Maryland lacks economic diversity.

For the last half-century and more, the state’s monopoly political party has been content to rely on our proximity to the nation’s capital as its principal economic development strategy. Our one-party regime has taken advantage of the District of Columbia being carved out of unwanted Maryland land to steer our state toward living off the federal Leviathan ( “As shutdown drags on, Moore faces pressure to curb Maryland’s reliance on Washington dollars,” Oct. 8).

During this period, the state’s Democrats didn’t give much, if any, thought to the private sector, which was gradually withering away (except to serve as the pretext for top-level junkets to foreign lands). Who cared about industry when Maryland could feed off the national government?

Never did our monopoly party take a look at a