To the editor:<\/p>\n
In the 1920s Republican politicians sided with wealthy individuals and corporations by focusing on conservative business policies, prioritizing deregulation, isolationism, and tax cuts for the rich.<\/p>\n
In 1929, the stock market crashed and unregulated banks collapsed, which brought on the Great Depression. Unemployment accelerated to 15 million people in 1933. Additionally, because of the 1934 Great Plains drought, farms collapsed with 10,000 farmers a month leaving their farms, increasing our unemployment crisis.<\/p>\n
Republican politicians were not focused on the average citizen. They concentrated on protectionism, expecting the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to somehow fix things.\u00a0\u00a0Other countries retaliated.\u00a0\u00a0From 1929 to 1932, U.S. imports from Germany fell $181 million; U.S. exports to Germany fell $277 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Protectionism pulled down other democratic governments, which facilitated the rise of dictatorships in Italy, Germany, and other countries. Those governments did not look at how to lift up the average worker and his or her family.\u00a0Instead, they scapegoated religious, ethnic, and political minorities, blaming them for their country\u2019s crises.\u00a0\u00a0Global panic and blame of the other laid the groundwork for World War II.<\/p>\n
Today, Republican politicians are repeating the mistakes of their counterparts in the 1920s and 1930s. Their political focus is:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Making sure that the wealthy avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Opposing strong campaign finance laws that would reduce or eliminate the ability of wealthy individuals and corporations to use large, secret donations to sway elections.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Blocking legislative efforts to expand affordable healthcare for all citizens.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Doing nothing to help states create more affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Undermining labor unions by promoting anti-union practices and opposing fair bargaining.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Opposing efforts to reduce the cost of college or trade school for all Americans.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Supporting Donald Trump\u2019s misguided and counterproductive tariff program.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Scapegoating immigrants and unfairly blaming them for America\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Supporting the president\u2019s use of the military to recklessly attack one nation after another, raising the possibility of precipitating World War III.<\/p>\n
Please contact your Senators and Representatives today and urge them to stop our government from spreading hatred, blaming immigrants\u00a0for our current problems, and recklessly attacking other nations. Instead, encourage them to focus on improving the lives of all Americans by:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Creating a more equitable tax system, in which the top marginal tax rate is raised, capital gains are taxed as ordinary income, inheritance taxes are increased, and middle-income tax rates are reduced.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Passing strong campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Expanding affordable health care for all.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Implementing policies to create more affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Strengthening labor unions.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Reducing the cost of colleges and trade schools.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Eliminating destructive tariff programs and taking back the power of Congress to debate and implement constructive tariff policies.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Implementing comprehensive laws that protect our borders but also support fair\/safe\/regulated immigration.<\/p>\n
We have the power to save our democracy, but we need to act now before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Peterson<\/p>\n
MAJ U.S. Army (Ret.)<\/p>\n
Punta Gorda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: In the 1920s Republican politicians sided with wealthy individuals and corporations by focusing on conservative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-390015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}