I fear that the bulk of the victims of mendacity in leadership have fallen in behind the former president.

Through the abuse of persuasive, bogus artificial intelligence-generated ads, misrepresented doctrines, and manipulated quotes, the undereducated (either voluntary or underprivileged) are easily swayed against truth. Sadly, half the country is locked in a belief, introduced by unsupported sources, intended to invoke fear as a means of governance.

Somehow our current administration’s successes (the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Bill, the Safer Communities Act, greatly reduced unemployment, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Violence against Women Act, The CHIPS and Science Act, Postal Service reform, reduced greenhouse gas policies, re-established respect of allies (reversing Donald Trump’s opposition), forgiving student loans, ending the war in Afghanistan, increased benefits for veterans, and reducing the national debt by $1.6 trillion) go unobserved by that half of our population.

Simultaneously, those same good people are conversely overexposed to manufactured hypocrisies and policies successfully driving them to support ideas that can only be gravely destructive.

As a refresher, here are some examples of Trump’s “successes”:

■Subsidies cut for lower-income families.

■Taxes decreased for the ultra-wealthy.

■Coronavirus denial, resulting in 1.3 million deaths.

■Defunded environmental policies.

■Ended Nutritional Assistance Program.

■Ended employee defense.

■Broke down efforts to reduce methane emissions.

■Deregulated big banks.

■Severely broke ties with allies.

■Left the Paris Treaty.

■Left the Trans Pacific Partnership.

■Increased our nation debt by $2 trillion!

■Violence in cities doubled during the short Trump tenure.

■Violent crimes are now, under President Joe Biden, enjoying a reduction not seen in 50 years.

Convincingly, a top issue mired in partisan debate would be how to handle our southern border. Here I dig in my heels. To condemn migrants from entering the U.S. is to lay waste to many processes that form the foundation of our (compared to most other world human situations) privileged lifestyle.

Immigrant labor fulfills the larger part of tasks that U.S. citizens are, by and large, unwilling to take. In order to drive cars, buy groceries, eat out, wear shoes, turn on the lights, pass through a clean hospital and not be enslaved by an underpaying job, we effectively, gladly, relinquish the bottom ranks of employment to border crossers. It’s sneaky but true. Without them we suffer.

Sex offenders, murderers, drug dealers all cross the river into the U.S. among those multitudes simply seeking survival. But far more of these unwanted miscreants already live here, always have. It’s an internal problem.

At the risk of sounding desperate, I ask that we all seek an honest and honorable education before attempting to educate. Don’t fear the truth. Then vote.

Sonny Crawford lives in Charlemont.