Month: March 2011

The Republican Vice Presidential Nominee In 2012: Marco Rubio, Brian Sandoval, Or Susana Martinez?

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The reality that Hispanics are now one out of every six Americans, and that they will continue to grow as a percentage of the American population over future decades, is ringing an alarm bell among Republicans, who are starting to realize that if they cannot gain at least a substantial percentage of Hispanic voters in 2012, they have no hope to win the Presidential election against Barack Obama.

So three names come forward as likely Vice Presidential possibilities as a result: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, all newly elected statewide.

But since Florida is the fourth largest state in electoral votes (29), and soon to surpass New York and become number three; and with Nevada (6) and New Mexico (5) being among the smallest states in population and electoral votes even with growth, it is very obvious that Marco Rubio, who has not yet hit the age of 40, is the person to watch for Vice President, no matter who the Republicans ultimately nominate for President!

Fundamental Differences Between The Democrats And The Republicans

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In the heat of all the debates on domestic and foreign policy matters, one can often fail to understand the fundamental differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party cares about PEOPLE, the advancement of opportunity and human rights to people of all nationalities and religions. It cares about the working man and woman, advocating the cause of labor rights. It understands the plight of underprivileged women and children, who are the mass of the victims of poverty. It recognizes the importance of education, health care, and decent housing conditions in the daily lives of Americans who just want a fair shake and an equal part in the American Dream. It wishes to promote human rights and a sense of camaraderie with the people of other nations, and the promotion of a world in which nationalism is less important than international understanding and cooperation, and realization that all people have a similar desire to learn to understand each other and promote tolerance and friendship.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, cares about PROPERTY and the protection of material wealth, and the preservation of the advantages and opportunities afforded the wealthy in society. Business freedom and avoidance of regulation in the public interest is their motivation, and they wish to promote the concept that being of European heritage is a sense of superiority over others from other cultures. The acquisition and preservation of wealth matters more than education, health care, and decent housing, and life is one of promoting one’s own self interest. Nationalism and the belief in American superiority, and the lack of concern about how other countries perceive us is dominant, and while those of European ancestry feel they are superior, they wish to reject the concept that European ideas and laws in present times are to be accepted, as the United States has passed the stage of needing to lean on “old Europe”! Unbridled Capitalism and the promotion of fundamentalist Christianity is all that is needed, and any alternative is to be repudiated as “UnAmerican”!

Many Americans are clueless on these differences, and so many vote in an ignorant way, totally unaware of the reality of the differences in philosophy and outlook that creates a chasm between our two major political parties!

The Hispanic Future Of America: Danger For The Republican Party!

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New Census Bureau statistics indicate that the Hispanic population is now 50 million, one out of every six Americans, the largest minority in the United States.

Also, one out of every four children in America is Hispanic, and the largest electoral vote states, as well as smaller ones, are being impacted by the growth of Hispanic population, which bodes ill for the future of the anti immigrant, anti Hispanic Republican Party, which has been sowing hate and narrow mindedness in Arizona, Texas, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina and Georgia among other states, but which is guaranteed to reverberate on them over the next decade and beyond!

As young Hispanics become adults, the effect on politics will be massive, and right now, as it is, 60 percent of Hispanics vote Democratic, an overwhelming lead that makes it likely that Texas, in particular, will move from being a Republican state to the Democrats over time, and if that does occur, then the Republican Party will lose the 38 electoral votes of the Lone Star state, and added to California and New York remaining Democratic in presidential elections, the effect will be to make it impossible for Republicans to win the White House in future years!

So as long as the Republicans continue their assault on illegal immigration in such a vicious manner, they will sow the seeds of becoming a permanent minority in American politics, even though right now some think they are on the ascendancy.

In reality, the Republican Party is in the process of committing political suicide!

The Dangers Of Highly Educated Unemployed People In America!

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The United States is facing a major crisis in unemployment, with millions of young Americans going to college, expecting rewards in the form of job opportunities and career advancement after years of preparation, and instead being forced to take part time work, often outside their fields of preparation, and losing valuable years of career building experience.

After beginning to assert their independence from parents, many are forced to move back home, or live in poverty, with little hope of advancement, which would allow them to plan to marry, have children, and live the “American Dream”!

The danger of frustrations building up in these young college graduates is that it could lead to such disillusionment, that it leads to violence and bloodshed in the streets, not all that different than what happened in Egypt and other Middle East nations in the past two months.

The image of America as the “land of opportunity” is being damaged, and desperate people who see no future could rise in anger, and strike out against the society that promises them hope and opportunity, and then fails to follow through.

We have government leaders now in the states and in the House of Representatives, mostly Republicans, who seem to only care about the rich and the privileged, proving themselves to be uninterested in economic opportunity, but rather only in the perpetuation of what has become, in many respects, a plutocracy, rather than the democracy that is part of the political propaganda that students learn about in political science classes.

Failure to understand that educated unemployed people will only take so much abuse before striking back leads one to fear the future, and a possible return to the turmoil and riots of the 1960s. We could be facing the horrors of a civil war, of the unemployed masses and the discontented educated class against the plutocracy that never is satisfied in its maniacal seeking of fulfilling their greed and materialism!

Obama Health Care Plan Reaches One Year Old: Will It Reach Its Second Birthday?

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President Obama’s Health Care Reform reached one year of age today, and is under assault in many states controlled by Republicans and conservatives, who are hoping to see the Supreme Court ultimately declare it unconstitutional.

Despite the fact that the Health Care Reform helps millions of people in the long run, and many of them already, with its various provisions, all we seem to get is constant criticism and attacks, as if the goal that all Americans should have health care is, somehow, an evil intention.

The nastiness and mean spirit of the critics shows clearly a lack of concern for the welfare of millions of children, poor, sick, and those with chronic medical conditions. Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona can have no compassion or conscience in failing to find a way to assist 96 very sick Arizonans who need all kinds of transplants to avoid ultimate death.

And the anger over requiring citizens to insure themselves against illness is mind boggling, as failure to do so puts the burden on everyone else, really a welfare concept, when people should be responsible for their own health care, to the extent that they all have an insurance policy, as part of the responsibility of being an adult!

The Supreme Court could indeed declare the Health Care Reform unconstitutional, which would create a constitutional crisis on the level of FDR and the Supreme Court in the 1930s when they declared large portions of the New Deal unconstitutional, but soon led to rapid turnover on the Court and the acceptance of the New Deal.

Hopefully, Justice Anthony Kennedy will surprise, as he often does, and make a 5-4 vote on the Health Care Reform sometime next year, before the Presidential election, or else it will be the major domestic issue for 2012!

The Middle East Headaches Of Barack Obama

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Now in its fifth day of intervention in the Libyan Civil War, the Obama Administration faces a whole series of headaches in the Middle East, many more problematical than Moammar Gaddafi!

The biggest problem of all is the Afghanistan War and the instability in next door Pakistan, which could blow up any time and affect the security of next door India, with the growing threat of Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism in the region.

Iran is also a problem that will NOT go away, with the growing dangers presented by the radical theocracy of that nation, and the movement ahead on development of nuclear weapons capability.

Third issue is Iraq, where the last 50,000 troops are supposed to be withdrawn by the end of this year, but Iran is gaining more influence by the week in a country which once fought an eight year conflict against Iran from 1980-1988.

Bahrain, where the US naval fleet is housed, and Yemen, which has an active Al Qaeda cell, both are undergoing revolutionary activities against then established governments, endangering American security interests.

Egypt and Tunisia have to adapt to their revolutions and evolve toward democracy, something they have never experienced before.

The Israeli-Palestinian struggle continues, and new violence has now erupted, leading to new possibilities of widespread bloodshed and turmoil.

Libya is less significant comparatively, but it is a reality that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates and others involved in the execution of foreign policy must be having sleepless, or at the least, restless nights!

The Rise of Women “Hawks” In American Foreign Policy

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With the intervention in the Libyan Civil War, a new trend has emerged: women “hawks”!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice were the members of the President’s cabinet most involved in convincing President Obama to choose to intervene in Libya, while Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Mike Mullen, were more cautious.

This comes after National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush was also a “hawk” and supported intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The fact that women are now becoming frontline “hawks” is certainly a new concept that will bring about much analysis by scholars and journalists, since the role of women was never as significant before as it has now become in the formulation of American foreign policy!

The Energy Crisis After Japan And The BP Oil Spill

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The crisis over future energy supply has ratcheted up as a result of the Japanese nuclear power plant disaster, after the fifth greatest earthquake ever recorded, which also caused a massive tsunami in northern Japan.

This, plus the British Petroleum Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico make it very obvious that the United States is faced with a major problem with no easy solution.

Can we really expect nuclear power plants to be safe enough with the danger of a nuclear accident as at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, and the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986?

Can we really find a solution to nuclear waste, finding an appropriate location in our nation for an extremely dangerous supply of material that no one wishes to have in their state boundaries?

Is Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee correct in saying we should not turn against nuclear power because of Japan, because after all, we don’t turn against airplanes because of a plane crash? Are these two tragedies, a nuclear disaster in an earthquake zone, and a plane crash, equivalent?

The answer to all of the above is obviously NO, and when one realizes that if there was an earthquake in California or New York or many other locations, millions upon millions of people would be in harm’s way, and unable to evacuate out of the danger zone!

Nuclear power cannot be the answer to our energy crisis in the future, and we had better learn from what has happened in Japan, but will we, since the motivation of profit governs everything that politicians consider, including public safety!

Meanwhile, however, it is obvious that the BP Oil Spill demonstrates that we have to be prepared to destroy wildlife, our water supply, our soil, in the name of having oil companies earn obscene profit in the name of their shareholders, instead of considering the danger to the environment and human beings!

The answer is that we must, somehow, utilize wind, water and solar power in the long run, and spend the investment money to make these cleans sources of energy the future!

If we could go into space and the moon within a decade, why can’t we invest in research to get away, over time, from oil, whether from oil drilling off our shores or supplies from other unstable countries; and also move away from nuclear power, before it destroys us completely in an earthquake disaster certain to come, at the least in California and the Pacific Coast, or in the Midwest, or even in the New York metropolitan area, all places where it could indeed occur!

The energy crisis requires strong, innovative leadership to think of the long term future, not just short term profits!

Ironic Coincidence: Iraq War And Libyan Civil War Intervention On Same Day And Timing Within Presidential Terms Of Bush And Obama!

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Now that the United States is engaged in the Libyan Civil War, it comes to mind that the timing of our intervention EXACTLY matches the situation of intervention in Iraq under George W. Bush!

The United States started military intervention in Iraq on March 19, 2003, two years and two months into the Bush Presidency.

The United States began military intervention in Libya on March 19, 2011, two years and two months into the Obama Presidency!

Both wars were against horrible tyrants of long standing–Saddam Hussein since 1979 and Moammar Gaddafi since 1969.

Both tyrants had been engaged in conflict against the US–Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War under George H W Bush, and Moammar Gaddafi in terrorist actions against the West and twice experiencing air attacks under Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1986, with the second time nearly killing Gaddafi, bombing the house next to where he was hiding!

There is, of course, much different between the two interventions, but both began with great optimism as to the brevity of the war effort, and we all know how Iraq is now eight years long and counting of an intervention, and one has to wonder will this nation be involved in Libya eight years from now?

And there is troubling concern over much congressional opposition, both from Democrats and Republicans, plus concern over the financial cost of yet another war intervention, making it THREE at once!

Support For Gay Marriage Grows To Majority

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An ABC-Washington Post Poll indicates that 53 percent of those polled now support gay marriage, five years after only 36 percent supported the concept.

People in their 30s and 40s, Catholics, political moderates and men have increased greatly in their support of gay marriage rights.

At the same time, evangelical white Protestants oppose gay marriage by a 3-1 margin, and Republicans and conservatives are against it by a 2-1 margin, but even those groups have seen some improvement in the numbers that support gay marriage.

It is obvious that the country is acclimating itself to gays marrying, but ironically, it is the unpredictable Supreme Court which will ultimately decide whether the Defense of Marriage Act, stating a marriage is between a man and woman, is to be upheld, or if gay marriage must be accepted by all of the states.

This is an issue which over time will grow in support, however, as young people in broad terms have no problems with gay rights and gay marriage, but the Supreme Court could hold back progress on this major social change.