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Why do you detest Trump, capitalism?

To the editor:

Mr. George Fisher, in our continuing debate about Trump, has in his April 12 letter made several points that I’d like to comment on.

He begins by saying that Obama did not lie when he said you can keep your doctor; he was only repeating what the insurance companies told him. If I make a deal with somebody, I count on him to deliver on his part of the bargain; if he doesn’t and says that he couldn’t because of what someone else did, I may not think of him as a liar, but I certainly consider him a welsher, at fault. The implication that Obama is blameless if you lost your doctor is ridiculous.

Mr. Fisher also says that, as part of an implied friendly relationship with the Russians, Trump called Putin and asked for his approval to bomb Syria in response to the gas attack. It’s know that he called Putin; my guess is that he said something like “The U.S. cannot let gas attacks go unpunished. We are going to bomb certain airfields in Syria, and if you have people there, perhaps you should tell them to get out fast.” The idea that he called Putin for prior approval is absurd. If so, why would Putin have immediately condemned the attack and warned against further bombings?

I have wondered, in reading Mr. Fisher’s letters, what drives his passionate hatred of Trump. Reading his latest, I think I may have a clue. Mr. Fisher does not rebut my characterization of the government as “a giant insurance company.” He says instead that the problem is that it was not one from the start. Mr. Fisher perhaps would have Madison write in the Constitution: “Congress shall, with all due speed, create a public welfare economy.” Would Mr. Fisher then have had his government “for the people”?

What does “for the people” mean? We all know that it means giving people money. But how much? Why? Why not more? At what point will “the people” be satisfied with the performance of their government? When we go down this line of argument, it often ends up with calls for stripping the wealth of all those rich Republicans, CEOs and fat cats who have exploited the masses for years. This is Marxist, socialist stuff. But, as Churchill observed, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” If Mr. Fisher doubts the miseries of socialism, he should read the latest news from Venezuela.

John Brittain

Lewistown

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