Month: August 2013

The Supreme Court Has Set America Back On Basic Fairness And Justice!

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The Supreme Court of the United States is a much revered body, but sadly, in recent years, under Chief Justice John Roberts, the concept of America as a nation based on fairness and justice has suffered setbacks!

There is much evidence of this, but two key developments demonstrate how much the Supreme Court has set back progress!

The Citizens United Case of 2010 has allowed the rise of tremendous corporate spending and that by religious and social conservatives, leading to the rise and influence of the Tea Party Movement, and allowing the creation of stalemated, gridlock government under President Barack Obama, with the first time ever situation of a Republican House of Representatives and a Democratic Senate, with the GOP controlling the purse strings of government, and blocking all attempts to create jobs or promote legislation which advances the American nation. Instead, our government is being influenced by anarchists, couched in libertarianism, with the Koch Brothers and other wealthy corporate interests having undue influence on the deterioration of the rights of women, minorities, gays, and labor, along with attacks on any government regulation of the environment!

And the decision in June of this year, negating part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has now allowed many Republican state governments to pass legislation, taking away the basic right of voting on the false concept that voter fraud has been present and widespread, a total lie!

So the rights of minorities, the elderly, poor people, and college students are being curbed, and that is why the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder is bringing laws suits under the curbed Voting Rights Act, trying to reverse the discriminatory legislation on voting in many Southern states, Midwest States, and Great Plains States, all designed to fix the results so that likely Democratic voters will be denied the basic tenet of democracy, the right to vote for one’s government leaders!

It took until the early 20th century under Theodore Roosevelt to gain legislation to take power over government away from the corporations of the Gilded Age, and it took until Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s to gain legislation so that all Americans could vote without discrimination!

Now in just three and a half years, the Republican dominated Supreme Court has rejected what TR and LBJ worked so hard to accomplish!

So the battle to overcome the Supreme Court right wing direction is on, and we cannot afford to allow the Court to take away our democracy–a government of, by, and for the people!

Lots Of Work To Do To Advance America Socially: No Time For A Respite!

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America has a lot to be proud of, and we stand out as a beacon for the world community in many ways, BUT there is much troubling evidence of problems arising, rearing their ugly head, and demonstrating how much work is yet necessary to advance America socially!

We live in a nation where the rights of women are being curbed, rather than advanced, including

Rape problems in the military
Rape problems on college campuses
Denial of a woman’s rights to her own body and reproductive decisions
Denial of equal pay at work for women, and equal opportunity for advancement and promotion

In addition, there are troubling problems for minorities, gays, and labor as follows:

Troubling racial profiling of African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, and Muslims in public places, and by police and law enforcement authorities
Endangered conditions for African American males, particularly young males, an endangered species
Discrimination continuing against gay men and lesbians
Active attack on labor rights to organize and bargain collectively

In theory, great strides have been made in the past on the rights and privileges of women, minorities, gays, and labor, but there has been an extreme assault on what supposedly had already been gained by these groups, on the part of right wing forces, represented by the Republican Party, corporations, and social conservatives!

So the battle for women’s rights, minority civil rights, gay rights, and labor rights continues, and there is no time for a respite, as the 2014 midterm Congressional elections and state government elections are just around the corner!

Analyzing the “40s” Presidents As Barack Obama Celebrates His 52nd Birthday!

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President Barack Obama celebrates his 52nd Birthday today, and all good wishes to our Commander in Chief!

Since this is his birthday, it brings to mind the fact that Obama is one of only nine Presidents to be inaugurated in his 40s, with Obama being the fifth youngest to be sworn in. The list of “40s” Presidents is as follows:

Theodore Roosevelt 42 years 322 days
John F. Kennedy 43 years 236 days
Bill Clinton 46 years 154 days
Ulysses S. Grant 46 years 311 days
Barack Obama 47 years 169 days
Grover Cleveland 47 years 351 days
Franklin Pierce 48 years 101 days
James A. Garfield 49 years 105 days
James K. Polk 49 years 122 days

Six of these nine Presidents were Democrats, all but Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, and James A. Garfield, who were Republicans.

All but Theodore Roosevelt became President by election, with TR succeeding William McKinley upon his assassination, so while TR is the youngest President, John F. Kennedy is the youngest elected President, although TR went on to be elected to a full term!

Five of these nine Presidents would be ranked in the top 15 of our Presidents, in the view of most scholars and experts—TR, JFK, Clinton, Obama, and Polk.

Cleveland would make a list of the top half of our Presidents, with Grant and Pierce rated much lower on their performance in the White House, and Garfield hard to rate, since he had such a brief term as President, a true loss to the nation that he died so early in his administration!

Tragedy was a factor in many of these “40s” Presidents, including:

Assassination of Garfield and Kennedy
Alcoholism of Pierce and Grant
Short retirement of Polk–103 days
Short life span of Kennedy, Garfield, Polk, TR, Grant, Pierce
Scandals under Grant and Clinton

So becoming President in one’s 40s is a mixed blessing, and one can simply ask Bill Clinton and Barack Obama how they feel about the torment and vicious attacks they have both faced, but how they have managed to overcome their critics and have outstanding records overall in the Oval Office!

The Republican Party Claims To Be “Pro Life”, But The Truth Is Otherwise!

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The Republican Party claims to be “Pro Life”, but is far from being so, when one investigates the reality, instead of the rhetoric!

Republicans have, by their policies and attitudes, done more to kill the unborn than anything that Democrats have done!

The widespread availability of guns and resulting gun violence kills many pregnant women and their fetuses. But in addition to that, new born babies, toddlers, school children, and junior and senior high school children are killed by guns, and not only by homicide, but via suicide and accidental deaths as well!

War has also caused mass death of pregnant woman, fetuses, new borns and children, just not in America, but caused by American military policies. But this does not upset “Pro Life” advocates!

Lack of adequate health care to mothers and expectant mothers undermines fetuses and newborns, but Republicans do not wish to adequately fund and provide health care to poor women, which means the lives of these women, and their fetuses and children do not matter, despite assertions to the contrary!

Domestic violence against women, both pregnant and those already mothers, and against children, is widespread, but yet Republicans voted against renewal of the Violence Against Women Act!

The reality of toxins in the air, water, and food , and lack of concern for the government to protect against this by having environmental protection laws, is another way that the Republican Party shows lack of concern for life!

Lack of support of nutrition programs, and desire to cut Food Stamps, is another example of lack of concern by Republicans of the health of children and their mothers, and their fetuses and new born children!

Also, by opposing equal pay for women, and being against food and housing assistance for poor families, it leads to an undermining of women and their pregnancies, and also, their already born children. This all leads to still born children, miscarriages, and premature infant death! Poor women have greater stress, and fewer opportunities for prenatal health care and time for rest during a pregnancy because of need to work!

So the GOP spreads propaganda, but will not take action to help women, their fetuses, and their newborn and older children, and this reality is reprehensible!

Short Term Retirements Of Six Presidents, And How History Might Have Changed Had They Still Been In Office!

Ronald 2 Comments

Much more attention is paid to longevity of retirement of America’s Presidents, or those who died in office, than those who died within less than a term after leaving the Presidency.

So it is generally well known that some Presidents have had long retirements, including Jimmy Carter (who keeps on adding to his record of retirement, presently 32 years, seven months and two weeks as of today), Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, and John Adams.

And eight Presidents died in office (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy).

But it is also a fact that five Presidents who retired, died within the next Presidential term, and one died just two days after that next Presidential term ended, so we could have had at least five more Presidents die in office, and likely, due to the stress of the job, a sixth one, as well!

So who are these Presidents who would have died in office had they served another term?

James K. Polk, who died just 103 days after leaving the White House.
Chester Alan Arthur, who died 624 days after leaving the White House.
George Washington, who died 1015 days after leaving the Presidency (The White House was not yet built).
Woodrow Wilson, who died 1066 days after leaving the Presidency.
Calvin Coolidge, who died 1403 days after leaving the Presidency.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who died 1463 days after leaving the Presidency (two days after the next term of office ended).

Try to imagine Washington dying in office, our first President, and a Vice President having to challenge, earlier than John Tyler had to do in 1841, the issue of whether the Vice President could have all the Presidential authority by succeeding to the office, instead of being elected! Also, the reality that Washington would have set a precedent for a third term, which might have affected the views and attitudes of future Presidents on a third term!

Imagine James K. Polk dying in the midst of the controversy over the territories gained in the Mexican War, and how that might have affected the debates which led to the Compromise of 1850!

Imagine Chester Alan Arthur, having succeeded the assassinated James A. Garfield in office, being the second successive President who died in office!

Imagine Woodrow Wilson dying in office, after the American people had decided to elect him to an unprecedented third term, and how it might have affected the political realities of what became the conservative 1920s!

Imagine Calvin Coolidge having to deal with the Great Depression, as compared to Herbert Hoover, and the reality that he would have died just about two months before the end of his term, with his Vice President likely only serving those two months!

Imagine Lyndon B. Johnson in declining health in his extra term, and maybe dying earlier than two days after the end of that term, and his Vice President likely serving only a very short time in the Presidency, had Johnson died from the stresses of that extra term in office!

This is all theory, of course, what is known as “What If”, but it is food for thought regarding the short retirement of six of our Presidents!

Having stated all of the above, the odds are that Polk would not have been reelected due to the controversy over the Mexican War; that Arthur was denied the nomination in 1884, due to the civil service reform bill he signed into law (The Pendleton Act); that Wilson was still recovering from a stroke in 1920, and would unlikely have been reelected, had he been the nominee of his party; and that Johnson would have had trouble being reelected, due to the Vietnam War. Only Washington and Coolidge probably would have had another term, had they sought it, but even there, Washington might have had opposition to a third term on the basis that it would be creating an image of a monarchy for him to have more than two terms in office. So only Coolidge would have been likely to have had smooth sailing for another term in the White House!

90 Years Ago Today, The First Conservative President Of The 20th Century, Calvin Coolidge, Became President!

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On August 2, 1923, the short, tragic, scandal ridden Presidency of Warren G. Harding came to an end with the death of Harding in San Francisco, and Calvin Coolidge, his Vice President, became the sixth Vice President to succeed to the Presidency, due to the death of the incumbent.

Coolidge went on to an easy victory over John W. Davis and Robert La Follette, Sr. in the Presidential Election of 1924, and then chose not to run in 1928, therefore avoiding the oncoming Great Depression faced by his successor, Herbert Hoover.

The five and a half years of Coolidge’s Presidency, the first conservative President of the 20th century (with Ronald Reagan being the second one), has been judged by most scholars as mediocre at best, including scholars Donald McCoy, Robert Sobel, Robert Ferrell, and David Greenberg.

But just this year, Amity Shlaes has published a massive biography of Coolidge, attempting to redeem him as a reform oriented President, who has been overlooked and misjudged by historians.

What seems clear for sure is that Coolidge was a different President in his first year, much more activist and outgoing, than in his full term, and it seems as if the death of his son Calvin, Jr, of a blood infection from a leg blister while playing tennis, a truly tragic event, created a sense of depression and sadness in Coolidge, which he never really overcame, and within four years of his leaving the Presidency, he died at the young age of 60, probably of a broken heart.

Coolidge certainly deserves more historical analysis, but to make him out to be a reform oriented President seems a bit of a stretch, but the old quest for further interpretation of any President, his life, and his impact on the nation will always continue, and might be spurred further by Shlaes’s book and the 90th anniversary of Coolidge becoming President!

The Growing Greatness Of Franklin D. Roosevelt, As His Renovated Presidential Library Enters Its Second Month!

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This author has spent his career, 41 years in college teaching, more intimate with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal and World War II policies than with any other historical figure.

Exactly 43 years ago, this author spent time doing research at the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, just outside Poughkeepsie, for his doctoral dissertation, which was completed in 1975, and published in 1981 by The Johns Hopkins University Press under the title: TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM: THE WESTERN REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THE NEW DEAL.

This coming fall term, the author will again teach a course on FDR, THE NEW DEAL, AND WORLD WAR II, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

This author has, therefore, spent his life dedicated to study of FDR, and he has always taught that FDR was the second greatest President to Abraham Lincoln!

This day of this posting, the author is with his younger son at the FDR Library and Museum for the first time in 43 years, and exactly one month after its first renovation since its opening in 1941!

The thrill, the excitement, of this return visit, now as a tourist, not a scholar, is overwhelming, and makes me ever more appreciate the greatness of this man, who did more to change America in domestic and foreign policy than ANY President has ever done, including Abraham Lincoln!

Sure, FDR had his faults and shortcomings, as all Presidents, and really all of us, have, but still he is the most transformational President in American history,and richly deserves constant study and interpretation, which I have, and will continue to do, throughout my life of teaching, scholarship, and blogging!

Eight States In The South Central US Lead Fight Against Abortion, Defying The Rest Of The Nation!

Ronald 4 Comments

A new Pew Research study demonstrates that the growing fight against abortion rights, guaranteed by Roe V. Wade forty years ago, but under constant attack in many Republican governed states and by evangelical right wing Christianity, is centered heavily in EIGHT South Central states heavily dominated by the Republican Party!

These states are Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, where 52 percent in the poll wish to ban all abortions, except for the life of the mother, even making it illegal much earlier in the pregnancy, often before a woman is certain that she is pregnant in the first place!

The New England states are the highest percentage for abortion rights, at 75 percent; followed by 65 percent in the Pacific Coast states; 61 percent in the Mid Atlantic states; 59 percent in the Mountain West states; 50 percent in the Great Lakes states and in the South Atlantic states; and an even divide of 47-47 in the Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota. Only 40 percent support abortion rights in the South Central states, the only area to be negative!

The divide on abortion on support down to opposition used to be an 18 point gap, but now it is a whopping 35 points!

Once again, it is the GOP dominated parts of the nation, particularly the South and the Great Plains, which is, despite its small population overall, attempting to dominate and make social policy for the more educated, enlightened sections of the nation!

The question is why this is allowed to be so, as the other areas of the country are so far ahead socially, economically, educationally, and are in the 21st century, while in many ways, the GOP dominated states are living in the 19th century!