Opinion

Democracy is what makes U.S. great

Posted June 07, 2012 5:00 am

This is in response to the May 15 letter from Jim Thompson in which he asserts that “Capitalism is what made America great.” Sorry, Mr. Thompson, it is not capitalism that made America great, it is democracy and the willingness to listen to points of view that do not agree with your own that makes American great. These are values to which the Tea Party does not subscribe with their stiff-necked dogmatism.

As far as President Obama’s “French socialism” (whatever that means), we already have socialism in this country: national parks, public libraries, subsidies to the oil, gas, and agriculture industries (which the Republicans refuse to eliminate), Medicare (which the Republicans want to eliminate) and Social Security. The Scandinavian countries are all socialist democracies and, in many measurements of economic well-being and health, are better off then we are.

Michael Lee

Wheeling

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