Author, Doctor, Speaker, Joseph Bentivegna

Doctor Bentivegna is an ophthalmologist living in Connecticut. He has written numerous op-ed pieces for The Hartford Courant and The New York Times regarding health care, tort reform, and the political situation in Haiti.

Connecticut Republicans Throw Down the Gauntlet

August 16, 2018       The results are in from the most fascinating Republican primary in recent memory and the take home message is that Connecticut Republicans were willing to roll the dice. They voted for non-traditional candidates who have little interest in reaching across the aisle, but plan engage the Democrats in a no holds barred battle to determine whether the state remains habitable for the private sector middle class. Here are the most salient points.       1. Conservative candidates won. Bob Stefanowski said he would repeal the state income tax and did not back down from this position. His lawn signs said one thing: “CUT TAXES.” With this message, he won 30% of the vote in a five-way primary and the majority of the towns. Most of Stefanowski’s supporters know that repealing the state income tax is mathematically impossible, but they voted for him anyway because his heart was in the right place. His even more conservative partner is the winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s race, Joe Markley, who received almost 50% of the vote against the more moderate Republicans, Jayme Stevenson and Erin Stewart. … [Read more...]

President Trump Versus the Ruling Class

June 3, 2018       Every society has a Ruling Class. In the United States, it is the super wealthy and those with Ivy League educations – especially those with degrees from Harvard or Yale. The leaders of our bureaucracies, major newspapers, opinion journals, think tanks, courts, corporations, universities, media conglomerates and political class come from one of these two groups – or ambitious individuals who have ingratiated themselves with these groups.       This was not necessarily a bad thing, as long as our Ruling Class was competent. But in the mid-twentieth century, the value system of our Ruling Class began to deviate with that of the ruled. Our Ruling Class became for more hedonistic, greedy, cowardly and arrogant. It became socially acceptable for powerful men to dump their wives for younger more nubile women. Judicial decisions that bypassed democratic process removed God from public schools, allowed pornography to proliferate and legalized abortion. The media portrayed those with conservative family values as sexist buffoons.       Drug use … [Read more...]

We Need to Get Serious about Gun Violence

February 26, 2018       America has become an angry society. Family destruction and income inequality have left many young males in the dust. Judicial rulings have made it impossible to institutionalize the mentally ill. Thus, we have disturbed angry young men who view their lives as empty wishing to make a statement. And they do so by gaining access to powerful guns and killing innocent victims.       The latest massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida by a lone gunman, Nikolas Cruz, has pushed the country over the edge. This must stop. But how?       Liberals and the media have reflexively attacked the NRA (National Rifle Association) and this time they have drawn blood. Many view the NRA as an impediment to sensible gun reform and major corporations are disavowing this organization. Momentum is gathering to ban so-called assault rifles.       But many forget that many of these rifles were banned from 1994 to 2004 and gun massacres still occurred, the most notable of these being Columbine in 1999. … [Read more...]