Perhaps our democracy died some time ago

Dear Editor:

Something had to give. The very richest in our country have accumulated unimaginable wealth, all stolen from the rest of us. In recent decades, the richest 1% have taken $50 trillion from the bottom 90%.

The billionaires are not wage earners, but speculators who own the president and most of Congress through unlimited campaign donations. They have fired all the government’s regulators and replaced them with corporate lobbyists. They get richer by burning up the planet with fossil fuels, and selling weaponry for America’s endless wars.

Installing a dictator is about the only way this robbery of working people can continue unabated. Trump’s second term would see the shredding of our Constitution, the end of press freedom, and the continued destruction of unions and working people’s rights. The superrich will extend their rule, with white supremacist thugs, racist cops, and evangelical cretins to do their dirty work.

How long did we think this system of gross inequity would work? How long did we think this present kleptocracy would even look like a democracy to most of our nation’s citizens? And what happens when we collectively give up on our sham democracy?

Perhaps our democracy died some time ago and we weren’t paying attention. Caught up with the perpetual “lesser of two evils” philosophy, we have let the rich, corporate elite and their two subservient political parties drain every penny away from the common good, all so that the very wealthy and their huge corporations can accumulate billions more.

Fred Nagel Rhinebeck