Day: October 15, 2010

Profile In Courage Needed By Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar, And Lindsey Graham Against Tea Party Movement Threat To Honored Traditions Of GOP!

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy began his anti Communist rampage, promoting fear and hysteria in millions of Americans; destroying the reputation of many public figures in government, media, Hollywood, and the professoriate; and silencing most members of the Senate who feared to speak up against him and his witch hunt! 🙁

But early on, a courageous woman Republican senator, Margaret Chase Smith, spoke up against McCarthy when no one else was willing to do so!

Smith was the first long serving woman in the US Senate, ultimately serving four terms from 1949-1973 for the state of Maine! She was truly a “profile in courage”, the title of a Pulitzer Prize winning book by Senator John F. Kennedy a few years later, although Kennedy was unwilling to speak out against McCarthy, particularly because his own father was supporting and financing the Wisconsin Senator!

The kind of courage Smith displayed, showing she had principles and was willing to risk her career to speak out against McCarthy’s tirades, needs desperately now to be copied by several Republican Senators, who are decent, mainstream Republicans, and who in their heart and mind, cannot be imagined to be supportive of the Tea Party Movement trying to usurp power and take over the Republican Party! 🙁

I am referring to Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Graham has, actually, been courageous to express doubts and criticism about the Tea Party Movement, but the others have remained silent. It could be because Snowe and Lugar face reelection contests in 2012, while Collins and Graham face it in 2014.

Graham has set the standard and needs to convince Collins, Snowe and Lugar to condemn what is going on, even if the result is a challenge to their seats when reelection time comes!

Sixty years later, we need some reputable GOP Senators to uphold the honored tradition of the party at a time when the party is in deep trouble and about to commit potential suicide!

The Tea Party Threat In Congress! :(

The Tea Party Movement is within striking distance of gaining up to 33 seats in the House of Representatives, and 8 seats in the Senate, if Democrats, progressives, and independents fail to come out and vote 18 days from now! 🙁

The NY Times has come to that conclusion today, and it has been made clear that if the Tea Party Movement accomplishes that kind of gain of seats in Congress, then the following will be promoted by them! 🙁

1, Privatizing of Social Security.
2. Privatizing of Medicare.
3. Repeal of the Health Care legislation and Minimum Wage Laws.
4. Ending of Unemployment Compensation.
5. Ending of Food Stamps.
6. Ending of Public Education.
7. Repeal of the 17th Amendment–Direct Election of Senators.
8. Repeal of parts of the 14th Amendment having to do with citizenship at birth in the country.
9. Repeal of the 16th Amendment–Federal Income Tax.
10. Repeal of the Estate Tax.
11. Eliminating the Internal Revenue Service.
12. Prevention of any legislation on the environment.
13. Prevention of any financial regulatory legislation.
14. Promotion of the Arizona illegal immigration law elsewhere.
15. Wiping out all federal cabinet agencies except State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice.
16. Promotion of a balanced budget amendment.
17. Following the “original” intent of the Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
18. Investigation of every action of the Obama Administration, and impeaching him as a foreign born citizen from Kenya.

It is more obvious than ever that this Tea Party Movement is extremist, radical, and right wing, and they not only threaten the whole basis of modern America, but also the whole political party system–not just the Democrats, but also the Republican party which is dangerously flirting with these wingnuts! 🙁