Herbert Hoover

Margaret Hoover And The Future Of The Republican Party: Eliminate Social Conservatism And The Religious Right Influence

Ronald 1 Comment

Margaret Hoover is the great granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover, and has written a new book entitled AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM, in which she promotes the ideas of her great grandfather as the way for the Republican Party to grow and succeed in the future, by drawing the support of voters under 35 with their often expressed view of economic conservatism mixed with social liberalism.

Hoover says that social issues have damaged the Republican Party, and that they have become tied to the evangelical Right on such issues as abortion and gay rights and school prayer, and that these issues should not be connected to the party platform, as they cause the loss of support among those under 35.

Separation of church and state should be promoted, as it was until the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the party was influenced and captured by the Christian Coalition of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other evangelicals who have become influential factors in Iowa and elsewhere, and have a tremendous influence on the Presidential nominating process and the Congress.

Even if one does not agree with Margaret Hoover’s promotion of economic conservatism, one can sympathize with her view that the Republican Party needs to stop being captive to the religious Right, liberate itself, and if it does so, it will have a better, long term future competing for the younger more socially liberal voting population, which has grown dramatically in recent years.

And as far as the evangelical Christian right is concerned, they have every right to run a third party candidate, but their influence over the major parties should be eliminated, and we should return to the concept of separation of church and state in American politics.

The Republican Party Again Doing What They Are Best At: Self Destruction!

Ronald Leave a comment

The Republican Party has suicidal tendencies since the years of the Great Depression.

When the Great Depression began in 1929, the party in Congress refused to abandon laissez faire economics, and some even fought President Herbert Hoover’s attempt to provide some public works projects and federal aid through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

During the New Deal years of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the party stood in the way of reform and change and continued to decline.

As World War II came on, most Republicans were isolationists who failed to see the threat of Fascism and Nazism.

As World War II ended, Republicans set out to to weaken labor unions and set back the New Deal, and after two brief years in control of Congress in 1947-1948, they lost control and saw Harry Truman stage an upset victory in the Presidential campaign.

The party pursued the Joseph McCarthy anti communist agenda in the late 1940s and early 1950s, undermining America’s effort in the Korean War, but with a popular World War II general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, they were given another chance in 1952, and won back control of Congress, but with their conservative agenda, lost control again after two years.

From that point on, the party failed to gain control of Congress for 40 years in the House, and 26 in the Senate, and after six years of a divided Congress under Ronald Reagan, lost the Senate again in 1986 and for the next eight years.

Despite Eisenhower’s personal popularity, it did not transform into party control after two years, and while Richard Nixon won over a divided Democratic Party in 1968, he could not translate his victory into a Republican majority, and Watergate damaged any hope again of a soon to occur change in party loyalties and success.

Ronald Reagan managed a divided Congress with Republican control of the Senate for six years, but again it did not change party loyalties and success in the long run, and the party was bitterly divided during the administration of George H. W. Bush, with Pat Buchanan helping to divide the party and lead to the defeat of Bush in 1992.

Then in 1994, the Republicans gained control of Congress for the next twelve years, but Bill Clinton, despite personal problems leading to impeachment, was able to control much of the political agenda.

After the Republicans won the battle over Florida’s electoral votes with George W. Bush in 2000, it seemed as if finally they had become the majority party, but September 11, two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economic collapse of 2008, took away any gains it seemed that the party had made.

While they won the House of Representatives in 2010, the emergence of the Tea Party Movement has now destroyed any chance of Republican success, as again they are seen as obstructionist in so many ways, and public opinion polls still see the party as to blame much more for the economic recession we are suffering through, rather than to hold Barack Obama accountable.

With an image of negativism, concern only for the rich and powerful special interests, isolationism, corruption, and obstructionism, the Republican Party is again in the process of committing political suicide, and relegating itself to minority status in American politics!

The Republican Lies About The Obama Economic Record!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Presidential debate in New Hampshire last night demonstrated the GOP ability to lie and deceive gullible voters!

You would think that Barack Obama walked into the Presidency in good economic times, and that George W. Bush left him a positive legacy!

Of course, George W. Bush left the worst economy to his successor of any President since Herbert Hoover left the Great Depression to Franklin D. Roosevelt!

The facts are as follows:

1. The economy has come out of the depths it was in in 2009, although the level of economic growth has slowed up in recent months.
2. Over 2 million private sector jobs have been added in the past 15 months, not enough certainly, but compared to the 750,000 jobs a month being lost at the end of the Bush Presidency and the early months of the Obama Presidency, it is certainly a good sign.
3. The stock market has improved, whereby half of the lost household wealth has been regained.
4. The auto industry has revived from its low point, when we almost lost the entire domestic auto market, which would have led to far worse conditions in the Midwest and South, where most of the auto factories are located.
5. Housing is the big area of lack of improvement, with home prices and home construction still declining. Of course, the nation’s leading banks are major culprits in this regard, refusing to give mortgage loans and trying to foreclose illegally on many properties!

The point is that there is no magic potion by government and the private sector to restore the economy quickly, and the Republicans have come up with no strategy or plan to create jobs or revive the economy, deciding that just attacking President Obama is enough.

And cutting taxes and spending is just the old Herbert Hoover concept, which only made the Great Depression worse!

Do we really want to go back to Herbert Hoover, as Tim Pawlenty proposes, and to believe that miraculously there will be five percent growth annually for the next decade?

It is time to put up or shut up, meaning that the GOP leadership in Congress must stop talking and attacking, and start producing results in cooperation with President Obama, instead of just working to undermine him and making the economy worse!

Natural Disasters Overwhelming America In 2011: Reminders Of The Dust Storms Of The 1930s And Mississippi River Flood Of 1927

Ronald Leave a comment

America seems to have been besieged by natural disasters this year, not that it is unique to 2011, but between the horrible tornadoes that hit Alabama and numerous other states in April, and the emerging Mississippi River Flood affecting many states right now, it reminds one of the natural disasters of the 1920s and 1930s!

In 1927, we witnessed the worst Mississippi River Floods ever, at least to now, with the possibility that we might see a worst disaster in the making as the author writes!

Back then, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the winning candidate the following year for President, gained a great reputation for his efforts to help those in distress, even though he seemed inept to deal with the Great Depression which followed.

And on this day in 1934, a massive storm sent millions of tons of topsoil from the Great Plains eastward, affecting New York City, Boston, and Atlanta. This was the time of the Dust Bowl, which sent many farmers from the Great Plains out west to California and other western states in desperation.

Franklin D. Roosevelt took action to deal with the Dust Bowl, with federal regulation of conditions of growing crops and helping farmers in other programs under the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.

With recognition that hurricanes, earthquakes, and fires can also do tremendous destruction, and have in the recent past in this country, it makes trying to cut the deficit in the budget and deal with the national debt all that much more challenging!

Is Unemployment The Priority Of The 112th Congress? Apparently Not!

Ronald Leave a comment

Considering that we have more unemployed people, over 15 million now, greater than ever in American history, one would think that the 112th Congress would be doing something about it.

However, any such thoughts have been shown to be just that, thoughts, as the Republican House of Representatives, led by Speaker John Boehner, is clearly unwilling to address the issue, certainly not with more spending to create public service jobs, even though there is clearly a need for infrastructure building and rebuilding.

If anything, the goal is to cut government spending, and to stop interference in state government budget crises, as President Obama attempted to do in the first two years of his administration, with a Democratic Congress.

The effects of the state budget crises all over America is to cause growing unemployment in public jobs, and the rhetoric is more toward ignoring the plight of millions of Americans, who are discovering that the GOP majority they created in the House of Representatives, plus the takeover of many Governorships by Republicans, is showing utter disregard of the unemployed and unfortunate among us.

It is likely that this 112th Congress will go down as the least productive since the time of Herbert Hoover, in regards to the reality that unemployed people are desperate, and the “99ers” are left without any income, in an economy that offers no hope of any change for many years, and for some of them, probably never!

Since the GOP controls the budget matters before it gets to the US Senate, any chance of Democrats or President Obama doing anything substantive for the unemployed, seems unlikely.

The only hope is that the nation will see how the Republicans simply don’t care about those less fortunate, and that these unemployed, plus many people fortunate to have a job, will react by throwing the Republicans out of control of the lower chamber in 2012!

A Look At Post Presidencies On Presidents Day

Ronald Leave a comment

As we celebrate Presidents Day, on the third Monday of February, it is significant to look at post Presidencies and their impact.

Among earlier Presidents, a few stood out in public office after the Presidency.

John Quincy Adams served nearly 18 years in the House of Representatives from Boston, and led the fight against slavery and the “gag rule” which banned discussion of slavery on the floor of the House.

Andrew Johnson served briefly back in the Senate where he had been the only Southerner to remain loyal to the Union, of all the Senators from the Confederate States.

William Howard Taft served nine years as Chief Justice after almost a decade out of the White House, and came up with the plans for the Supreme Court Building.

Herbert Hoover served President Truman in reorganization of the executive branch as the head of the Hoover Commission after World War II.

Richard Nixon wrote numerous books on foreign policy, and became regarded as an elder statesman who was asked for advice by every President, despite the disgrace of the Watergate Scandal.

Jimmy Carter has been heavily involved in Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center, engaged in promoting diplomacy and free elections and better living conditions all over the world, and has also been a prolific author.

George W Bush has been involved in Haitian relief and other activities, and his father,  George H W Bush, now will be honorary co chairman of the University of Arizona Civility Institute, an outgrowth of the violence which led to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last month, sharing that responsibility with Bill Clinton.

And Bill Clinton has been a “whirlwind” of activity with the Clinton Global Initiative, which aims to help the promotion of prosperity and human rights all over the world, with the support of the business community, and he also was involved in the Haitian relief after last year’s earthquake, and now is to be part of the Civility Institute activities at the University of Arizona.

In fact, this evening on MSNBC, Chris Matthews will host an hour review of the many activities of Bill Clinton since his Presidency ended 20 years ago.

So on this day when we commemorate Presidents, let’s remember the contributions of former Presidents as well!

Presidents and Split Congresses: A New Observation

Ronald Leave a comment

A while back, the author wrote about split Congresses, whereby the House of Representatives and the Senate have been placed in the hands of opposing political parties.

As indicated, it has now happened for 12 years since 1900–under President William Howard Taft 1911-1913, President Herbert Hoover in 1931-1933, President Ronald Reagan 1981-1987, and now President Barack Obama from 2011-2013.

And as reported, in each of the first three cases, a Republican President faced a Democratic House and Republican Senate, while now for the first time a Democratic President faces the opposite, a Republican House and Democratic Senate.

What has now been realized through the assistance of one of my History students, Stephanie Mundo, at Florida Atlantic University, is the observation, never crossing my mind, that the “people’s branch”, the House of Representatives, which is elected every two years, has been in each case put into the hands of the party opposing the President, while the Senate, which only turns over one third at a time due to the six year Senate terms, remains with the President. So the vote of no confidence is demonstrated by the House of Representatives becoming the center of opposition.

This fact really makes sense, and may only be of concern to true academics and political junkies, but it IS an interesting point, and I wish to thank Stephanie Mundo for making me realize that interesting, and actually very significant, point of analysis about split Congresses.

January 20: Historic Day Over And Over Again! :)

Ronald Leave a comment

Today is January 20, which has been Inauguration Day for the President of the United States every fourth year since 1937, due to the 20th Amendment which was added to the Constitution in 1933 in record time, after the horrors of waiting four months until March 4, 1933, to see the transition between defeated President Herbert Hoover to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the worst days of the Great Depression.

So every President since then has been inaugurated on January 20, with the exception of Harry Truman in 1945 (upon the death of FDR), Lyndon Johnson in 1963 (upon the death of John F. Kennedy), and Gerald Ford ni 1974 (upon the resignation of Richard Nixon). But Truman and Johnson were later inaugurated for a full term on January 20, with only Gerald Ford never experiencing the pomp and circumstance of Presidential Inauguration Day, as a result of his defeat for a full term of office in the 1976 Presidential Election to Jimmy Carter.

Round numbers tend to carry more weight, somehow, so today it is 50 years since John F. Kennedy took the oath and 30 years since Ronald Reagan uttered the oath.

It is also 30 years since Jimmy Carter left the White House, and 10 years since Bill Clinton left the Oval Office.

Kennedy and Reagan have become the favorite Presidents of the poorly informed general public, based on public opinion polls every year to commemorate President’s Day every February.

But it is worth some consideration to think about the contributions of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton AFTER they left the White House!

Carter has already had the second longest retirement of any President, and in mid September 2012, he will surpass Herbert Hoover as the longest retired President ever, and since he is seemingly in tip top shape physically and mentally at age 86, it seems likely he will beat the Hoover record.

Often called the best former President in American history, while far from the best President in office, Carter has stirred some outrage and animosity for some of his views and statements in the past thirty years, particularly regarding Israel and the Arabs.

But despite this, he has been engaged in many good deeds, including Habitat for Humanity and promotion of democracy and free and fair monitored elections all over the world through the Carter Center in Atlanta, and he has great acceptance as an outstanding man promoting peace and diplomacy and the fight against poverty and hunger in the world community.

His stature has risen, and he is the author of about ten books, the most prolific author ever, even surpassing Richard Nixon.

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton in ten years time has pursued a similar commitment to peace, diplomacy, and the fighting of hunger and poverty through the Clinton Initiative. He has a great international image and is seen, much like Carter, as a man of wisdom and principle. He has written his memoirs and has given advice to President Obama, and has stood by very proudly as his wife has become an exceptional Secretary of State after being a Senator from New York for eight years.

Both men have their definite faults and shortcomings, as all of us do, but both have gone the extra mile and done the office of the Presidency proud, setting a distinct image and imprint on the potential of a former President to have a major impact even beyond his years in the Oval Office!

So there is a lot to celebrate on January 20 this year!

The Tea Party Nation, Religion, And America’s Presidents!

Ronald 1 Comment

Judson Phillips, the founder of the Tea Party Nation, a specific Tea Party group, has condemned the Methodist Church for supporting the DREAM Act for children of illegal immigrants, for backing Obama health care which he considers “socialism”, and he says the church is the “First Church of Karl Marx”!

Realize that Mr. Phillips used to be a member of the Methodist Church, but left the church because it is involved in what he considers interference with separation of church and state!

It is alright if a religious group of the right gets involved in taking political stands, apparently, but if a more open minded, liberal church takes leadership on political controversies, that somehow is a sin!

Going on that basis, it means a third of our Presidents must have been “socialists” or followers of “Marxism”, as they were involved in faiths NOT conservative in their doctrine, or not connected to organized religion at all!

Let’s go through the list of 15 Presidents who do not fit Judson Phillips’ satisfaction on religious beliefs!

Four Presidents were Methodists, including James K. Polk, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and George W. Bush, plus Rutherford B. Hayes, who was unaffiliated and then Methodist later in life.

Three were unaffiliated throughout life, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, with Grant and Hayes unaffiliated at times, and also Barack Obama.

Four Presidents were Unitarian, very far from traditional Christian religion, including John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and William Howard Taft.

Also, we have had two Quaker (Society of Friends) Presidents, also out of the mainstream of Christianity–Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon.

So apparently these 15 Presidents were heretics “in league with the devil”, because they had a more open mind on organized religion, and took a more compassionate, social justice view of what religion is all about!

This is exactly what we need, a President who believes in tolerance and concern for those less fortunate, as no one can be considered truly “religious” who has a narrow minded, intolerant view of those who are different than them, or less fortunate in economic circumstances!

Barack Obama’s Strategy To Deal With The Opposition Republicans: Should He Compromise And Alienate His Liberal Base? NO! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

The midterm elections of 2010 have set up a difficult situation for President Obama, as he faces the next two years with a split Congress, only the eleventh and twelfth years since 1900 that this odd situation has occurred!

There are those who say he should follow the example of Bill Clinton who compromised with an opposition Congress on some issues, and yet was trashed by them in a very vicious way over the six years of their shared relationship!

Or he could fight with the opposition Congress, as Harry Truman did in 1947-1948, giving them “hell”!

Of course, both these Presidents had opposition in control of both houses, so really, comparing Obama to Clinton and Truman is not a precisely similar situation!

Rather, Obama’s situation is similar to William Howard Taft from 1911-1913; Herbert Hoover from 1931-1933; and Ronald Reagan from 1981-1987. But actually, there is no precise comparison to these Presidents either, as all three had a Democratic House of Representatives and a Republican Senate, the opposite of what Obama faces in 2011-2012!

History tells us that both Taft and Hoover had unhappy years under a split Congress, and both lost re-election in a landslide, so they are not good models!

The Ronald Reagan comparison is more relevant, and went on for six years. Reagan had his principles, and while not always able to gain his agenda, he never really wavered in promoting his goals, and this was seen as making him a man of honor and principle!

Whatever Obama does is a tough choice and will affect his rating in history, but it seems to the author that he came in wanting to be a “transformational” President, and the only way to do that is to stand up and fight, stop caving in to GOP opposition, recognize that they wish him failure and have said so, and unite his liberal base by insisting on doing whatever can be done to advocate political, social and economic reform, along the lines of his very productive first two years, the most accomplished since the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson!

We do not need another Jimmy Carter or even Bill Clinton; we need another Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or Woodrow Wilson who will fight his opponents and challenge the nation to greater goals!

Obama should use the powers of his office through executive orders, not give a damn about his conservative critics, and remember that he was elected by the American people to bring change, not just muddle through and waste his mandate of 2008!

If conservatives and Republicans wish to continue to be negative, so be it, and they will bring down on themselves the wrath of the American people in 2012 and beyond!

Their negativism, lack of care for the average American, and insistence on favoring the wealthy and the corporations will lead to a reaction in two years against them, and they will be repudiated, as they will be seen for what they are–obstructionists who do nothing to make the American economy improved!

Obama should wage a “war on the GOP”, and gain the nickname “Give them hell, Barack”, just as Harry Truman gained the nickname of “Give them hell, Harry”!