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BY BOB TOPPER

Don’t let the billionaires behind the curtain distract you while they steal your money and your freedom.

George W. Bush believed that replacing theocratic government in the Middle East with democracy would bring peace, justice and equality to that part of the world. With this rationale, he and his party justified the Iraq War, which went on for eight years with the loss of 4,500 American lives and a cost of $2 trillion in borrowed dollars.

I voted for Bush. I admired his love for democracy. And I admire Zelenskyy for his love of country and his steadfastness in defending Ukraine’s freedom and democracy, the same principles for which America fought the Revolutionary War. If only Trump could show that devotion, but sadly, it is not in his nature.

We knew from his first impeachment that he hated Zelenskyy, and we knew he admired Putin, yet no one expected he would turn his back on America’s principles and traditions or that he would want to deport 240,000 Ukrainian refugees. But Trump has sided with Putin. He fancies himself as the leader of an American autocracy in league with Russia, which would mean the end of American democracy as we know it.

And the Republican Party supports him. How can it be that the party that championed democracy under George W. Bush now condones this betrayal of democracy here in our homeland? This is not the party of Bush, Reagan, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt or, certainly, Lincoln.

The conservatives I know did not want or expect this outcome. They knew Trump was a narcissist, but he concealed his plans. He denied any knowledge of Project 2025, for example. But in the first six weeks of his administration, he followed that plan step by step.

Last December, America had the world’s strongest economy and was its leading nation. Still, much was wrong in American society. Religious and financial special interests had taken over American government, and it no longer served the common good. Trump’s promise to make America great again appealed to disheartened Americans, and he won a second term.

Freely electing an autocrat was not a historic first. It happened 90 years ago in Germany when the disheartened German people became enamored with Hitler.

But as chaotic as this Trump administration is, this is not Nazi Germany, and the onslaught of our democracy can be stopped. For that to happen, the root cause of people’s disillusionment must be appreciated, for it conditioned voters to accept the disinformation from and about Trump that flooded social media.

The root cause is wealth inequality. Over the past 50 years, income of the top 10% increased by 145%. For the top 1%, the increase was 278%. For the bottom 50%, income increased by just 20%. For low- and moderate-income Americans, wages have essentially stagnated. And the people were told that this income stagnation was caused by illegal immigration and government incompetence.

It is ironic that the voters believed that Trump and his billionaire friends would solve a problem created by an unjust tax code, which they support and use to their advantage, while the people were distracted by divisive debates over race, gender, sexual orientation and abortion. These culture wars were backed by Wall Street to cover its schemes for transferring wealth to the top 1%.

Russia was also a Trump backer, but for a different reason. In the early days of social media, Russia saw the potential to undermine American democracy by sowing discord and took advantage of it, most notably by flooding social media with disinformation that supported Trump in the 2016 election, as was evidenced by the Republican-led Senate investigation and the Mueller report. America has never been so divided.

It is no wonder that Americans are angry and resentful. They have been fighting each other while Wall Street and Russia smile on the sidelines. The solution is straightforward. We need to look beyond culture wars and unite to battle the forces that created the problem, which the Trump administration is presently planning to exacerbate with additional tax breaks for the rich.

During the ’50s and ’60s, America faced the same cultural issues, but there were no culture wars. We struggled with integration and same-sex relationships, but in general, people respected and trusted one another. The dishonesty and animosity that we have come to accept since the first Trump administration used to be condemned by society.

And in the 1950s, our national debt was $250 billion; today, it is $36 trillion. The income of a corporate CEO was 20 times greater than that of a factory worker; in 2023, it was 290 times greater. What is most interesting is that the maximum federal tax rate on income over $400,000 was 91%. Today, it is 37% on income over $700,000. And things were great in that era despite higher taxes. We advanced civil rights and women’s rights and sent astronauts to the moon.

If we want to make America great, the tax reduction Trump wants to give billionaires will not get us there. The obvious and only rational way to correct the wealth gap injustice—and end the national debt problem as well—is to increase tax revenue, as shown by French economist Thomas Piketty in Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

The idea that tax reductions will increase tax revenue by spurring the economy, tried by every Republican administration since Reagan, has never worked, and it will not now. Yet billionaires want you to believe that government programs are inefficient and need to be cut. Of course, there are inefficiencies, but the fundamental problem is not on the cost side but on the revenue side of the ledger. Destroying American institutions and forsaking our heritage for the enrichment of oligarchs is unconscionable.

Sixty years ago, our presidents and members of Congress valued America’s founding principles: freedom, equality and democracy. Elected officials honored their oath to the Constitution, and they supported other liberal democracies that shared our values. Issues of religion were handled by religious leaders, who were satisfied with America’s guarantee of religious freedom. They did not have political agendas. We must again elect representatives who are principled and stop mixing religion with politics. And reality TV personalities should not be running American government.

So I urge all my friends—liberals and conservatives—to look beyond the culture wars and work together to prevent oligarchs from taking over our government and to bring honor and decency back to American politics.

Should the U.S. become an autocracy like Russia, the people of this land will be as unhappy as those in Russia, which ranks 72nd in happiness compared to America, ranked 23rd. And Americans enjoy an income that is six times greater than that of the Russians. Using Russia as the standard, the income of the average American should be reduced by 83%. The Trump administration and the billionaire oligarchs are working at a lightning pace to take your money and make America another Russia.

We can still stop them.

(Bob Topper, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a retired engineer.)