The Sept. 3 letter, "Obama seems bent on the death of capitalism," has produced yet another example of a serious problem in our representative democracy. The opinions of many people are being shaped by organs of propaganda. The letter writer stated that Obama is dismantling capatalism. He then went on to list some things he believed demostrated that. It seems clear to me that he has heard and seen only what he wants to, what confirms his pre-conceived ideas.
For example, the auto industry has not been taken over by the federal government. It received federal loans and was forced to make management changes. It has since repaid the loans and is going forward without government direction. I know; I used to work in Detroit and still talk to friends there who work in the industry.
The health care reform did not result in a government takeover. The final verison mandated that everyone get coverage, through private insurers. This really changed nothing for most of us.
The production of oil in the gulf has not been chut down. Thirty-something deep water wells were going to be shut down during the investigation to determine what went wrong with the Deep Water Horizon spill, but a federal judge overturned this wise move. The other 3,000 or so wells have kept operating. One of them even caught fire the other day.
If we are going to properly do our jobs in a representative democracy, we need to get the facts and listen to both sides of an argument. Otherwise, we will make bad and uninformed decisons.
Scott Cisney
Perry
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