'Corporatism' has taken over capitalism

The need for wages and small business protection in these times of coronavirus pandemic, the lack of affordable health care, the rise in homelessness based on unaffordable rent are a result of a misconception that corporatism is a form of capitalism. It is not.

So-called "free enterprise," corporatist privatization, monopolistic ideals are all enemies of true capitalism. Since the Reagan administration, corporatism has denied American families the rightful raise in wages breadwinners were and are in justice entitled to. Trump, his supporters and the Republican power elite rarely make this distinction. They hide behind concepts of liberty, narrowly defined as the freedom to make as much money and grab as much power as they can and damn the ethics and the needs of their fellow citizens.

Trump is not coming through on his promises to make America great again. He's in fact destroying it. He plays on fear, does nothing for the common good. His "good" is confined to himself and his corporate cronies - values about power and wealth - not ideals of justice, fraternity, equality and liberating freedom.

America needs environmental protection. As fast as he can, Trump's administration is destroying the safeguards Obama and others have put in place over the years. Corporate America rapes and ravages the environment. Mother Nature, the Earth, lashes back with climate warming, tornadoes, oil spills, flooding storms, forest fires and the coronavirus.

Yet, Trump cuts America's contribution to the World Health Organization in time of plague. O, Lord, deliver us.

Marion J. Reis

Lombard