Letter to the editor: Scared by prospect of socialism

What scares me about this last election is that, as normal, people blindly vote for the candidate from their party. I’m a Republican, but I hated President Trump’s tweets, name calling and other things he did that I felt were below the office. However, I voted for him because of what he did for the country.

I believe the Democratic Party leadership is no longer interested in serving the people. Too many of them want to make our government socialist, and socialism scares the pants off me.

The definition of socialism is any of various theories or systems of ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by the society or community rather than by private individuals, with all members of the society or community sharing in the work or products. In theory that sounds great, but the only true socialist movement was the early Christian church.

Today’s socialism is one where the government runs everything. The people become slaves to the government. We are seeing government control right now in the shutdowns caused by the pandemic. I believe we need to mask, wash our hands and be careful, but we must be able to make a living.

Our Founding Fathers wanted democracy, a government of the people, for the people, by the people, where the government serves the people, not controls them.

I am so afraid of the demon this election has let loose. I have voted in nine presidential elections, and I have never feared that the winner would not try to serve the people. This time it is different.

John Jasneski

Shaler