You have heard the term RHINO — Republican in Name Only. The Democratic equivalent would be DINO. The difference is in the tactics we should use to preserve free-market capitalism, a system that has corrupted politics and unleashed economic misery at home and abroad.

In 1929, the captains of industry and commerce, embarrassed by their self indulgence in the “roaring 20s,” largely backed Roosevelt in the 1932 election. As agents of the disease they were not fond of the cure and have tried to nullify the regulations that constrained their excesses and roll back the social safety nets that helped the common people. They have largely achieved their goals. We have re-created the conditions that led to the Great Depression, a period of self-indulgence during the bubble economy of the Bush years and concentration of wealth and power in a few hands making a consumer-driven economy impossible. Rather than admit their complicity in creating our current mess, the RHINOS blame the immigrants and welfare cheats. The government that has subsidized them with billions of dollars and has yet to enact meaningful reforms and has done little for the hard-pressed public. This is class warfare!

Given changing world conditions, it is both impossible and undesirable to return to the false prosperity of the Bush years, yet this is what the RHINOS and DINOS propose! Neither will propose redistribution of wealth and power necessary to maintain social peace while we develop institutions appropriate to the 21st century. I pray that voters will elect politicians who will care for the welfare of “the least of these” during this transition.

After Jim Jones poisoned his followers in Guyana, we resisted demagogues with the phrase “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” Today well-meaning people will advise us “Don’t drink the tea.”

John E. Gibson

Blooming Prairie