The Grand Old Party, the party of Lincoln resurrected by Reagan has truly lost its relevance, if not in the American two-party system (although, we are multi-party, only two parties can truly play), then at least as far as concerns America.
During the battle for our own independence, Republicans would have been Tories--those who were for remaining a colony of Britain (could you really imagine someone like Franklin, Paine, Jefferson or Adams being as emotive and name-calling as today's Republicans?).
Up until and during the Civil War, the violence, the emotion and the hysterics of the Democratic Party--which was mostly backed by Southerners--were symbolized in their belief that the hated "negros" should remain enslaved; the Southerners demanded "State Rights" (which meant, if we want to keep our colored enslaved then the Federal Goverment should have no say in this matter).
After the great compromise of 1877, which resulted in the Federal Government removing its troops from the occupied southern states (immediately ending black independence in those states and throwing the entire march toward civil rights off by literally 100 years!) Southern Democratic Senators agreed to give the White House to the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (for more on this controversy/betrayal read http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h396.html). Over the next few decades the modern Republican Party was hatched.
A party that began to blindly support big business interests--the Republicans tried to ban Upton Sinclair's Book "The Jungle" which led to the creation of the FDA (which under W. has been so underfunded that eating in America is liking playing Russian roulette--spinach, tomatoes, peanut butter, milk, etc.all can kill you nowadays); the Democratic party, at the onset of the Industrial Revolution and America's transition from being a regional power to a world one, suddenly started defending the interests of farmers, small businessmen, workers, the poor and all of those who were being victimized by the barons of industry who openly owned politicians!
Except for Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican Party has had a really stained past beginning from 1901 to 2009: they were against entrance into WWI; they were against entrance into WWII; they were against everything Roosevelt did or tried to do; they launched the endless destruction of the cold war--the Eisenhower Doctrine said "if the USSR pushes, we push back", which led to 40 years of "containment" as laid out in the misinterpreted article of the great statesman George "Mr. X" Kennan (see his "Sources of Soviet Conduct" Article in Foreign Affairs in 1947) set America off onto a long and violent journey during which our nation was not ruled by domestic interests but by chasing the "Communist devil" into every corner of the earth.
Vietnam (launched by Eisenhower in 1954 when the French army was crushed at Den Bien Phu) was a useless war that resulted in nothing but 58,000 dead young Americans and millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians. Then along came LBJ who enacted sweeping government change by passing Civil Rights legislation, Social Security, etc.--Republicans were against this also and so were may southern Democrats who as a result switched parties (thank God!).
The ignominious history of the GOP then led us to the lies, deceit, surveillance, Constitutional-crisis of Nixon--need I say more (oh, illegal bombings of Cambodia, anyone?)? Also, who can forget the oil embargo, the double digit inflation of Ford?
Carter, a mere blip on the radar screen (like a large flock of seagulls), had so little effect on anything that really, he was just a national sigh at the disbelief being expressed after Nixon's run on the constitution and the near bankrupting of our nation then! Along came their god--the mild-mannered, well-spoken and really partisan, Ronald Reagan.
Mortgage rates went through the roof, and except for a few years of economic growth, to be soundly ended by Bush Senior, the largest deficits in our history were racked up under Mr. "goverment is the problem (the government grew larger under Reagan then under all of the presidents combined prior to him)/fiscal conservative (gee, where did those deficits come from?)" himself. (Oh, yes, whilst we were removing government regulators or denying them funding, we were letting Savings and Loans be set up by anyone with a calculator, this mess is still being paid for by the taxpayers!)
Let's forget Clinton, 8 years of prosperity, balancing of the budget (which the Republicans will shamelessly say was done by a few of their breathren who weren't tyring to destroy our president over the fact that a) he made investments prior to coming to office and b) that he cheated on his wife); the federal government was shrunk (responsibly) back to a level that it had been just prior to the launch of the Vietnam War in 1954; and, on the horizon for our nation were trillion dollar surpluses.
So, what did the republicans do? First, they stole an election; they governed as if they had a mandate; they threw away all work that was done by the Clinton Administration on the prevention of terrorist activities and then when we were attacked on 9/11--after our wonderful president had spent a month clearing brush in Texas amidst increasing reports that an attack was imminent--they blamed Clinton! (Note: Clinton kept us safe!)
And, throwing economics out with the bath water, the republicans started pushing tax cuts for everything while invading two nations and trying to bully about 12 others. Suddenly, the hysteria, the fear-mongering and emotive namecalling of the Republican Party, 300 years of just plain juvenile, schoolyard tactics ("P.U., Kenny stinks"--and so it would be, clean little Kenny would be ruined by that moniker for the rest of his days thanks to one big mouth on the playground) were suddenly validated because our government, the constitutional process of checks and balances had been taken hostage by "God" and Republicans.
2009--we are bankrupt; Reagan-era deficits are the good old days; our military is so over-stretched, our troops, many of whom are on welfare(!!!) are not properly armed or protected because...um, taxes were being cut and there was no money left--except for really expensive things the troops didn't need (and, also, because the companies that Cheney ran weren't making things the boys in harms way really needed).
Iran is a year away from having nuclear missles-8 years ago, they had just started using flashlights! North Korea is going crazy; Russia has again become a belligerent and unpredictable regional power--more unpredictable than ever in their history because they are really tired of being treated like "stinky Kenny"; the 2 billion Muslims in the world who used to like us, now hate us--those attacking extremists used to be the vast, vast minority.
And, now, the only thing they can do today, as Americans are thrown out of work in droves from the same big business (and now even small business) that is so loved by the GOP, is keep harping about the need for still lower taxes! Oh, and they yell about the need for guns, the need for outlawing abortion, the need to arrest and deport millions of illegal aliens (where do we get the money for this, we just cut out $40 billion that had been earmarked for the State use?).
You know what...screw the Republican Party. They are obstructionist. They don't love America but love their ever-shrinking little white communities in which everyone looks alike, talks the same, eats at the same Applebee's and even though worship in the same churches, they hate the same minorities.
The Republican Party is now officially historically irrelevant. They have nothing new to offer; they don't/cannot solve the problems at hand because like in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, membership in ranks of the GOP is given to those who deny free-thought and celebrate emotive, group-shouting.
The GOP is about stealing our nation's wealth and denying America its rightful place in the world--we should be stronger, wealthier, healthier and friendlier. We are not a nation of bitter, whiners who hate everyone that doesn't look like us (especially considering that we are EVERYONE). In 2009, we should not be celebrating our first "black" president. Had they not subverted our nation from the path to desegregation in 1877, we would not have the black-white issues we still have today! Obama should just be called our "new president" but we are still so hung up on color!
8 years was lost in the battle against global warming; 16 years was lost in battle for universal health care. History always shows that the emotive attacks of the GOP are wrong (They bomb abortion clinics!!)! My fellow Democrats, PULL YOUR CIVILIZED, PC HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES AND TELL THE REPUBLICANS TO SHUT THE HELL UP!!! THIS IS OUR NATION! DON'T LIKE IT, GET THE HELL OUT.
To Be continued...!
Glove off. Bipartisanship my ass. The enemy has been identified and now we must deal with him the way our boys did when they stormed the machine-gun nests on Normandy 65 years ago!
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5 comments:
Your appalling lack of familiarity with American history is shocking.
Could one be anymore conservative than Jefferson? Jefferson said of Government, "A Government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
I like the way you gloss over the Carter catastrophe, and then downplay and misrepresent the Reagan miracle. Do you know why Reagan won 49 states in 1984? Because the American people understood the difference between Carterism and economic liberty.
Mr. Obama offers us Carter and Johnson, without the experience. His first presser was a disaster, and his shift to the hard left will prove to undue him in the 2010 mid-terms.
Mr. Obama has proven once fact -- however. He proved conservatives were right. He proved that a poor black boy from a fatherless home, raised by a single, teenage mother and born in 1964, could still rise to power in the greatest country the world has ever known. He proved that institutionalized racism a falsehood, victomology a lie of the race hustlers.
Now -- he will prove conservative right again -- as he makes Carter look like a great President.
/s/ The Truth
Um. lack of familiarity of American history--couldn't have been said better by a republican.
American history, I know. The Republican version of American history, I also know. And, it is this "emotive, finger-pointing, personality cult of a party" that has led our nation to the same place that all great empires had been led--by extreme hubris and a belief that "hard power" can win over a world no longer impressed with such power--to the brink of our fall from that position of leadership. The GOP is the epitome of a party dominated by selfishness, the Military Industrial Complex and right-wing, bible thumpers. Even your "god's" wife, has abandoned your party as she knows that stem-cell research is needed so as to avoid the tragedy of the disease that erased her beloved Ronnie. But, when on the playground yelling at Kenny that he stinks--even though you know he doesn't--you lose yourself in the "power of the crowd (like the Germans did in 1933)" and so, Kenny remains stinky and without thought, you guys just espouse rhetoric.
And, in 1776, Jefferson, while a believer of small government for America (and how we can assume that in today's modern world we can exist with a government as big as the one he presided over, I just don't know), would never have permitted our Constitution to have been so disrespected as it was by not one republican president but two--Jefferson was not conservative. He believed in America. Unilike modern-day republicans, who only believe in the America that fits within the cookie-cutter of their nice, neat, white and God-fearing world (where there are no gays, no immigrants, no abortions (and strangely no poor people), no blacks and lots of guns!). And, should that funny little, yellowing document, the heart and soul of our American experiment, not agree with your ever-changing and hysterical world view, then, "let's amend that little bugger." Each amendent weakens a nearly perfect document, but for the GOP that is all just semantics because in the world view of the GOP, "it isn't what America is supposed to, it is what we say it is."
And, finally, in true republican fashion, you contradict all that was said about the horrible dems being so bad--had it not been for the legislation passed by LBJ, a poor black boy never would have become president (which you say makes America a great nation--and I agree with this) because, had the republicans had their way, we would still have seperate drinking fountains and "seperate but equal" educational facilities.
Once again -- you get it wrong. Not just wrong -- but dead wrong.
Here's a trivia question for you -- what party backed the Civil Right's Bill of 1964 by a larger percentage? BUZZZZZZZ Wrong. it was the Republicans. Surprised -- I bet. That's what happens when you learn your history from the left.
Speaking of ancient history -- as if the Republicans themselves had drafted the Constitution to exclude blacks. Which President of these United States freed the slaves? Common on -- you can say it. The first Republican President -- Abe Lincoln.
I find that no mind is as un-alterably closed as that attacked the mouth of a self-proclaimed progressive. You ought to take a few minutes to read the book "liberal fascism." It's an eye-opener into the tactic of the hard left, whose tolerance extends only to themselves.
Say what you want about Republicans. I am a conservative, which is not necessarily a Republican. I owe no allegiance to a party -- only to my countrymen and my Constitution. Your labeling of Conservatives as harsh and uncaring is typical baseless claptrap. Most recently, a study showed that those who identify themselves as republican/conservative, contribute more to charities at every single income level -- every level, than those on the left. What a surprise? In fact, Conservatives give more of their time and blood too. See http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080327/news_lz1e27will.html
It seems liberals are too busy giving their contempt and polishing their opinions.
Conservatives believe charity comes from the heart, and is for the purpose of lifting up one neighbor at a time. Democrats think charity comes from the government, and is best mandated from the wallets of strangers for the use of doling out political favors.
Um, I think I wrote that it was a Republican president that freed the slaves. And, I think I also explained that there was a keep flip of party interests after the compromise of 1877 and at the end of the 19th century. Yes, I do know my history.
Yes, out nation has a great history of charity and I support that wholeheartedly and I give to groups in Freehold, NJ. I figure it is best to give to the community I love. However, charity is not a constant. I guarantee you that right now, those $5 bills dropping into many charity baskets are fewer and farther between. That means that the neediest are now falling on harder times; and, rather than maybe a working mother with 3 kids, because her husband is rotting in prison, having someone come to her home and offering headstart classes; instead, her kids are not getting that headstart, they are out on a playground getting into trouble and then in her angst she loses one of the jobs which is just enough to push her through the cracks. And then, we all know the rest of the story. If our nation had 1000 people, charity would be a system; sadly, though, many of those conservative charity-givers link the receipt of their with conditions and ones usually related to a god. No, in a nation of 300 million and up, we need a system. Giving charity is simply too fickle a thing to hope for when the going gets tough.
And, oddly, I agree, for me, it is Constitution (America) first and I honestly don't feel the GOP has the interests of our nation at its heart. And, I honestly believe Obama does.
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