The following is in response to the July 17 article, “Socialists officially unify party statewide.”

Democracy has long been the slogan of political groups throughout history. Recently, the Socialist Party of Maine announced that they too support democracy, and that “democracy stretches across all parts of life.”

In fact, democracy has become such a stale platitude by such parties that few ever question its ambiguous use in statements such as this.

The Socialist Party of Maine has declared that they are interested in fair wages, affordable health care, education, food, and housing, among other issues. I’m sure these are objectives that we would all like to see achieved, however, the question everyone should be asking is: at the expense of whom? They have no plan, save the establishment of democracy in all aspects of life, and appropriately so as that is the only weapon they need.

Unlimited majority rule is all they require to vote away and encroach upon your rights. The smallest and most fragile minority is the individual. America was the first nation in the history of mankind to recognize this and the result was a democracy, however, a severely limited one. What happens when total democracy is established? The state becomes a dangerous gang that uses force against its citizens in the name of the people.

The socialists will vote away your business, because the man who has spent a lifetime understanding his profession does not deserve to run what he has built because his employees will supposedly run it better. The student who earns barely enough to get by will have his meager income voted away to fund public projects, because he does not know what his income is best spent on. The real question we should all be asking is, in an allegedly civilized society, why have so few objected to such obscene political statements? Where is the voice of reason?

Maxwell James Testa

Farmington