To the Editor:

Safe roads. Safe airports. Safe air travel. Clean water. Clean air. Safe streets. Consumer protection. Safe waste management. Clean, affordable energy. Qualified medical care. Protection from objects flying through space. Safety regarding natural disasters. Military protection from attack. Free/affordable public education for all. Individual rights. Social Security. Medicare.

The above is a partial list of benefits of working together through taxation to provide for all American citizens. Some lament these as a form of socialism. Socialism is defined as: “any of various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of society or the community sharing in the work and the products.” However, most Americans recognize that private enterprise is alive and well in America, co-existing harmoniously with “socialism” for the betterment of us all.

What is currently a threat to our democracy, however, is a form of fascism that is growing much like kudzu. Kudzu grows almost a foot per day in the southeastern United States. In its native Asian environment it hardly grows larger than a sweet potato plant. Fascism is defined as: “a system of government characterized by rigid one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized government control, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism, etc.” 

Most Americans have little awareness of a plot by wealthy, prominent Americans to render President Franklin D. Roosevelt helpless while secretly installing a fascist government in America during the early 1930s. For a clear picture of this sinister plot let me recommend a book written by Jules Archer entitled “The Plot to Seize the White House.” After you have studied Archer’s account of events ,decide whether you prefer a democracy with a pinch of socialism like we already have or a fascist regime run by the wealthy and privileged class of people who have been working systematically for years to quietly set up their regime. Fascism and democracy cannot co-exist. 

You might want to ask yourself if you would be on the inside or the outside  of a fascist regime managed by the super- rich. 

Will our democracy survive? Some say freedom is not free. We must pay for it partly by paying attention to the political moves being made around and to us every day by those who want even more money and more power than they currently possess.

Dave Waldrop

Webster