Power that threatens

President Donald Trump and his alt-right supporters in power are just the icing on the cake of four decades of redistribution of wealth and power to a small group at the top. This cumulative power concentration is firmly established and therefore more threatening to our democracy than Mr. Trump’s unbalanced tweets against the press and the courts.

I do not mean that our current threats are not frightening. James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, in very strong language says that our government is “under assault.” The bizarre behavior of the president and the Russian intrusion are both outrageous and fracture democracy. However, the larger and longer context magnifies the potential destruction of these current threats.

Without showing a hand, the Koch brothers and a handful of mega-billionaires helped to defeat a fairly progressive Democratic plank and place a figure in the White House who would make the one-tenth of 1 percent even richer and more completely in control of our country than ever. Also the concentrated powers of multinational corporations lobby our legislators and wield unprecedented influence. Hate, greed, wealth superiority, white superiority and naked unchecked power should strike fear in us all.

Our hope is in our citizens who have not been propagandized and in the residual strength of our balancing institutions. Our democracy is under long-term and present assault and its outcome is not now or ever guaranteed. DAVID GRAY New Wilmington