Letter to Denver Post – Printed August 2010
August, 2010
Dear Editor,
Your editorial and the column by Vincent Carroll defending the corporate restructuring involving the Anschutz Corporation and now Senator Michael Bennet is fair, but I think you missed some points as to what fuels populist anger. It is not the acquisition of wealth or even the arrogance of executive privilege. It is the fact that wealth and executive privilege are the driving forces that so often define public policy in this country. A nation that defines itself on democratic principles should try to live by them.
Many people find it disturbing that when a corporation goes bankrupt it often becomes a story of free-market greatness, but when an individual goes bankrupt it becomes a trail on their personal integrity and well-being. When the banks got bailed out consumers got the bill, the continuation of stagnating wages, diminishing benefits, and unfair trade laws.
Most United States Senators and kingmakers like corporate billionaire Philip Anschutz have never had to worry about making a mortgage payment and that is ok, but it is not ok that our laws are so often premised on the golden rule of American politics – that those who have the most gold make the rules.
Sincerely,
Timothy D. Allport