The recent opinion piece by Paul Olson published on Jan. 31, 2023, promotes many ideals we all aspire to: individual rights, free markets and limited, constitutional government. But Paul then gives a free pass to “the thousands of corporations” claiming they “have no political parties or factions based on their conservative or liberal philosophy.”

These very corporations are the ones President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell speech, “beware of the military industrial complex.” When government colludes with business and industry you get classical fascism. 

This happened in the World War II era when the Axis powers conspired with IG Farben, BASF and Fiat Corp. More recently in our country, government has made special deals with Pfizer, Facebook, Twitter and various defense contractors. Through regulatory capture of the three-letter agencies and vast political contributions (bribes), the control of our country has shifted from the people and our government institutions to the powerful corporations. The rise of the huge secret black projects budget and unacknowledged special access programs leaves Congress and the president in the dark. These companies, left to their own devices love to privatize the profits and socialize costs.

The question is — do we have the will to reign them in?