Today’s political environment is just totally unacceptable! We currently have an oligarchy with the current leader in charge wanting to be a fascist. Our country seems to bounce from one extreme to the other. Those on the left would give us socialism which is also a bad choice. We can and must do better!

The top 1 to 1 and 1/2 percent have and control most of the wealth in this country. The biggest problem we have in this country is our income inequality. They are slowly grinding down the great American middle class is their thirst for power.and greater wealth and power. The rich can’t seem to get enough money, they seem to want it all, where the rest of us would in essence be vassals to our new masters. Our nation can not exist as a peaceful nation if the people of this nation are increasingly in the top few percentage points and the rest of the nation is increasingly poorer. There will be no peace or any place to hide if we continue on our path of having a nation divided between the haves and the have not’s.

The Republican Party is so far out on a limb on the far right, that they have this cynical view, Social Darwinism view that the rich deserve to be wealthy and the hell with the rest of us. Let the masses eat cake seems to be their wish, while they feather their own nest with greater and greater wealth. They view themselves as the job creators and they lower themselves to give an income to the rest of us. It is the ultimate of white privilege, with the rest of us living on substandard income, a minimum wage perhaps but not a livable wage. We have our own new form of slavery, those who work for a living but who are making far less than a livable wage.

The rich think that they will be safe behind walled and gated communities with armed guards. The rich are sacrificing our nation in a most unpatriotic way believing that they can continue with their quest for more money by sacrificing American prosperity and depending on the art of the deal in foreign countries.

The left side of the political spectrum would have Americans live better. They claim to have a big heart. They seem to want to give money to individuals without asking for anything in return. Just throwing money at a problem solves nothing. History has shown that the left, left unfettered will spend foolishly with no idea in mind who will pay for what is needed. Wasteful spending is often found along with their generosity.

The left or at least part of the left would have us basically withdraw from taking any responsibility for countries that are invaded. The military would be hamstrung under a socialist government. It is hard to find a situation where the far left would be willing to commit troops to defend any other nation.

The left talks about free college without admitting that everything has a cost. Somebody is going to help pay for what is allegedly a free education.

The left seemed to be quite willing to let banks fail without bailing them out. After all, banks are the enemy. They fail to remember that when the financial system collapses you wind up having a Great Depression.

Neither the far right or the far left offer us any real solutions. What we need is smart government! Like the time of the Great Depression the time will come when not enough people make enough money to buy the goods that are produced.

Let me give you an example of the problem that we face regarding income inequality. Artificial intelligence or in this case the use of robots presents our country with a huge problem. If you are 50 years old, and you are replaced by a robot you are not likely to find another job unless you are retrained and you are lucky enough to find a job who will hire an older worker. People who claim to be conservatives will just tell you tough luck. They really don’t care what happens to you. They continue to try to stop food stamps and Medicaid. If you died they would not care.

The left or socialists in this case would offer to give you a stipend of a certain amount of money to help you survive, but that is not good enough. Money might salve your pain, but it will not really help with ones self respect and the feeling that your life means something. The left thinks that just throwing money at the problem will work. No, it is not enough, each human being needs to feel wanted and important, that life will have a purpose for them.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill thought that planning for bad times ahead of time was important. In the 50 year old workers case, do not tell him that his job is coming back. It is cruel trick to give people hope when there is none.

To have a consistent program of retraining and training for the hot jobs of now and in the future would be a greater service. Our country would work better if we gave capitalism a greater chance to use the ingenuity that is encouraged by have capitalism. Perhaps workers can be shareholders in the companies that they work for so that the would have a greater incentive to work harder and be more productive. What we don’t need are handouts or the vulture capitalist who remind one of Oliver Twist days. We can do better!