Our democracy is under attack

Our democracy is under attack

I noted with some interest two letters to the editor in the Sept. 18 issue of The Vindicator. One was, “Reviewing Reagan’s record” and the other, “Government jobs are killing us.”

I will be 75 years old in a few weeks, and I have paid attention to the direction of American politics beginning with President Harry S. Truman. I believe I may have one small vote in this progressive/conservative/tea party fight for the control of our nation.

Up until about 10 years ago, I was pretty conservative. I loved World War II hero Dwight D. Eisenhower. I very much liked Gerald Ford, and yes, Ronald Reagan, and President George H.W. Bush.

However, during and following President George W. Bush’s second term, such conservative luminaries as V.P. Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnel, Eric Cantor, Rick Perry, and others emerged in the extreme right. (I’ll leave Mr. Boehner out of this list for the time being, because I think he may be trying to get along with the Democrats). They and the politically-used tea party patsies have all made me sick to my stomach.

The writer of the second letter about government jobs killing us, is written in the usual, strident, vituperative language of the tea party screamers, who do not realize that they are being used by huge corporations and powerful billionaires whose sole mission is to turn America into a corpocracy instead of a democracy, where 10 percent of all Americans will hold all the wealth, and the other ninety percent of us will work for minimum wage or just above, 50 or 60 hours per week — with no vacations, no sick leave, no medical care, no Social Security, no unemployment for those laid off, and no recourse through any union, because all labor unions will be nonexistent.

The writer of the second letter rants on about government jobs and labor unions killing us, while neglecting to note that the tea party’s “handlers” in Washington, D.C. are bathing in money and benefits that the majority of us will never see. He also neglects to note that the megacorporations have thousands of times as much money as labor unions to invest in political “messages of truth.”

It is my sincere hope that the majority of American voters (and middle class wage-earners) will wake up by November 2012, and cast out these people who want to change our beloved democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, into something quite ugly.

Lee Guy, Boardman