Again, with the Oklahoma and Boston Marathon tragedies, as so many others, it is PUBLIC servants–teachers, nurses, paramedics, police officers, firefighters–who are the true heroes, doing beyond the call of duty to rescue and save lives!
But yet, these public servants are constantly pilloried and condemned, if they demand a living wage and decent benefits, as appreciation for their services, while people in the world of business make outrageous salaries and perks on Wall Street, and think that they deserve what they get, despite having messed up the economy, causing the Great Recession of 2008, as they have in every recession since the Great Depression!
We are told to worship Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase, and other bank CEO’s who, by all justification, should be in prison for their actions!
We allow the Koch Brothers and the Walmart heirs to run rampant without any consideration of how they exploit their work force, and these are just examples, not the only ones.
We have Apple and Walmart and Target and numerous other companies which exploit foreign workers, and do not give a damn about safety or a decent living wage for these poor women and men who died in the disaster recently in Bangladesh!
It is time to hold these corporate leaders and companies accountable, and stop complaining about public servants who deserve respect and dignity and better pay for their sacrifices and dedication to the people they serve!
Professor,
It should be well noted that their wages originate from our taxes…..our duty towards a civilized society….
Demonizing the successful, a progressive pass time.
Yet another great post Professor!
I’m sure you’ll like this Ron. So many truths in a couple of songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGHUZ-8DWw&feature=player_embedded
Juan,
You keep up with the insults and the Professor will definitely ban you.
Leia: What are you talking about?? Where did I insult Ron? Are you mad?????
Are you implying that posting Pro-Israeli videos is an insult to Ron??????
PLEASE let’s all be civil on here, as I do NOT want readers to think it is a waste of time to read this blog! Thanks!
And Dave, I guess public servants are NOT successful, because they do not make millions like those on Wall Street, heh? 🙁
Juan,
You’re implying that he’s anti-Israel.
I am totally pro Israel, but that does not mean I have to agree with the Israeli government on every issue at hand, and I am not a supporter of Netanyahu, although there is no debate on his charisma and brilliance!
Leia: I give up, I don’t understand you, I just don’t speak liberal. When did I ever say Ron was anti-Israel? And Ron,I don’t think the videos have anything to do with any specific Israeli government, they are mainly about the bias reaction of the world against Israel. Plus the songs I thought were cool. That’s all.
And I thank you for them, Juan! 🙂
Juan,
It’s because of this comment that you made is why I get the hint that you are implying that the Professor is anti-Israel:
” I would never be a democrat, as I said before , it would be like being a member of a Nazi party that all of sudden was in favor of affirmative action for Jews.”
You see, Juan, calling Democrats/liberals/progressives Nazis is an insult.
I very much agree with what Engineer said about you, Juan. You think you’re an expert on stuff but you’re really not.
Professor,
It’s like this:
In one conversation, Juan equates Democrats to Nazis. He obviously still had that on the brain, so he comes into this conversation and posts some pro-Israel songs. Putting two and two together and the message I see is that he’s saying that Democrats/liberals/progressives throw Israel under the bus. Which, of course, they do not do.
You are correct, Princess Leia, that Juan makes judgments based on lack of facts, and loves to generalize on liberals/progressives as demons, when it is liberals/progressives which have brought about ALL political, social and economic reforms since the Progressive Era to now, which have made America a better society and nation!
Leia , Let’s see if I can explain this step by step so you can understand.
#1. As far as I know the Democratic Party was not particularly anti-Semitic.
#2. The Democratic Party was since its founding (even when led by Progressives such as Woodrow Wilson and FDR) up until the late 60’s (though in the 50’s and 60’s it was divided on the issue of race) a party that first defended slavery and then segregation, the KKK , racial discrimination , was anti-minority, anti-immigrant and then promoted Jim Crow laws. Today the Democratic Party is none of that of course, quite the contrary, the Democratic Party claims on its website to be the Party that “ALWAYS” stood up for civil rights and minorities, even accusing Republicans, (who have never ever passed , promoted or approved of a single racial discrimination law throughout its history and I dare anyone to show me any evidence to the contrary), to be the racist party. But, if you ask young people today I bet some would believe that the Democrats were in the north and Republicans in the South, and that even Lincoln was a Democrat. But I as a minority, even though today the Democratic Party promotes, and defends affirmative action, unrestricted illegal immigration and other policies that seduce minorities, and does so very effectively, do not buy the Democratic propaganda nor do I forget its past.
#3 Now the Nazi Party, was primarily anti-Semitic and ended up being utterly destroyed after WWII. And today even though there still are Nazi’s and Nazi affiliated Parties in Austria, Hungary and other European countries, they still are anti-Semitic and racist. Now imagine, and this is just an imaginary hypothetical game I repeat, if during the 60’s they had regenerated themselves and gone on a crusade as defenders the rights of the Jews and other minorities. That for the last 45 years they supported every affirmative action plan for minorities, especially Jews. What would you think of any person of Jewish faith that not only voted for but defended this newly reformed pro-minority, pro-Jewish National Socialist Party? Of course the new generations would not be taught about the past of this new Nazi Party, and young people would believe that this new Nazi Party always defended the Jews and minorities. With respect to the Holocaust the young generations would be taught that the Party was divided with respect to the anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws and the Jewish issue. That the anti-Jewish and racist wing of the Party was defeated during the war. But that this new “progressive” National Socialist Party always promoted social justice, and they would point out to all the social legislation such as healthcare for all, and other social welfare laws sanctioned under the Third Reich, in other words they would point to the Welfare State created under the Third Reich (this actually is true), and never mind the Nuremberg laws and Auschwitz. And they would point out that the Party was pro-minority for almost half a century. Can you imagine any Jewish person voting for such an imaginary new Nazi Party? And what would you think of that person? I personally think they would be nuts, mad, crazy and brainwashed among other things. Not to mention that such person would be insulting his ancestors that were persecuted in the past by the party.
#4 And this is exactly how I feel about African-Americans and other minorities, my fellow Hispanics among them, who today blindly vote for the Democratic Party because of their racial policy exclusively, because Democrats favor “minorities”. Now I am not talking about those that vote for the Democratic Party because they agree with Big Government, I am talking about those minorities who vote Democratic mainly because they believe the Democratic Party has always been and is the party of the minorities. Their ancestors suffered tremendously under policies promoted by the Democratic Party, yet today the majority of them either don’t know about it or just do not care and drink the cool-aid they are offered daily, in the media and education system about the Democratic Party’s history.
#5 The Democratic Party today, of course, is not racist and there are no major racist parties in US politics today (even though the Democratic Party today needs to create one so people won’t look at their past). But yesterday there was a racist party and it was the Democratic Party. That is a historical fact. Even when the Party was taken over by the Progressive movement with Wilson, the Party was still and even more racist and anti-black.
So you see, for me, any person who is a minority, who believes that the Democratic Party “ALWAYS” defended minorities, and votes for the Democratic Party, would be the equivalent of a Jewish person voting for this new imaginary National Socialist Party. Some would argue that the Democratic Party did not commit a Holocaust, and that is true. But if the blacks that were brought into slavery and held as slaves were alive today, I’m not sure they would agree. I’m not sure the blacks that were constantly lynched in the Democratic controlled south would agree either. During the Nazi regime, and according to the Nuremberg laws, the Jews had to wear a Star of David, sown onto their clothes, so they could be identified and discriminated against (later they would be rounded up and exterminated in concentration camps). Blacks in the Democratic controlled South did not need to have anything sown on their clothes to be recognized as blacks, their “Star of David” was in their skin. The same thing happened to other minorities, among them my fellow Hispanics.
Finally, to insult the Democratic Party it is not necessary to compare it to the Nazi Party, and I repeat , I am not comparing it to the Nazi Party, I’m just using it as an imaginary hypothetical. Suffice it to say that the Democratic Party’s own historical past with regards to race is an insult in itself.
Juan, you CONVENIENTLY forget that in the NORTH, Jews and Catholic immigrant groups became Democrats as soon as they were able to vote because they KNEW that the Republican Party in the Gilded Age and early 20th century and beyond was the party of WASPS, and undermined immigrant advancement and citizenship, as NOW! The GOP has ALWAYS been against NON PROTESTANT minorities, and did NOTHING for African Americans beyond Reconstruction, and failed to intervene against JIM CROW southern governments which they could have done, as they did not GIVE A DAMN about what happened to Southern Blacks, anymore than what happened to Jews and Catholic immigrants groups! Plus, as the supporter of unbridled industrial capitalism, the GOP has ALWAYS been against the working man and woman, and labor unions!
Your history is totally distorted, and false, and you seem, obviously, to have never studied US History in detail, as your statements are total propaganda, as you make SOUTHERN Democrats to be all Democrats, while failing to see that SOUTHERN Republicans today are the descendants in their racial views of the former Southern Democrats!
The Republican Party of Lincoln and TR is just a memory, which if only it had continued, I would have been a Republican today, but what is occurring now is a total disgrace and embarrassment to the Republican party of more than a century ago!
Ron: I believe I mentioned there was a split in the Democratic Party regarding race in the middle of the 20th Century. I believe I stated that the Democratic Party was not anti-Semitic. I believe I said that I was referring specifically to the Democratic Party’s history on race and minorities. It’s amazing to hear a Democrat complain about Republicans not doing anything beyond reconstruction while his own Party under Wilson segregated Federal Buildings and jobs after 50 years of integration under largely Republican administrations. There were 20 Democratic Party platforms that either supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject from 1868 through 1948. That’s the entire party not just the Southern Democrats. The Democrats’ 1904 platform, devoted a section to “Sectional and Racial Agitation,†and claimed that the GOP’s protests against segregation and the denial of voting rights to blacks sought to “revive the dead and hateful race and sectional animosities in any part of our common country,†which in turn “means confusion, distraction of business, and the reopening of wounds now happily healed.†The four Democratic platforms, 1908-20, are silent on blacks, segregation, lynching and voting rights as racial problems in the country mount. By contrast the GOP platforms of those years specifically addressed the “Rights of the Negro†(1908), oppose lynching (in 1912, 1920, 1924, 1928) and, as the New Deal kicks in, spoke out about the dangers of making blacks “wards of the state.†In the Democratic Convention of 1924, known to history as the “Klanbake.†which was held in Madison Square Garden. Hundreds of delegates were members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Klan was so powerful that a plank condemning Klan violence was defeated outright. To celebrate, the Klan staged a rally with 10,000 hooded Klansmen in a field in New Jersey directly across the Hudson from the site of the convention. Attended by hundreds of cheering convention delegates, the rally featured burning crosses and calls for violence against African-Americans and Catholics.
Three-fourths of the opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in the U.S. House came from Democrats, and 80% of the “nay†vote in the Senate came from Democrats.The opposition included future Democratic Senate leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia (a former Klan member) and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr., father of Vice President Al Gore.
It was the Democrats who kept Grand Kleagle Byrd in the party.
It was Democrats who called General Colin Powell a “house nigger”.
It was Democrats who called Condi Rice – who grew up with and knew the little girls in Birmingham who were blown up, by Democrats – an “Aunt Jemima” and ran cartoons of her with fat lips doing Hattie McDaniel riffs.
It was Democrats, or at least Obama supporters, who called Stacy Dash a hundred different racist names for daring to leave the Democratic Party (or should I say plantation).
It’s the Democrats who hold annual dinners honoring Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves and who orchestrated the Removal, the Trail of Tears, the near genocide of several of the Indian Nations.
You say Republicans abandoned blacks after reconstruction. Lets see. (Maggie you can check this online, have fun searching my copy/paste!)
May 18, 1896
Republican Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting from Supreme Court’s notorious Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal†decision, declares: “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizensâ€
May 24, 1900
Republicans vote no in referendum for constitutional convention in Virginia, designed to create a new state constitution disenfranchising African-Americans
January 15, 1901
Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-Americans
February 12, 1909
On 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACP
August 1, 1916
Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, former New York Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, endorses women’s suffrage constitutional amendment; he would become Secretary of State and Chief Justice.
May 21, 1919
Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no
April 18, 1920
Minnesota’s FIRST-in-the-nation anti-lynching law, promoted by African-American Republican Nellie Francis, signed by Republican Gov. Jacob Preus
August 18, 1920
Republican-authored 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, becomes part of Constitution; 26 of the 36 states to ratify had Republican-controlled legislatures
January 26, 1922
House passes bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with filibuster
June 2, 1924
Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs bill passed by Republican Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans
October 3, 1924
Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at 1924 Democratic National Convention
December 8, 1924
Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis argues in favor of “separate but equalâ€
June 12, 1929
First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country
August 17, 1937
Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmation (as always Democrats hiding inconvenient truths).
June 24, 1940
Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order it.
April 3, 1944
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas Democratic Party’s “whites only†primary election system
February 18, 1946
Appointed by Republican President Calvin Coolidge, federal judge Paul McCormick ends segregation of Mexican-American children in California public schools
July 11, 1952
Republican Party platform condemns “duplicity and insincerity†of Democrats in racial matters
March 12, 1956
Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and pledge to continue segregation
June 5, 1956
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus†law
October 19, 1956
On campaign trail, Vice President Richard Nixon vows: “American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school – public or private – with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination, and prejudice have no place in Americaâ€
November 6, 1956
African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President
September 9, 1957
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act
September 24, 1957
Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools
June 23, 1958
President Dwight Eisenhower meets with Martin Luther King and other African-American leaders to discuss plans to advance civil rights
February 4, 1959
President Eisenhower informs Republican leaders of his plan to introduce 1960 Civil Rights Act, despite staunch opposition from many Democrats
May 6, 1960
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats
July 27, 1960
At Republican National Convention, Vice President and eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon insists on strong civil rights plank in platform
June 9, 1964
Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who still serves in the Senate
June 10, 1964
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.
June 20, 1964
The Chicago Defender, renowned African-American newspaper, praises Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) for leading passage of 1964 Civil Rights Act
March 21, 1965
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson authorizes Martin Luther King’s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, overruling Democrat Governor George Wallace
August 4, 1965
Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose
July 8, 1970
In special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon calls for reversal of policy of forced termination of Native American rights and benefits
February 19, 1976
President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII
September 15, 1981
President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs
June 29, 1982
President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act
August 10, 1988
President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDR
November 21, 1991
President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation
August 20, 1996
Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes law
April 26, 1999
Legislation authored by U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) awarding Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is transmitted to President
January 25, 2001
U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee declares school choice to be “Educational Emancipationâ€
March 19, 2003
Republican U.S. Representatives of Hispanic and Portuguese descent form Congressional Hispanic Conference
May 23, 2003
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduces bill to establish National Museum of African American History and Culture
February 26, 2004
Hispanic Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) condemns racist comments by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL); she had called Asst. Secretary of State Roger Noriega and several Hispanic Congressmen “a bunch of white men…you all look alike to meâ€
So Ron,evidently what you state about the Republican Party abandoning after reconstruction is false. The racism established and promoted by members of the Democratic Party affected and infected the entire nation from 1856 with the Dred Scott decision, to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. But they never offered or issued an apology.
Exactly right Professor!
The point is not that the GOP, all members and all situations, were negative on race, but that the Democrats were burdened by their southern wing for generations, and it took until the 1950s and 1960s to undo themselves of this “cancer”1 Now the GOP is subjected to that “cancer”, which is the major reason why they have become so extremist right wing.
I am not going to do anything other than condemn the Democrats who were locked into the dependency on the South for so long, but once World War II ended, the Northern wing was powerful enough to overcome the South, along with Northern Republicans, who then were moderates, and now the few of them that exist are as right wing as the Southern Republicans!
This is why I greatly admire Carrie Underwood: http://www.mjsbigblog.com/carrie-underwood-donates-1-million-in-tour-proceeds-to-red-cross-disaster-relief-effort.htm
Very generous of Carrie to not just be talking the talk but walking the walk. Most stars just ask others for money but do not give themselves. She is setting a good example for others.