Editor, The Record:
Reading Tom Fletcher's columns is bad for my blood pressure with his right-wing slant on just about everything. His latest column warning of the "Perils of an entitlement state" reads like something you'd find on Fox News or Glenn Beck.
What he calls “entitlements,” according to the wonderful world of the Fraser Institute, is what the rest of us call the social safety net, universal medical, and all the other things by which a modern, progressive, liberal democracy is defined.
He praises Mark Milke who writes for those spin doctors who are devoted to bringing the same economic disasters to us that have ruined the American economy, brought about massive income disparities, and decimated the middle class.
To say nothing about the loss of government oversight and regulations which kept the corporations and chief executive officers in check. Or the great lie of prosperity through austerity.
Oh, what a wonderful country we would have if only we listened to our betters on the right as Fletcher does. By all means, let’s turn back the clock to the good old days of a feudal economy under the twin evils of free trade and globalization and kiss our democracy goodbye.
We need a return to Keynesian economics and the proper role of government to moderate the economic swings. What we don't need are more columns by Fletcher in his role of promoting the same “values” of the loony right wing that have crippled the U.S. and sent the world into a recession every bit as catastrophic as the 1929 Depression.
Robert T. Rock
Mission