George Wallace

The Robert Kennedy Presidential Race Began 44 Years Ago Today: What His Death Meant

Ronald Leave a comment

On this day 44 years ago, when my generation was young and idealistic, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, who had moved to the left politically, and come out against the war in Vietnam, announced his candidacy for President, and his challenge to the establishment of the Democratic party represented by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and when he dropped out of the race two weeks later, that of Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Being a personal loyalist to Hubert Humphrey, I was not supportive of RFK at the time, but came to realize after his tragic death by assassination on June 6, 1968, that we had lost a politician who was unique, in the sense that he could bridge the gap between rich and poor, unite people of diverse backgrounds, and that he had an idealism and vision rarely found in American history.

As much as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have worked at accomplishing much of what RFK represented, none have been able to accomplish his goals and vision in a full sense, with Obama the closest, but even him often causing disillusionment among liberals and progressives, although not this author and blogger.

Of course, people tend to idealize RFK, because he died, and one has to wonder when and how he would have caused disillusionment among his supporters, when the inevitable inability to keep all his campaign pledges would have become obvious.

One thing seems certain; that RFK would have defeated Richard Nixon in 1968 with Hubert Humphrey coming ever so close, that RFK would have weakened the third party candidacy of George Wallace, and that we could have avoided Watergate, an extended Vietnam War, and the disillusionment which led to the rise of Republican conservatism under Ronald Reagan.

In that sense, RFK’s death was a true turning point in American history, which many people in their older years can look back on as a truly regrettable moment. The question is whether a second term of Barack Obama can see the fulfillment of more of the RFK vision than has been possible in a difficult first term of the 44th President!

Rick Santorum The Promoter of Class Warfare, Not Barack Obama!

Ronald Leave a comment

Republicans have, on a regular basis, accused President Barack Obama of promoting “class warfare”, because he promotes the concept that the wealthy have been very fortunate, with the biggest tax cuts in history during the Bush and early Obama years, and must start to pay their fair share of taxes to help support the national commitments and responsibilities.

But actually, it is Rick Santorum, above all, who is promoting class warfare, by advocating an anti elitist view about the news media, colleges and universities, and liberals, blaming them for reporting what is going on, and promoting investigation of the mess created by the Bush Administration and the Republican Party during the years they controlled the national government, and advocating open inquiry and analysis and thinking, rather than accepting what we are told is the ultimate truth from a man who advocates religion in government, rather than separation of church and state.

Santorum is trying to organize blue collar whites who are not educated beyond high school and have a much higher unemployment rate against white collar workers and college educated people who have a much lower unemployment rate.

Instead of seeing that education is the road to success and the stable middle class, and despite the fact that Santorum himself has three college and university degrees and will certainly hope his own children will get a college education to advance themselves economically over a lifetime, Santorum calls educated people snobs, and Obama is blamed for promoting a better life for the future generation!

This campaign pitch of Santorum is promotion of resentment, anger, and against the role of education in attainment of life’s goals. It is sick, insane, destructive of social mobility for the future of the nation, and Santorum needs to be repudiated in a massive way by his party, but they seem unwilling to take him on, and they are therefore promoting further degradation of the middle and working classes by NOT advocating what Obama says is necessary for success–as much education as any young person can handle, rather than a drive to the bottom!

If the blue collar whites of the Midwest back Rick Santorum, they are guaranteeing their continued decline into poverty and degradation!

Santorum’s pitch is the closest to that of Pat Buchanan in 1992 and George Wallace in 1968, but he is more of a threat to be the standard bearer of a major political party, and this could, therefore, be a calamity in the making!

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

Ronald 4 Comments

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!

Racism Accusation Against Democrats By Cain Pastor Supporter: Is It Valid?

Ronald Leave a comment

A new controversy has developed around a pastor supporting Herman Cain, an African American pastor to boot, that it is the Democratic Party which historically has been racist and segregationist and prejudicial, while the Republican Party is the party of opportunity and liberation of blacks.

How true is this interpretation of the past and the present?

It is literally TRUE that for a long time, the South was solely Democratic, the “Solid South” from the time of Reconstruction through the mid 1960s, including such outrageous figures as Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, Tom Watson of Georgia, Harry Byrd Sr. of Virginia, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Russell Long of Louisiana, Richard Russell of Georgia, George Wallace of Alabama, James Eastland of Mississippi, Jesse Helms of North Carolina and many others, all of whom promoted racism, segregation, prejudice, and in many cases, were members of or endorsed actions of the Ku Klux Klan. This also included the openly racist Presidential campaigns of Strom Thurmond in 1948 and George Wallace in 1968.

However, during this period from Reconstruction through the 1960s, the Republican Party, which had once stood for racial equality, and had promoted the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments during Reconstruction, abandoned blacks to the white Democratic South after 1877, and did not resist the loss of the right to vote for African Americans in the South. When blacks migrated north, and started to vote in substantial numbers, they switched over to the Democratic Party in a massive wave in the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Beginning with President Harry Truman promoting civil rights by executive order in 1948 and calling for civil rights legislation in his term of office, and the activities of Northern liberal Democrats led by Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and later leading to civil rights legislation under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid 1960s, Southern whites migrated in massive numbers to the Republican Party, with the first political move being Senator Strom Thurmond’s switch in 1964, endorsing Barry Goldwater for President.

The Republican Party ever since the New Deal has shown little interest or support of the advancement of civil rights as a party, although individual moderate to liberal Republicans have supported such reforms.

So the statements of this pastor supporting Herman Cain are true in the long run of history, but saw a massive change beginning slowly with the New Deal, but culminating with the Great Society, and nothing has changed that dynamic since the 1960s.

Another Outrage From Arizona State Government: Banning Of Mexican American Studies Program While Retaining Asian American, African American And Native American Studies Programs! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

Arizona is indeed becoming the new Mississippi or Alabama, gaining the horrible reputation both of those states gained in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

The new Attorney General of Arizona, Tom Horne, who used to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, has banned the Mexican American Studies program in the high schools of Tucson, while continuing to allow Asian American, African American, and Native American Studies programs to continue.

This is adding to the image of Arizona, which is now the DEATH PANELS state, cutting $1.2 million from the budget of Medicaid, and therefore preventing 96 transplant patients of all kinds of organs from getting necessary surgery, and two patients already passing away, while it would be easy to find that small amount if Governor Jan Brewer really cared about life! 🙁

This ethnic discrimination is being appealed, and the decision of the attorney general, enforcement of a law he originated as education administrator, should be reversed as also illegal conflict of interest by the man who claims to enforce the law, and then shows totally outrageous prejudice on the level of Bull Connor, Birmingham Police Chief in the 1960s, or Governor George Wallace of Alabama!

A case on this issue may have to be brought to the Supreme Court eventually, as now we have demonstration of a new racism against Mexican Americans, as we had in the past against other groups. This issue, along with the new Arizona law, on checking for illegal status of anyone who looks Hispanic, is in the worst traditions of racism and hatred that we would like to think had already passed into history, but sadly is alive and well! 🙁

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Civil Liberties And Civil Rights: The New George Wallace In The Making?

Ronald Leave a comment

Maricopa Country, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has long been the center of controversy in his approach to civil liberties and civil rights. Now he is pondering running for Governor of Arizona as a strong supporter of the recently enacted state illegal immigration law!

Arpaio has a tough image as a crime fighter in the Phoenix area, but has been accused of discrimination and civil rights abuses, which he brushes off.

His image as America’s toughest sheriff includes a recent raid which led to the arrest of 73 illegal immigrants; housing prisoners in tents, and making them wear pink underwear; and feeding them on less than a dollar a day!

Arpaio has faced charges of abusive practices by the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union without being very upset about it.

Were he to run for Governor, it would further incite the issue of illegal immigration, and it is certain that were he to win the office, the issue would become much more confrontational than even the signing of the recent legislation by present Governor Jan Brewer!

With Arpaio’s approach and attitude of defying the federal government, he would be to Latinos and Hispanics what Governor George Wallace of Alabama was to African Americans and civil rights in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s! 🙁

Glenn Beck: The Most Dangerous Demagogue Since George Wallace!

Ronald Leave a comment

Dana Milbank in the Washington Post yesterday pinpointed the fact that radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck has become the most dangerous demagogue since George Wallace in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Even more than Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly, Beck has become the true promoter of division and anarchy in this country through his rantings and ravings on Fox News Channel and his radio show.

Beck has claimed his belief in “death panels” under the Health Care Reform legislation, an idea first promoted by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. He has claimed the government is organizing FEMA concentration camps for those opposed to Obama’s government. He has stated that President Obama wants to create an equivalent of Hitler’s SS or Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. He claimed Rockefeller Center has secret meanings that are Communist, Socialist, and Progressive in its architecture and sculptures on the walls. He asserted that the government wants to promote forced abortions. This is just a selected list of his crazy assertions!

As the Anti Defamation League stated, Beck is willing to give credence to conspiracy theorists and anti government extremists.

Beck talks about Nazism and Marxism as if they are one and the same. He appeals to his ignorant audience that is too easily made emotional by his acting performance which borders on the insane much of the time.

The fact that the Gallup poll last week showed him more popular than anyone, except former South African leader Nelson Mandela, is terrifying news. His being more popular than Billy Graham, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and George HW Bush shows how ill informed and emotional the American public has become.

This reminds me of the appeal that Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest”, had in the years of the Great Depression. It also brings back memories of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who promoted the Red Scare in the 1950s. And, of course, it brings back bad memories of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s, who promoted race hatred and insecurity as he ran for President.

Face the facts: Glenn Beck is the new menace to American freedom and stability, and the fact that many advertisers have withdrawn from supporting his show on Fox News Channel is a good thing. This man has nothing positive or encouraging to say, and it is obvious he is just out to enrich himself at the expense of the gullible Americans who are rightfully concerned about their future, but are being told by this recovering alcoholic to have fear and hate for their government and many of their fellow citizens.

It is time for Americans who believe in truth and positive thinking to denounce and boycott this spewer of poison and hate, who is laughing all the way to the bank at our expense! 🙁