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Irony of “Socialism” Attack

It’s hard to believe the sordid race for 2020 has begun

By Tom Horelick

With the bad taste of the 2016 election still lingering, it’s hard to believe the sordid race for 2020 has begun.

With the Democrats busy building their platform of how-to-lose-the-election, President Trump is lying daily, telling “the base” what they want to hear; disregarding all realms of civility and rational thought to promote himself, and his phony agenda and accusations. I myself find it disgraceful and a national embarrassment.

But I do find it almost humorous and with a twisted irony, that he has started throwing around the word “socialism” to attack Democrats, along with his other meaningless soundbites and chants, (lock’er up, Who’ll pay for the wall?, Pocahontas, fake news, etc.) playing to the crowd like the huckster he is. He uses the “S” word like it’s some lethal disease or nuclear threat and the base loves it and cheers him on, while he himself has been free loading off the government for years, every chance he gets.

I’m a firm believer in capitalism and the free market system, but living in Libby, which is definitely Trump country, “socialism,” if you want to call it that, is ingrained in our culture.

Beginning with the private timber base that started with the Northern Pacific railroad grants of 1864 from Abe Lincoln, after decades of fraud and corruption, eventually morphed into the Plum Creek Timber Company; of which everyone knows the end of that story.

We have the U.S. Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, and recently the EPA dumping millions of dollars into our local economy. With timber harvests down for a number of reasons, Congress picked up the slack of the lost county receipts through the Secure Rural Schools program, of which I haven’t heard any complaints.

Closer to home, we have a “Port” or industrial park on the old mill site that was created for community economic development. This is a joint venture with Lincoln County and private enterprise (which is the very definition of “socialism”). Then comes subsidized Stinger Welding, which was a huge bust with a loss to the taxpayers of …. I don’t think anyone knows? And let’s not forget the $11.5 million “gift” that former Sen. Conrad Burns generously gave of our own federal tax money ($3.5 million for the hospital and $8 million for the aforementioned “economic development”) in 2000.

The list goes on, but I think I’ve made my point. All I ask though, is when the rally goers mindlessly worship Trump (along with our spineless Republican delegation, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte), I wish they would think, and look in the mirror.

Tom Horelick
Libby