To the Editor

The socialists are coming, the socialists are coming! Hide your cows and pickup trucks! The green new deal promises to end life as we know it. Karl Marx is on the 2020 ballot!

OK, that was a little over the top, but not by much. If you listen to Fox News and President Trump you would think that the party that brought you Social Security, Medicare, child labor laws and food stamps is about to endorse a Venezuela style government. It is not. Many candidates are having  an honest debate about how to invigorate the middle class, provide affordable health care, and the help the working poor share in the prosperity currently enjoyed by “people of wealth.”

This country was founded on capitalist principles, but as they say, moderation in all things. Pure capitalism, an oligarchy, is where a few wealthy businessmen control all the levers of power. Think Russia. Pure socialism or communism is where the government controls all the levers of power. Think China. Both countries are dictatorships, supported by wealthy elites, who brutality suppress democratic ideals.

As a democracy the United States has always looked for ways to improve the living standards of the majority of our citizens: Social Security, to help the elderly; Medicare to help the sick; child labor laws to protect the children; food stamps to help the hungry. All these social programs are now woven into the fabric of our lives. But the world is changing and we face new challenges to our way of life.

How do we provide quality health care to all our citizens? How do we prepare for the changes to our climate? How do we prepare for a world where more and more work is done by robots? How do we close the wealth gap to stabilize our economy? All these question and many more must be answered. All will require programs agreed to by a democratic society.

Calling anyone who is trying to answer these question a “socialist” is a way to ignore the questions. It sounds to me like those now in power like things just the way they are, and calling people names is a good way to change the subject.

Louis Vitale

Franklin