To the editor:

A recent writer (Mining Gazette, 8/24) has an abridged view of history.

Would anyone like the sins of their ancestors piled on themselves? The Democrat and Republican parties of today are not the parties of years ago. Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt wouldn’t recognize nor be members of today’s Republican Party. Similarly, John C. Calhoun wouldn’t be a Democrat today.

The Republicans were in charge when Hoover was president and we had the Great Depression starting in 1929. Hoover practiced the laissez-faire policies of a free market economy, but as the Depression wore on, government revenue fell, so Hoover cut spending. He believed business prosperity would trickle down to the average person. Instead, the Depression worsened.

In the 1930’s Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, launched The New Deal, an economic policy that included Social Security, to end the Great Depression. With 25 percent unemployment, Americans welcomed the government’s rescue and with the help of war production in World War II the depression ended.

In 1965 Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, signed into law legislation that established the Medicare programs. These programs have been protecting the health and well-being of millions of American families for over 50 years.

A cabal of Republican billionaires have been stealthily working for the last few decades to “save” capitalism from democracy; they fear the vote of the general population. They want a return to the “halcyon” days of lassaiz-faire capitalism that existed before the rise of social programs, labor unions, and income taxes. You know those days: robber barons, twelve hour work days, child labor, poor pay, cycles of recessions, unsafe working conditions, and contaminated food.

The Koch brothers, amongst others, have provided millions to various organizations that provide propaganda for their agenda. These include the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, FreedomWorks, the Tax Foundation, and others. These cabalists have been partly responsible for the introduction of tax breaks for the wealthy, the decline in union membership, and attempts to eliminate welfare, social security, and repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Today’s two major political parties seem to have exchanged with each other the philosophies that they had in the past. The Republicans are trying to suppress the vote of Hispanics, Blacks, and minorities, while the Democrats, like Teddy Roosevelt of old, are fighting the wealthy plutocrats.

For a clear, humane, and rational philosophy for running our country, consult the excellent platform of the Green Party.