Letter to the Editor: Aug. 7

Are you satisfied with the Trump dictatorship?

To the Editor:

I’m slowly coming to the opinion that a growing number of Americans who voted for President Trump are OK with the idea of living under a dictatorship.

Many Trump supporters are unwilling to see through all the white noise coming from their selected media sources. They have found solace and comfort with a narrow window of information which, for many of us, is easier to understand. Conspiracies and “alternative facts” have been skillfully planted and advanced by Trump and his followers to create an imaginary world based on lies and deceitful actions. This has purposely distracted believers from taking more time and thought to explore a variety of news sources to gain a broader range of opinions and information.

There are also Trump supporters who know the lies and actions coming from the president during these first six months are taking the nation apart and hurting a majority of Americans. These supporters continue to remain silent because they benefit financially from a smaller government, less regulation and lower taxes. They know the reductions and elimination of federal and state revenues will cause great harm to most of us, but their greed to put their profit before our country drives their support of the Make America Great Again agenda.

I wonder how the 77 million Americans who voted for President Trump now feel about our economic future after these initial months of his presidency, watching the president follow the Heritage Foundation’s playbook governing America’s finances. Do they understand the direct impact of America’s largest companies paying an average of only 14.1 percent on their profits and the lowest corporate rate (21 percent) in more than 80 years? Do supporters understand that corporations have used most of their tax savings and profits to buy back their shares, giving the stock market a boost and rewarding the wealthy and greedy who own those shares?

Do they understand Trump’s corporate tax cut has shifted more of the total tax burden onto the rest of us? Our payroll taxes made up 7.8 percent of our national income while corporate taxes made up only 0.9 percent. In total, taxes on working Americans were 35 percent of the federal tax revenue, while taxes on corporations were only 6.5 percent.

How does that feel now? Do the greedy billionaires and millionaires care about the economic pain being inflicted on Americans and eventually passed onto our children? I don’t think so.

All these tax cuts of course have created the largest federal deficit in our nation’s history. If we are to ever buy down the debt, more federal dollars will be needed, leaving fewer dollars for millions of hard-working Americans. It’s not just food stamps and other family support services, but our Social Security, disability benefits and Medicare as well. The greedy billionaires funding the Heritage Foundation and the Trump presidency are just fine with privatizing these services and handing them to their investors and hedge fund managers on Wall Street. That will be a disaster for most of us.

Dictators cut deals with rich business executives. It’s one of the many ways they remain in power. They also take apart labor unions, undermine public education, use fear to convince us that there is a “them” out there causing our economic stress and anxiety over social issues, shut down unfavorable media sources, crack down on colleges, universities and voices of dissent, fill the airways and alternative media platforms with more fear, lies and deceitful actions, convince us that they can fix everything, get elected and then take over with the blessing of the courts and the support of the military. Sound familiar? It should.

For many Americans, it seems that keeping democracy alive and vibrant is just too much work. From the earliest of our nation’s years, our Founding Fathers and successive presidents understood the need to have an educated citizenry if we were to sustain this grand experiment. That’s why public schools were established in 1870 and that’s why our country has always had multiple newspapers, journals, public debates and now a variety of social media outlets to present a broad range of perspectives and opinions. An engaged and literate public, able to discern fact from fiction, has always been the backbone of American democracy.

However, many Americans have become disengaged and complacent, and we are paying the price. President Trump has taken advantage of that and coalesced the unwilling to learn and the greedy who know. Having a dictator in control making promises seems to be an easier way to live. As for the greedy, as long as their investments, position power and businesses are in the black, they’ll put up with the white noise of “alternative facts,” lies and distractions. For them, it’s profit before country. As in combat, a real patriot looks out for the safety and well-being of others. For this greedy crowd, true patriotism and love of country is a foreign concept.

Many of us take time to read, listen and understand other points of view. We are willing to learn more. That’s why it is deeply disturbing and chilling to see a president pull the wool over the eyes of so many Americans who are stuck in their narrow road of information and then reward the wealthiest Americans and billionaire friends, family and donors with unfair and unjust tax advantages with profit opportunities unavailable to the rest of us. That’s not an American democracy; it’s the economic foundation for a successful Trump dictatorship.

John Bossange
South Burlington

(John Bossange is a retired Vermont middle school principal who now serves on multiple nonprofit boards in the Burlington area.)