Gilded Age

The Fourth Of July, American “Exceptionalism”, And “The Newsroom” Rant Of Will McAvoy!

Ronald 1 Comment

The new HBO series, “The Newsroom”, is a brilliant series, with its main star being actor Jeff Daniels, who portrays an anchorman gone amuck, named Will McAvoy.

The first few minutes of the first episode of this wonderful series is priceless for what it says, and shows the genius of producer Aaron Sorkin, who also was responsible for the “West Wing” series on the Presidency in the past decade.

Will McAvoy is disgusted, in the opening scene, at the “bull” going on during a panel discussion about American “exceptionalism”, and goes berserk in his response, what could best be called a rant!

Frustrated by the constant shouting match between left and right that has existed for what seems like forever, at this college presentation of views he participates in, he goes ballistic!

Saying America is NOT the greatest country in the world, Will McAvoy tells conservatives that we are not the only country in the world with freedom, with 180 having freedom out of 207 nations!

Also, he says that proof that America is NOT the greatest nation includes the facts that we are:

7th in literacy
27th in math
22nd in science
49th in life expectancy
178th in infant mortality
3rd in median household income
4th in labor force
4th in exports

McAvoy goes on to say further that we lead the world in only three categories:

Number of incarcerated citizens per capita
Number of adults who believe angels are real
Expenditures on defense, more than the next 26 nations combined, 25 whom are friends and allies

McAvoy goes on to say that we used to stand up for what was right, including:

Fighting wars for moral reasons
Passing and striking down laws for moral reasons
Waging wars on poverty, not poor people
Sacrificing and caring about our neighbors
Willingness to pay taxes, rather than evading them
Never bragging how great we were,. better than the rest of the world
Creating great technological advancements
Exploring the universe
Curing diseases
Cultivating the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy
Aspiring to intelligence, instead of belittling it
Being a well informed country, led by great men who were revered

If ONLY we had politicians like Will McAvoy, but there are very few, with one coming to mind, and not even a Democrat or Republican, but instead a SOCIALIST, oh my god!

And that is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who says it as it is!

This is something to reflect upon on Independence Day, the 236th Anniversary!

Remembering the Bicentennial in 1976 under President Gerald Ford, we were much more optimistic back then, but now with the present Republican Party tooting our horns how great we are, but doing everything to set us back to the 19th century Gilded Age, we have a lot of work to do, including ranting like Will McAvoy, and espousing in more realistic terms, like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont!

Despite Health Care Ruling, Supreme Court Is Still Out Of Control, And Presidential Election Will Decide If It Regains Confidence Of The American People!

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The Supreme Court came through by the barest of margins on the issue of “ObamaCare” last week, but when one looks at the Court’s radical swing to the right in so many other ways, it is clear that the future reputation of the Court and the long term future of the nation requires the victory of Barack Obama for a second term as President.

By confirming their Citizens United decision again in a case involving Montana state law, and by actions against labor unions and their rights in another case, and in the solidity most of the time of the Republican appointees in rejecting past precedent and tradition, the Court has gained an image of being extremist and confrontational, and lost American public opinion and respect, which is dangerous for our democracy.

Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush effectively moved the Court away from the political center to the extreme right, and we are suffering the effects of this extremist rightward tilt.

We cannot afford to base the future on Anthony Kennedy SOMETIMES going with the liberal side of the Court, or Chief Justice John Roberts seemingly being concerned about the reputation of the Court. Neither is reliable to keep the Court in the political center, and protect the rights of the powerless.

The only answer is to insure that when the older members of the Supreme Court retire or die while in service on the Court, that we replace them with Justices who have a vision of the country more in line with the reality of the 21st century than the 19th century Gilded Age!

With Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy to be over 80 before the next Presidential term ends, the likelihood is that whoever is President in the next four years will have a transformative effect on the Supreme Court and constitutional law.

The thought of Mitt Romney making those choices is truly terrifying, and will make the Court a right wing extremist influence into the 2040s, totally unacceptable!

Barack Obama will be able to make the Court shift more into the mainstream, preserving the brilliant times of the Warren Court in the 1950s and 1960s, when America advanced constitutionally in so many ways!

The Future Is What Matters, Not the Past: Message To Barack Obama!

Ronald 2 Comments

President Barack Obama has been having a rough patch lately, and many people in his own party, as well as the Republican opposition, have been critical of his criticisms of the Bush Presidency, saying it is time for Obama to stop blaming Bush and take responsibility for mobilizing the nation to a better future!

While one needs to talk about history, that will not be enough to win the Presidential election this fall!

Instead, what must be done is demonstrate to the American people what the future will be, contrasting his own vision and hopes, looking to make America a better, fairer place for all, and show how Mitt Romney will be unsympathetic to the problems of the vast majority of Americans, and is only going to take us back to the Gilded Age and 1920s, and creating the greatest maldistribution of wealth in a century.

If the majority of middle class people, suffering and declining rapidly, can be made to understand that Mitt Romney has no clue as to how to create jobs, and to understand that Wall Street and wealthy billionaires have no one except themselves that they care about, then Barack Obama will sweep to victory in November by a massive margin!

Obama must be on the offensive in painting the gloomy future of a Romney Presidency, and the gloves must come off and stay off, and be replaced by a punching, aggressive manner! Being a nice guy will not work, and Obama will have more respect if he fights like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman did in the 1930s and 1940s!

We need a “Give Them Hell” Barack Obama and fast!

Labor Unions: The Unsung Creator And Persistent Supporter Of The Middle Class In America!

Ronald 1 Comment

We live in an era where labor unions have been under attack since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the “Bully” Governors elected in 2010 have been mounting a major effort against labor unions, trying to set back labor conditions to what they were in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

Many Americans, who should know better, tend to agree with the conservative and Republican propaganda against labor unions, whether public or private. The Republican Party has always been against labor rights, and that is why labor is strongly Democratic on election days throughout the past century, as their greatest triumphs have come under Democratic Presidents and Congresses.

But the lack of care and respect for labor unions is because many do not realize how important they have been to the rise of the middle class in America, particularly after World War II.

What have labor unions done for us, even those who have never been members of unions?

In no special order, the benefits include:

Weekends or Five Day Work Week
Lunch Breaks
Paid Vacation
Family Medical Leave
Sick Leave
Social Security
Minimum Wage
Civil Rights Laws barring work discrimination
8 hour work day
Overtime Pay
Child Labor Laws
Occupational Safety and Health Act
40 hour work week
Workers Compensation
Unemployment Compensation
Pensions
Employer Health Care Insurance
Collective Bargaining Rights For Workers
Sexual Harassment Laws
Americans With Disabilities Act
Holiday Pay
Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance
Pregnancy and Paternal Leave
Military Leave
Right Of Workers To Strike
Age and Gender Discrimination Banned

There are even more points than the long list above, but realize corporations and businesses did not give these rights and privileges out the goodness of their heart, and fought “tooth and nail” against all of them, but with progressive and liberal reform over a long period of time, these benefits were finally won!

If the conservative agenda and Mitt Romney win out, we will see a further deterioration of labor rights, as already is occurring in states governed by Republican Governors and legislatures. And if Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin wins the recall election scheduled for next Tuesday, June 5, it will be a major blow to the labor movement and a danger sign for November!

This is NOT political propaganda! These are the unvarnished facts and truth! We would, literally, go back a century and more, to the harsh economic conditions of the Gilded Age!

Mitt Romney: Gutless Wonder And Tool Of The Billionaires!

Ronald 2 Comments

Mitt Romney, the Republican Presidential nominee, is more than ever looking as possibly the worst Republican nominee for President since the Gilded Age and James G. Blaine, who was seen as totally corrupt, and lost the Presidential Election of 1884 to Democrat Grover Cleveland!

Mitt Romney has proved to be a “gutless wonder”! He is unable to stand up to Grover Norquist and his tax fanatics who want not one extra dollar ever to be granted to the US government. He is unable to stand up to neoconservatives, who want to go back to another “Cold War” with Russia, and want to bomb Iran immediately. He is unable to stand up to right wing social conservatives who want to promote a Christian nation. He is unable to stand up to the ultimate bully, Donald Trump, who is a literal nightmare, with Romney realizing that if he were to come out against Trump’s reckless rhetoric about Barack Obama, he would have his campaign destroyed by the vindictive, prima donna, who George Will, the conservative commentator, called an example of how a not very bright rich person could gain attention of the news media.

Romney has no guts or courage, and would become a tool of the billionaires, such as those who financed the campaigns of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, and kept them going for as long as they did.

Imagine this, a man who is a QUARTER billionaire being controlled by true billionaires, who want us to go back to the corruption and mendacity of the Gilded Age after a century of constant reforms under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, who worked to be in the mainstream!

Romney is a threat to American democracy as we know it, since he has no spine, no backbone, and is willing to sell his soul to the devil, because of his insane need to be President, unhappy with his family, his religion, and his massive wealth! Such an ambition for one so fortunate borders on mental illness, sorry to say!

But at the same time, Romney cannot relate to normal human beings, as his plastic, stiff nature shows through in everything he does and utters!

His campaign is indeed a sad commentary on American politics and the Republican Party!

Barack Obama On The Attack Against Republicans And Conservatives: Critical Of The Supreme Court And The Paul Ryan Budget Plan

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Barack Obama has gone on the offensive against conservative and Republican philosophy, both on the Supreme Court and in Congress.

Already throwing down the gauntlet to the Supreme Court yesterday, Obama pointed out that the commerce clause and Supreme Court case history and two Circuit Court Judges (Laurence Silberman and Jeffrey Sutton) are a call for backing the Obama Health Care law, and it is clear that IF the Court declares it unconstitutional, the Court itself will be an issue in the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2012. And it is certain that the KEY issue of 2012, no matter what happens, is to realize that the future judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the lower courts matter more than ANYTHING economic or foreign policy related, because the judiciary is a lifetime appointment!

If we are upset over a 5-4 Court to the right, imagine a 7-2 Court under a Republican President when and if Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer, both in their 70s, leave the Court over the next four to eight years!

But today, President Obama is also mounting a full scale assault on the Paul Ryan budget plan adopted by the House Republican majority for the second year in a row, which includes massive tax cuts to the rich beyond the Bush tax cuts, and major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and all other domestic spending programs that benefit the poor and the struggling middle class, as well as the elderly.

Obama is calling it today’s “Social Darwinism”, the prevalent philosophy of the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, a period being matched and surpassed with the growing concentration of wealth in the top one percent of the population in the past ten years, and now threatening to be even more concentrated under the budget plan of the House Budget Committee Chairman.

And with the growing possibility that Ryan might be the Vice Presidential running mate of Mitt Romney, the future of the nation is at stake on the Supreme Court and lower courts, and also on the Presidential and Vice Presidential level, along with the Congressional actions in future years.

This is a battle for survival of the middle class, and the continuation of understanding the plight of the poor, as class division and the potential for class warfare grows!

Time For TRUE Conservative Republican Nominee So That Conservatism Can Be Exposed For What It Is: A Plea For Rick Santorum’s Nomination For The Presidency!

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Conservatism has been said to be a dominant factor in the Republican Party for a long time, and conservatives in Congress and on talk radio and Fox News Channel have been spewing forth their poison, whether it is to go to war as a first resort, rather last last resort; putting women, African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, gays and lesbians, labor, poor people, environmentalists, public service workers, consumer advocates, and anyone who promotes progressivism, in their place; and promoting corporations, the wealthy, and religion and the military as dominant parts of American power to make our nation a militaristic, religiously based plutocracy, only advocating the interests of the few, rather than the many!

But the frustration of these conservatives is that, somehow, it never seems to work out quite like they expect. Witness: Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Robert Taft in 1952 and does “unconservative” policies in office; Richard Nixon also disappoints in many areas; Gerald Ford and his wife Betty actually promote social progressivism; even Ronald Reagan shows that he can be moved away from hard line conservative ideas; George H. W. Bush is clearly too moderate and centrist; George W. Bush follows certain aspects of conservatism, particularly following the “neocons” in foreign affairs, but too involved in “compassionate conservatism” in domestic affairs and government spending; and even Bob Dole and John McCain, losing GOP Presidential nominees, are insufficiently conservative, and actually come across as “moderates”, a hated term.

And now Mitt Romney cannot be trusted to be hard line conservative, despite his own efforts at protestations. And even Barry Goldwater, thought to be in 1964, the “ideal” conservative, later revealed his social progressivism and condemned the role of religion in the Republican Party! What is a frustrated conservative to do?

The answer is back and nominate former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who wants to bomb Iran on Day One in office; wants a very hard line social conservatism, putting women “back in their place”; wants no regulation of business or corporations that interferes with “free enterprise”; wishes to wipe out by any means the rights of gays and lesbians; wishes to take away all of the federal entitlement programs of the New Deal and Great Society; return America back to the 1950s in some ways, the 1920s in other ways, and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century in other ways!

Conservatives want to bring back the “good old days” of white male domination over society, and corporate influence, joined with the military and religious control over our foreign and domestic policies.

Let’s hope, even pray, that Rick Santorum is nominated, and watch as he is obliterated in November, and his support by conservatives sets them back for at least a generation, and give mainline Republicans the opportunity to rebuild the party as what it once was, a centrist party, a good competition for the Democratic Party. And if the GOP refuses to reform itself, then it should be replaced by a new moderate centrist party in the mainstream of 21st century America!

Of course, notice that the author said a “generation” would pass of conservative decline, as sadly, to believe conservatism will leave our shores forever, is not going to happen, as it is like a recurring cancer on the body politic–it WILL return eventually, and the battle for control of government and politics is, therefore, a never ending battle of American history!

Rick Santorum The Frontrunner In The Presidential Race: A Nightmare Scenario!

Ronald 2 Comments

Imagine the impossible: After ELEVEN frontrunners in the Republican Presidential race, we finally have former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania as the present frontrunner.

This is a literal nightmare, as Santorum would take us back socially to the 1950s; economically to the Gilded Age or 1920s; and would send troops and bomb Iran on his first day in office.

Rick Santorum would try to outlaw contraceptives; outlaw all abortions under all circumstances; reverse “don’s ask, don’t tell” in the military; promote theocracy in America, with his fanatical religious convictions; set out to wipe out most of the New Deal and Great Society; promote the end of any regulation of corporations and banks; promote the interests of the oil industry at the expense of the environment; cut taxes on the wealthy much more than even the Bush tax cuts; and promote military intervention all over the world in the name of American “exceptionalism”!

And there is more, enough to make us wish for George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”, or the time of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon!

This country would be so damaged and divided, more than ever before, and make us long for the “good old days” of earlier Presidents, who no matter how controversial they were, were never as extreme and fanatical as Rick Santorum would be.

Rick Santorum is a mental case, a danger to the stability and advancement of America, and those who wish he was the Republican nominee, thinking it would be easy for Barack Obama to defeat him, had better think twice and wish that he NOT be chosen, as one can never know for sure how those citizens among us who are emotional and ignorant and overtly “religious”, might not see Rick Santorum as their “Jesus Christ” who can save the country!

This potential for a Santorum Presidency is the most dangerous threat to our future since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, even surpassing the candidacy of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and we must hope that Mitt Romney is able to overcome this challenge, as no matter what one thinks of Mitt, at least we know he is sane and stable, and no threat to the future of the nation, were he to occupy the White House in 2013.

The 130th Anniversary Of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Birth: The Sustained Republican Attack On The New Deal’s Survival!

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Today marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of our second greatest President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served 12 years and 39 days in the Presidency, and took America through the Great Depression and most of World War II.

Rated the greatest President in most polls of scholars and experts after Abraham Lincoln, FDR personified the growth of big national government, including the recognition that the federal government was needed to deal with the crisis presented by the depression, the worst economic downturn in American history.

Now in 2012, we are being told by the opposition Republicans that the answer is to revert to the philosophy of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, and keep the federal government out of the economy as much as possible. Mitt Romney can be seen as the new Herbert Hoover, aloof, imperial in nature, unable to relate to ordinary people’s problems and daily struggles, extremely rich, and believing that the private capitalistic system without government interference is the best for America’s future.

Even Herbert Hoover started to abandon that belief in laissez faire, and is called, therefore, the “forgotten progressive” by Joan Hoff and others. And maybe Mitt Romney, due to his past reputation of being a moderate to liberal as Governor of Massachusetts, might back away from his present promotion of a conservative image.

But the Republican Party, whether Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or anyone else as the nominee, has fundamentally declared war on the New Deal!

The GOP wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and gut as many government departments and agencies as possible, along with destroying labor unions and showing lack of concern for the environment, all major tenets of the New Deal. When Republicans can claim that the New Deal was “socialism”, as some of them do, they are being ridiculous and setting out to end the laws and programs that have advanced America and helped to create the middle class!

Conservative scholars and propagandists have been advocating negatives about the New Deal as part of their aim to destroy the good programs that Barack Obama has achieved, and to go back to the mentality of the 1920s era and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

We can be sure that if FDR was alive today, that he would be on the attack against the Republican Party and their aims of destroying his New Deal, and it is therefore the job of Barack Obama to go out and assault, rhetorically, those who wish to destroy not only the New Deal of FDR, but also the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other progressive, human oriented programs of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.

This is the time to defend big government and FDR, not shrink from the challenge!

Two Year Anniversary Of Citizens United Supreme Court Case: The Corruption Of American Politics A National Tragedy

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Two years ago, the Supreme Court, controlled by a conservative majority of 5-4, made a decision considered among the worst ever in their history.

After a century of regulation of corporate involvement in political campaign fundraising and advertising, the majority, claiming freedom of speech, allowed corporations and labor unions to have totally free access to spend and promote candidates and parties.

On first blush, some might have thought that it was not such a bad decision, as labor unions were permitted to do the same as corporations. On second thought, it became noticeable that labor unions could not compete with corporate money, and the result was the distorted political atmosphere of the midterm 2010 Congressional and state elections, which led to the success of the Tea Party Movement and the right wing direction of many state governments and the US House of Representatives. This has created a stalemate in Congress, and attacks on labor, the elderly, the poor, minorities, and the environment in many state legislatures, and the widespread attempt to limit the right to vote by discriminatory voter registration laws.

We have witnessed the damage done, and the continual enrichment of the top one percent in America, and the Super PACs are in operation, poisoning the political atmosphere for the 2012 election campaigns for President and the Congress, as well as many state governments.

Our democracy is being lost, negating a century of reforms under the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society.

A move is on to attempt a constitutional amendment to overrule the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, but that is not going to be easy, and meanwhile, or maybe for good, we are seeing corporations regain complete control of government at all levels, and bringing us back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

This is a national tragedy of massive proportions!