Our country's founders were all entrepreneurs who ran their own businesses and they were not fond of taxes. They were not all honorable men. Their combined ideologies had room for both freedom and slavery.
We are the wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth and our businesses are global. Our democracy evolved along with our businesses.
Concern for human rights and environmental responsibility has resulted in concessions from the business community and limitations on what they could and could not legally do in the pursuit of material gain.
Businessmen want economic freedom. Citizens want personal freedom, equality and justice. They also want their fair share of the wealth they help produce.
In 2008, the rampant greed of some of our business leaders put us on the verge of another Great Depression. We elected someone who was able to stabilize and restore our economy. That led to a backlash from some of our wealthiest citizens. The backlash was motivated by bigotry and the fear of returning to the kinds of taxes we had under FDR.
The backlash took the form of a privately backed grassroots movement that became known as the Tea Party. The Tea Party had plenty of money to run primaries against incumbents and fund elections at every level. Tea Party candidates all ran as Republicans.
Tea Party candidates were successful at winning elections and formed powerful voting blocs in both houses of Congress. The Freedom Caucus in the House was particularly effective at blocking legislation and, combined with their members in the Senate, they also demonstrated their ability to stop the government.
In 2016 we saw a contest between the Tea Party and moderate Republicans for control of the Administrative Branch. What no one foresaw was Donald Trump. Trump was a failed real estate developer who transitioned into a popular entertainer. He was the ultimate opportunist. He was apolitical and chose to run as a Republican. Reporting on his campaign sold news stories. He made for titillating copy.
Trump had Vladimir Putin as a role model. Putin is a criminal who successfully banded with other criminals, the Russian oligarchs, and seized control of Russia. Russia is not so much a state as it is a crime syndicate. Putin kills his political rivals and members of the press who try to expose him.
He has mastered the various cyber technologies and has delegitimized the press and propagated fake news to the extent that people in Russia no longer know who or what to believe in. Putin uses nationalism to rally the support of a confused population that has been suffering economically for several decades.
It should not come as a surprise that someone like Trump, a man driven by monumental egoism and a desire for great wealth, a man whose morality is based solely on what he has attained, would find inspiration in a ruthless dictator like Putin.
Trump has actually engaged in business dealings with Putin's cronies. He hired some of the same people Putin and the Russian oligarchs used to run his presidential campaign and work on his transition team. He used the same fake news strategies employed by Putin.
Trump doesn't care what happens to us. That became all too clear last week when he pushed for healthcare legislation that would have resulted in 24 million people losing their health insurance, while the rest of us would have seen our health insurance premiums increase and our benefits decrease.
Trump is interested in promoting his own business interests. He is jeopardizing our relationships with our allies and NATO. He is disassembling our government.
Two weeks ago Trump created a media storm by falsely asserting that President Obama had ordered wiretaps installed at Trump Tower during the campaign. These assertions have been discredited by all of our intelligence agencies.
What may have been a ploy to distract media attention away from Trump's healthcare legislation backfired. It has resulted in calls for a full investigation by members of both the House and Senate and by a majority of the American people.
The House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Devin Nunes, was tasked with conducting the investigation, but Nunes, a former member of both Trump's campaign and his transition team, went rogue and created a scandal of his own which has all but destroyed the credibility of the House Intelligence Committee.
We need a bipartisan committee to do a credible investigation of Trump and the Russians. We will need a special prosecutor as well. Our national security is at stake.
Brendan Buschi
Milton
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