Eric Suwall, Minot

Dear Minotians,

I was disheartened to see in a recent Minot Daily News poll that so many of you blame President Biden for our nation’s high gas prices. You were offered four choices for who to blame, and as of the time I wrote this letter, you chose: Putin (29 votes, 7.51%), Biden (176 votes, 45.6%), Oil Companies (162 votes, 41.97%) and Trump (19 votes, 4.92%).

I want to ask you all to reflect on these numbers. Almost half of you hold Joe Biden responsible for these high fuel costs. This is alarming, since I am confident most of you know that Russia, one of the biggest oil-exporting states in the world, attacked its smaller, unthreatening, democratic (in the sense of being a democracy, not run by Democrats!) neighbor, Ukraine. As a penalty, the United States and many of our allies are sanctioning Russian oil exports. This is intended to help defund Russia’s war machine; but as collateral damage the move causes supply chain issues, so the entire global oil market is in disarray. While Ukrainian civilians and soldiers are dying by the hundreds on a daily basis, you are being asked to also make a small sacrifice, and that is to pay an extra $1/gallon for fuel.

When you blame Joe Biden for high oil prices, you effectively say that you do not blame Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian thug who is threatening not only world security, but also world trade. This is a man who routinely tortures and executes his political enemies; supports nations like North Korea and Iran, declares that he is openly hostile to the United States and its allies; and has routinely broadcast his intentions to weaken, if not destroy, our country. So, fellow Minotians, what happened to supporting the United States, especially during times of crisis? Are you telling me that you will only support America if a Republican is president? Do you demand one-party rule in order to be a patriot? Do you really want a country where only Republicans are allowed to win? Because that, my friends, is no longer a democracy. It’s a totalitarian state, which, no matter what your interpretation of our Founding Fathers words, is clearly the very thing they were fighting against when they fled the British Monarchy.

I am writing this to beg you all to stop being so hyper-partisan and instead start thinking for yourselves. We have got to come together as a country against our common enemies, and one way to do that is to realize that those enemies are working hard to make us enemies of one another. Russia, China, Iran, and other undemocratic countries want us at one another’s throats, because when we hate each other we cannot maintain our status as the world’s most powerful nation. Many of you may not like Biden or his domestic agenda, but when it comes to high oil prices, inflation, and supply-chain issues, there is one man who is clearly to blame. That is Vladimir Putin.