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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s curious comments about the president are nothing new for America’s right wing. In the 1950s, Robert Welch, one of the founders of the John Birch Society, had this to say about President Dwight Eisenhower, “(M)y firm belief (is) that Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.”

Fred Koch, father of Charles and David Koch, was a co-founder of the Birch Society. Charles and David Koch now run Koch Industries and a 501(c)(4) named Americans for Prosperity, and the brothers have pledged almost $900 million to sway the 2016 elections. In 1980, David Koch ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket, because Ronald Reagan just wasn’t conservative enough.

Here’s a synopsis of the Libertarian Party platform from that year: repeal of all campaign finance laws, the abolition of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Postal Service, public schools, compulsory education laws, welfare, minimum-wage laws, child labor laws, and the complete abolition of all taxation, personal and corporate, including capital gains, and taxes on private schools, government-sponsored programs for children, regulation of the health insurance industry, all government involvement with health care including the Veterans Administration and the elimination of the EPA, the FAA, the FDA and multiple federal departments.

Everything in that platform is still on the Kochs’ to-do list. The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has protected the middle class, the elderly, children, the sick and the most vulnerable in this country and allowed them to survive. That’s most of the country. We’ll miss it when it’s all gone.

Wayne Warner

Clarks Green

Lackawanna County