It seems like only yesterday the Dow bottomed out at 6,700. Then it soared, fluctuating between 30,000 and 35,000 for some time. This past December it closed at over 37,600, a record high.

There are schemes contrived to fill the money-coffers of the rich, in order to buy their political support. In December 2017, President Donald Trump cut top taxes dramatically, as did President George W. Bush, a decade and a half before him. Between 1981 and 1988, President Ronald Reagan incrementally slashed the top tax rate from 70% to an astonishingly low 28%, the beginning of deficit spending? In the ’50s, President Dwight Eisenhower’s 92% top rate remains the all-time high.

From Trump’s 2017 tax gift, much of corporate America looted large amounts to buy back their own stock, artificially raising stock prices. Conversely, a long period of stagnant wages undermined America’s middle class. As a result, today these struggling workers are incapable of keeping pace with crippling inflation that spirals out of control.

Driving around our town, there’s no escaping the ugly sight of broken homes and crumbling streets. Homeowners and our city fathers fail to mention the expensive upkeep. At the same time, Butler’s infrastructure continues to decay.

So, wake up to reality. A win for Trump this November is committing political suicide; your American dream lost in a heartbeat.

Geno Mariotti, Butler