Day: January 21, 2012

Newt Gingrich Victory In South Carolina Portends Most Ideological Election Since 1964!

The massive Newt Gingrich victory in South Carolina today portends the most ideological election in America since 1964.

Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona overcame the moderate and centrist elements of the GOP in 1964, but led the party to total disaster in the fall against President Lyndon B. Johnson, winning only six states, five in the South and Arizona.

As much as Goldwater was divisive, in comparison to Newt Gingrich, the Arizona Senator seems in retrospect like a charm!

Goldwater was sincere in his beliefs, while Gingrich is a total opportunist, power hungry, and willing to create a “civil war” atmosphere in his mad dash to take power, and it is clear that he is a dangerous man like none we have seen in the past.

Only George Wallace, the former Alabama Governor who ran on a third party line in 1968, was equally dangerous, but fortunately, he was not on a major party line, and could only cause problems for the two major candidates.

Newt Gingrich, ironically censured by the House when he was Speaker of the House fifteen years ago on this date for ethical violations and fined $300,000, now has been resurrected by South Carolina evangelical voters and Tea Party activists.

The future of the nation is at stake in what looks more than ever like a real possibility of Newt Gingrich being the opponent of Barack Obama this November. This requires efforts, unsurpassed in the past, by those who do not wish such a destructive personality to sit in the Oval Office next January 20!

Two Year Anniversary Of Citizens United Supreme Court Case: The Corruption Of American Politics A National Tragedy

Two years ago, the Supreme Court, controlled by a conservative majority of 5-4, made a decision considered among the worst ever in their history.

After a century of regulation of corporate involvement in political campaign fundraising and advertising, the majority, claiming freedom of speech, allowed corporations and labor unions to have totally free access to spend and promote candidates and parties.

On first blush, some might have thought that it was not such a bad decision, as labor unions were permitted to do the same as corporations. On second thought, it became noticeable that labor unions could not compete with corporate money, and the result was the distorted political atmosphere of the midterm 2010 Congressional and state elections, which led to the success of the Tea Party Movement and the right wing direction of many state governments and the US House of Representatives. This has created a stalemate in Congress, and attacks on labor, the elderly, the poor, minorities, and the environment in many state legislatures, and the widespread attempt to limit the right to vote by discriminatory voter registration laws.

We have witnessed the damage done, and the continual enrichment of the top one percent in America, and the Super PACs are in operation, poisoning the political atmosphere for the 2012 election campaigns for President and the Congress, as well as many state governments.

Our democracy is being lost, negating a century of reforms under the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society.

A move is on to attempt a constitutional amendment to overrule the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, but that is not going to be easy, and meanwhile, or maybe for good, we are seeing corporations regain complete control of government at all levels, and bringing us back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

This is a national tragedy of massive proportions!

Romney Tax Cut Plan Benefits Wealthy Three Times As Much As George W. Bush’s Tax Cuts

News has come out that Mitt Romney’s Tax Cut plan would TRIPLE the benefit to the top one percent of the population, which includes Mitt Romney.

George W. Bush’s tax cuts were equivalent to one percent of Gross Domestic Product at the time, while Romney’s tax cuts would be equivalent of 3.4 percent of GDP, and cause massive cuts in domestic social programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Romney himself would gain a 40 percent or greater tax cut, added on to his 15 percent or less tax burden now.

No wonder Romney does not wish us to see how he acquired his $250 million wealth over the years, and refuses up to now to reveal his past tax returns, even though his father, George Romney, was path breaking, in releasing 12 years of tax returns when he ran for President in 1968 as a potential Republican nominee.

So senior citizens and the poor would bear the burden of Romney’s tax cut plan, as he is very willing to enrich the “one percent” at the expense of the rest of us.

How could anyone support Romney against Barack Obama hearing the truth about the Romney tax plan? It is again an example of the tone deafness of many people, who secretly still hate that a guy who is black is our President! There is no rational explanation otherwise, sorry to say, why anyone would vote against his or her own economic interest!