Will money be the death of America? The is no vaccine against money. With the advent of digital money, there is no substance to money. It remains merely our faith, long held, that others will accept it in trade. No moral goodness or evil attaches to it.

These thoughts arise from the Netflix series, Death by Lightning. As the program makes clear, President Garfield was not killed by a bullet, but by the doctor who attended him. The gunman was hanged for his intention and the doctor who denied science was not.

Charles Guiteau was mentally unstable and angry that he was rebuffed for a job by all who met him. Today unstable people still have access to guns. In the absence of political courage, the endless supply of money from the gun industry leaves us with little hope our nation will be spared more deaths by firearms.

Today, our government is run by money. It is more destructive than the guns it supports. Money elected our President. He was able to spend his way to popularity with voters who knew little of our or his history.

Blame our public education, if you must. But most of the blame goes to the parents who took control of public education. They were enabled by those other parents who failed to support teachers and administrators with significant standards.

In their place came the noisy, self-righteous mob that demanded an end to imparting knowledge and its replacement of education by entertainment. They saw prowess in sports as superior to intellectual development.

Thus was our nation undermined and made ready for the calamity from which we now suffer: an incompetent, deranged President accompanied by ill-prepared, ignorant administrators who have a program to eviscerate our Constitution.

Seeing the moral weakness of Donald Trump and his entourage, many monied moguls supported his campaigns in 2016, ‘20 and ‘24. They bought the attention of an ethically estranged electorate which was outraged to find themselves with an articulate, educated African American president.

Thus, we got a man who lied repeatedly and who, now in a second term, is lying on a bigger stage. Our President is a danger to world peace. He attacks other nations with impunity from domestic or international sanctions.

His minions undermine the health of our citizens, they enable him to unwind the ties to our allies, they facilitate his narcissistic attacks on our institutions, and they enable his efforts to diminish our freedoms of speech, the press, and liberty.

We must speak out. We must work to end dark money in politics. We must encourage those who are fearful and speak boldly to those who do not see the dangers.

The first order of business is to reclaim Congress and our state governments. The primaries and elections this year will require strong candidates, well-financed, and committed to protecting America from the evil among us.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2026 Morton J. Marcus

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