The battle for progressive ideas and goals is a never ending one, and the right wing enemies of progressivism are numerous.
Among them are the following:
Fox News Channel–Roger Ailes
Koch Industries–Charles and David Koch
Freedom Works–Dick Armey
Tony Perkins–Family Research Council
Pat Robertson–Christian Coalition
Edwin Feulner, Jr.–The Heritage Foundation
Tom Donohue–US Chamber of Commerce
Rupert Murdoch–Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Fox News
Grover Norquist–Americans For Tax Reform
Phyllis Schlafly–The Eagle Forum
David Barton–so called, self appointed expert on American History
There are other groups and individuals as well as these, but the above are doing everything they can to fight progressivism, and take away the hard earned reforms of the New Deal, Great Society, the Warren Court, and Presidents of both political parties who have promoted political, social, and economic reform!
THE FOX NEWS PLEDGE:
We promise to tell the truth….
Some of the truth….
And plus some crap we make up…
Because that’s what our sponsors have told us to do!
As a a former Soviet citizen I find interesting how many communist are in America that in name of progress consider people who love freedom enemies. So sad.
Haha. That’s pretty good Engineer! 🙂
LOL Good one Engineer!
Engineer, you have made my day with the above LOL as I toured today the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, the last Republican President I could really say I liked, even if I did not always agree with him on every issue. The sad thing is that the GOP of 2013 would repudiate him in a heartbeat, as the right wing tried to do in 1976, and in a sense, succeeded!
Elena, you are confusing communism and progressivism, which are totally different. You need an education in American democracy, as you show a poor knowledge of American history. i guess you are trying to say that Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ and innumerable Senators, Governors, and others of both political parties are Communists? You sound like Joseph McCarthy, Allen West, Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Ted Cruz and other true demagogues who do not have a clue as to what progressivism or liberalism is all about!
Alexander Pope
An Essay On Criticism
“A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.”
Lesson, many need to dig deeper in subjects before they think they are well informed. This is the short comings of many right wing reactionaries. Simply repeating what they hear on Blow Hard Radio or Fox’s Propaganda Entertainment Show trying to pass as news.
Hello Professor,
I did this posting a while back and thought I would pass it on as it does apply to the topic at hand.
In the mid to late 1960’s the pro-war conservatives were often heard making the statement, “My country, right or wrong,†as if stating this was the only reason anyone would need to take their viewpoint and support for the United States’ involvement in the Viet Nam War.
In reality, and I am sure those who were making the statement had no clue, that this is just a segment of a quote made by Carl Schurz. The total quote is, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” In retrospect, this full quote would have been more appropriate to those who opposed the Viet Nam War. As history has proven that the attack of the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin as the reason for going into Viet Nam, was a fabrication; much like the Bush Administration’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction†that were not found in Iraq. Many of us have noted, there are people in this country who still believe the foolishness that Saddam Hussein plotted and attacked the Trade Towers in New York because that is what Conservative Talk Radio has lead them to believe. To reiterate the true lesson from Carl Schurz’s quote, “and if wrong, to be set right,†those who work to put this country back on the correct moral compass after being taken off course by those who have intentionally mislead the country; are the true American Patriots.
Carl Schurz was a German revolutionary who became a Union Army General in the American Civil War. After the Civil War, he went on to become an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and noted orator, and in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.
During his later years as a Teddy Roosevelt era Republican, Schurz was perhaps the most prominent independent in American politics, noted for his high principles, his avoidance of political partisanship, and his moral conscience. Much like Teddy Roosevelt, Carl Schurz fell out of favor with the more conservative aspect of the Republican Party at this time for these principles he believed in.
I will close this posting with another quote from Carl Schurz that all should take note: “Ideals are like the stars. We will never reach them, but like the mariners on the sea, we chart our course by them.”
Wow, Engineer, it is fascinating that you brought up Carl Schurz!
I am a bit of a specialist on Carl Schurz, who I did two graduate research projects on as seminar papers, and later did my masters thesis on Carl Schurz and the Anti Imperialist Movement: A Study In American Dissent, at Queens College of the City University of New York in 1969. I did my first extended historical research on Schurz at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC in the spring of 1969, and fell in love with historical research in manuscript collections.
My interest in Schurz led to my interest in Progressive Republicans and the New Deal, as both them and he were rebels, mavericks, independents of principle, so I did my doctoral dissertation under the famous historian, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, at the City University of NY Graduate School, gaining my doctorate in 1975, and publishing a revised draft of my dissertation with Johns Hopkins University Press in 1981, entitled TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM: THE WESTERN REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THE NEW DEAL.
My whole life has been dedicated to political, social and economic reformers, and it motivated me to create this blog five years ago, as this is my passion! And it all goes back to my original fascination with Carl Schurz! Thanks so much for helping me to recall and speak, enthusiastically as always, about the most famous German immigrant to America, except for Henry Kissinger!
I am so sorry if you misunderstand me. I am historian from Tomsk State University, Faculty of History and a Doctorate in Political Science especializing in American Political System from Saint Petersburg State University Faculty of Political Science. I studied and teach about our Soviet infiltration of the American political system and indoctrination in University campuses that happen during the process of destabilization in America. The Mitrokhin study was very helpful for our studies.
Ok, Elena, I apologize for thinking you had no background in history, but I still will contend that your way of looking at progressivism and liberalism in America is off base, as we are not people who believe in communism, and I would be the first to condemn such a direction, and it is not so for our major Presidents and Senators and Governors who are on the so called Left.
On the other hand, there is a totalitarian bent on the Right, as I have indicated above, and these people are not for democracy, except for an elite at the top who wish to dictate to everyone else, and they have no issue with the concentration of wealth that is greater now than in any nation in the Western world, really much closer to Fascism, but with the same totalitarian bent of the practice of Communism as in the old Soviet Union, China, Cuba.
And while there may be a few college professors who push what you call “indoctrination”, it is very few, and I was certainly not of that bent, and never have been!
I am sorry if it is dificult for me to be clear. I not refer to any President or politician particularly. I refer to post I read here that very similar to marxist inspired liberation theory we have expanded in third world for purposes of destabilization. But I can also comment on political personalities that were very collaborative with the Soviet Union. But that was not my intention because I know it very conflictive matter. And that is understandable.
Well, Elena, there is NO MARXIST INSPIRED LIBERATION THEORY coming from me directly, and I resent even being thought to be in that camp. And those who support me on here have absolutely no such connection, so it sounds to me as if you are a plant by the Right Wing to attack anyone who dares to challenge the concentration of wealth and power in an elite of the top two percent, while the middle class and poor suffer.
In other words, what you say has ABSOLUTELY no credibility at all! And I am, and always have been, for the record, opposed to left or right wing dictators all over the world, including in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. I am for democracy and freedom, not autocracy and dictatorship of any kind!
I am so sorry. You are upset at me and it is understandable. Let me explain, I am accustomed to analyze objectively what I read and I sincerely find dificulty in not observing similarities with other socialistic materials and writing used for the destabilization inside other countries in the past.
I second what the Professor says. There’s nothing Marxist or Communist here.
Ð’Ñ‹ должны думать вÑе мы очень глупо Елена (Хуан)
Why Hello Elena,
How is Boris Badenov & Natasha these days?
Elena, the point I am trying to make is that studying third world nations is one thing, but studying the United States and our history is something very different! And we are nowhere near Communism in any form!
Maggie, I did not know you knew Russian. Could you translate what you said to Elena?
Oh but I study and investigated our ideological penetration in America not third country only. It is understandable that you not consider socialist. I only analyze what I see written and complaint are same that we in Soviet Union propoganded about America. I have not doubt you are not socialist.But I also read you attacked political opponent who think not like you,we in Russia who want freedom find it interesting that left (not socialist?) In America attack people that believe freedom is most important.
You seem not to understand, Elena, that the Right is constantly on the attack, and is not really for freedom except for the wealthy and powerful and the white establishment. Freedom does not mean the right to exploit others and victimize others and only have greed and selfishness as a motive! Those who disagree have a responsibility to speak up!
I am so sorry you will be upset with me. You argue same as socialist back in Russia, freedom for wealthy powerful . Is so similar. I see other people here are agressive to me so I think I stop. I not need agression from America left. Sufficient agression from socialist in Russia I suffered.
I will not comment any further on this matter you have brought up. Our conversation is going nowhere, so I will not further it by reply after this response!
@Maggie
I’m curious too. What did you say to Elena?
Maggie, vi stavite sebya v glupoe polojenie
Now I’m curious what Elena just said to Maggie.
I do not appreciate this back and forth in Russian, and if it continues, I will block anyone using it, as it is purely rude to do so! We speak English on this blog, and only English, is that clear? It is making a mockery out of this blog, and I will not tolerate it! And I have already made clear that there is no point in further discussion on here, Elena!
I don’t believe “Elena” is who she says she is. I believe she is one of our trolls. I asked if she or Juan thought we are all stupid? I thought it would be interesting to see how either one answers
She answered pretty much exactly how Juan would answer with a little character assassination.
I apologize to You Professor and will not pull any more tricks. If you wish to play games with the trolls, so be it.
I value your blog and will do nothing to violate your expectations ever again.
Maggie, I perfectly understand what you are saying, and I have already said I will NOT answer Elena anymore, as nothing can be gained by doing so! Thanks for the clarification of the Russian words!
@Maggie
I’m in doubt about Elena as well.
Elena, methinks is Don Juan playing double agent.
Paul, you always bring some humor to any situation! LOL
Same thought just occurred to me too Paul. All these trolls coming out of the woodwork lately may be Guano with multiple aliases.