LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Justice needs to be on the bargaining table

etter in the State News on 01/02/17 [“The election, the future of our nation and Delaware”], his major complaint about President Obama and the Democratic Party was their alleged far-left-wing socialist policies.However, Medicare, Social Security, and the apparently are not on this Army colonel’s socialist hate list. He alleges that the “working American” was lost sight of under eight years of Obama. He overlooked the fact that not since 1939 have there been 75 straight months of job growth, producing approximately15 million jobs, and an increase of 317,000 manufacturing jobs. The world has evolved into a global trading market that has inevitably resulted in more manufacturing jobs, enabling all its citizens to strive for middle-class status. Mr. Daniels went on to denigrate alleged left-wing social policies that are, in fact, cherished American values. We, like other allied countries, have always taken in refugees that needed safe harbor, once they went through a vetting process taking up to two years. In regards to his complaints about poverty, it actually hit record highs in the U.S. under Reagan and Bush Jr., and decreased somewhat under Obama. Have we ever worked on real solutions to eliminating poverty? Recent minimum wage increases in 16 states are a starting point, as well as providing equal funding in all our schools to afford enrichment programs, such as pre-school, and after-school learning programs. “All Americans” deserve an equal playing field to help them become successful. However, not all Americans believe in this ideal! Instead, cutting the taxes for the rich, the old trickle-down, worn-out theory in the Republican playbook, has proven time and time again not to work — except for the rich, that is! Bush Jr. accumulated a $10.7 trillion debt, not $8 trillion, by funding two wars and the 1 percent with huge tax cuts. How smart was that? Then, his administration oversaw the collapse of the world financial markets due to lack of oversight regulations. How smart was that? On top of that, Congress refused to fully fund and work on improving Obamacare. Instead, they worked on trying to make sure it failed. So unpatriotic! Why fund peons with needed subsidies for affordable health care? Isn’t that discrimination? In contrast, the 1 percent, who control more wealth than half the wealth of our 300-plus-million population, are irresponsibly addicted to reinvesting their profits for their shareholders, rather than investing in hiring more workers. Justice is not on the bargaining table. Last, but not least, foreign policy criticism by Mr. Daniels needs to be addressed. Not engaging in ground-to-ground combat war in the Middle East was a smart “leading from behind strategy” that not only saved American soldiers lives, but left Russia stuck in the middle of the Arab Spring revolution quagmire and subsequent civil uprising by many opposition groups in Syria and elsewhere. Their common goal is equal representation in government. The Iraq war initially opened up this Pandora’s box. The expulsion of the Iraqi Sunni military Baathist regime motivated them to create a radical Islamic group called ISIS seeking their own caliphate, or piece of the pie, if you will. This Middle East quagmire was predicted back in the 1970s by my political science professor on his computer model. High deprivation levels of the oppressed masses inevitably lead to rebellion and wars. Lay the blame on discrimination and greed instead of scapegoating the Obama administration. Further analysis is needed for insight.

Bill Clemens Smyrna