The "socialist regime” Brian McLeod so fears ("A civil war for the heart and soul of the U.S.," Aug. 5 Gazette) can’t possibly be worse than what exists legitimately (or as good as) in the U.S., which now is so chaotic and corrupt that it trivializes anything the protest movement has done so far. Is being strangled to death by a policeman of an afternoon, an example of “freedom”? Is the use of tear gas against protesters by authorities, and kidnapping them? Mass homelessness? Forty millions without health care? Millions more without adequate health care? Are these the precious “personal choices” McLeod idolizes, malnourished, homeless and struggling masses? Is the highest number of COVID-19 deaths a sign of a superior system? The U.S. population is four per cent of world total but represents 25 per cent of all deaths from COVID-19.This is the result of a system that values profit before all, and human lives of the lower economic classes are not in the running.
Long before COVID-19 appeared, many U.S. citizens couldn’t pay their bills even while working two and three jobs. The birth rate has declined because marriage and children is now almost impossible for average people.
And what has the entity McLeod fears will be eliminated, religion, done to avoid climate change, eliminate low, even slave-level wages? Prevent the accumulation of obscene amounts of money and assets concentrated in the hands of the few? Has religion prevented war and the marginalization of harmless states like Cuba, along with more geopolitically dangerous and polarizing moves against Venezuela and Iran? The U.S. is even now tilting to war against China and encouraged in this fatal foolishness by irresponsible rhetoric on the part of Canadians who should know better.
McLeod mentions paying "lip service" to “freedoms and liberties”. He is right there. It has been largely a myth and a promise that the new reality has ended. It isn’t communism or socialism for the masses that has brought us to this point, but socialism for the rich. Among myriad examples, some stand out. The owner of San Antonio “care homes’ contributed $750,000 to Trump’s re-election campaign and received $27 million in COVID-19 funds, even though his facilities had been cited for gross neglect of patients. This is a familiar pattern, not an exception.
These dismal facts contrast with the socialist Indian state of Kerala, with a population almost identical to Canada: by end of May, 20 COVID-19 deaths; in 2018, the highest Human Development index , 0.784; the highest literacy rate; the highest life expectancy, 77 years, which exceeds that of Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansa, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi and the District of Columbia.
Fear of socialism for the masses is a carefully constructed and managed campaign that benefits elites. It is no longer workable according to many experts, even some former eager promoters. It’s too bad it required thousands of avoidable deaths and anguish to make that obvious.
Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
