents managed this decline instead of making the hard choices and enduring the pain. But not President Trump. He just announced the largest steel plant in U.S. history to be built in Iowa. It will employ thousands of workers and reduce our reliance on foreign steel.
Manufacturing is coming back thanks to Trump’s policies.
Supporters of Trump’s tariff policies argue that bringing manufacturing back home requires short-term pain in exchange for long-term strength. Tariffs are not painless. They create friction. They create controversy. They can raise costs in the short run. But the argument is that a nation cannot remain prosperous while outsourcing its productive capacity year after year and becoming dependent on foreign governments for critical goods, technology, energy, and industrial materials, especially those used in the military sector.
Rebuilding an industrial base will never be free. Reopening factories would never happen without disruption. If the goal is to restore jobs, supply chains, and economic independence, then some degree of economic discomfort is unavoidable. The alternative is to keep going down the same path that gutted manufacturing communities across America for a generation.
Gas prices matter because families feel them every day. But if the only thing you vote on is the number on the pump, you will keep handing power to people who can distract you with one statistic while the country’s larger foundations erode. Border security matters. Public safety matters. Education matters. Economic independence matters. Cultural confidence matters. The ability to produce what we need inside our own borders matters.
Socialism does not care whether your tank is full. It cares whether you remain dependent. The more dependent people become, the more power accumulates in institutions that promise security while delivering less freedom and less self-reliance.
A nation that tracks one price while ignoring its borders, schools, industries, streets, and culture has already started choosing comfort over survival. Decline over aspiration.
Men and women who want this country to endure cannot afford to be one-issue voters. They cannot afford to think only about this week’s gas prices while ignoring the larger battle over the country’s future. Real strength comes from seeing the whole picture. Real citizenship comes from understanding trade-offs. Real leadership comes from making difficult decisions that may hurt today so the nation can be stronger tomorrow.
You do not get forged by watching one number. You get forged by facing reality in its entirety and refusing to look away. Let’s look at the big picture of what Trump has achieved, and not the hoax peddlers or complainers who offer no solutions.
Let’s focus on the direction the country is going in, finally upward instead of downward, and not on ballrooms to make our capital grand, or the color of the drapes in the Oval Office, or who Trump shakes hands with, like MBS in Saudi Arabia. It’s diplomacy, and no one knows how to take advantage of a situation and make it America First better than President Trump. America belongs to those who love it and not to those who hate it.
Victor Grippi
