Presidential Election Of 1964

Newt Gingrich: Vitriol, Hatred, Confrontation, Tumult, Division, Distortion–The New Joseph McCarthy!

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As former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich continues to surge in the polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, it becomes more obvious that the Republican Party “establishment” is horrified at his rise.

Former Congresswoman Susan Molinari of New York, Congressman Peter King of New York, former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu (who worked as Chief of Staff to the first President Bush), former Florida Congressman and MNSBC talk show host Joe Scarborough, and innumerable others are ringing the alarm bell about the dangers of Newt Gingrich as the GOP nominee.

They and those who know politics best see Gingrich as a disaster for the party, similar to Barry Goldwater in 1964, but in many worse worse than Goldwater.

Goldwater did not have the ethical and moral problems of Gingrich. Goldwater did not set out to be another Joseph McCarthy, as Gingrich has done in modern terms.

Why call Gingrich another Joseph McCarthy? Gingrich, similar to McCarthy, levels ridiculous charges and accusations; utilizes virtriol and promotion of hatred; promotes confrontation and tumult and division and distortion with a great relish; does not care how many corpses he leaves behind in his lust for power; and would make the stalemate and gridlock that exists in Washington even worse than it is now!

Newt Gingrich cannot unite the country; cannot solve any of the major problems we are facing; and likely would take us into more foreign wars; promote more wild spending leading to a greater national debt; cause more corruption and scandals (both in government and personally); create more centralization of the powers of the Presidency in dangerous, abusive ways; and would make us wish for the times of Richard Nixon, the most divisive President of the 20th century!

This man is reckless, dangerous, and does not work well with others of his own party, let alone the opposition and the news media. He is a danger to the nation’s future, and one would hope that he would lose massively to Barack Obama, and cause a reassessment of the right wing madness of the Republican Party!

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

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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.

The Panic In Republican Ranks: A Poll Shows Herman Cain Now In The Lead, As Mitt Romney Shows Inability To Inspire And Unite Extremists!

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So now the new “flavor of the month” is Herman Cain, a man with no political experience, and most known for being CEO of Godfather Pizza!

Cain has ZERO knowledge on almost everything, and spends his time selling his autobiography and promoting his “9-9-9” plan, which economists make clear would not work, and would certainly hurt the poor and lower middle classes, and benefit the rich.

This is a man who insults people of his own race as being “brainwashed” to support Democrats, even though the Republicans have NEVER appealed to African Americans since the New Deal!

This is a man who says that if you are not wealthy or do not have a job, it is your own fault!

This is a man who lacks any depth, joining Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry in coming across as IGNORANCE personified!

The idea that the Republican Party would nominate any of this group for the White House is mind boggling, but it is much more likely that Cain will fade as Bachmann and Perry have, and maybe Santorum will suddenly surge for a week or two as well!

Only the two Mormons in the race, Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman, are legitimate candidates to be President, but their religion and the lack of moderation in the party, due to the Tea Party Movement, endangers the party’s future, as they seem likely to nominate a disastrous candidate in the vein of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Goldwater himself would be preferable today to these losers!

Despite discontent with Barack Obama, it is very hard to conceive that the nation will abandon him and his party, when they realize the disaster the GOP has become, and how they have taken absolutely no action to deal with the economy!

Rick Perry’s Assault On FDR’s New Deal: Unconscionable!

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The last time that a major party Presidential candidate went after the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt with such zeal as Texas Governor Rick Parry has done in his recent book and during his presidential campaign was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential campaign, and anyone who knows political history knows that Goldwater suffered the worst percentage defeat ever to Lyndon B. Johnson, who went on to expand and improve on the New Deal with his Great Society.

Hopefully, the same scenario will happen if Rick Perry is Barack Obama’s opponent, and we will see Obama improve on Lyndon B Johnson, which he certainly has more than anyone since then, certainly more than Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton!

Perry not only has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme”, even though it has always paid out for 75 years, and is well funded to 2037, and only needs a little tinkering to sustain itself into the long range future, similar to what it received in the famous Ronald Reagan-Tip O’Neill deal of 1983.

Perry also criticizes in his book “Fed Up”, published last year, all of the government agencies created during the New Deal, including three public works agencies that created worthwhile jobs during the New Deal (the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration); the nation’s agency to watch over the stock market and Wall Street (the Securities and Exchange Commission); an agency which took the American South out of dire poverty and provided electricity, which private enterprise had not done (the Tennessee Valley Authority); an agency started by President Herbert Hoover to help keep business afloat during the Great Depression and continued by FDR (the Reconstruction Finance Corporation); an agency which helped keep farmers going during the worst times in agricultural history (the Agricultural Adjustment Administration); and also a denial by Perry that the New Deal lowered the unemployment rate, which in actual fact went from 12-13 million at the beginning of 1933 to a little over 6 million in 1939!

Perry has utilized misrepresentation and misconceptions, and pure lies and demagoguery, while forgetting his own poverty stricken past! Is there anything worse than pure hypocrisy and deception in the name of his corporate masters, who support his campaign for President?

Let’s Give Rush Limbaugh What He Wants: A Lunatic Right Wing Tea Party Presidential Nominee!

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Now Rush Limbaugh has started to attack Chris Christie, the newest suitor for the GOP Presidential nomination, even though Christie has said he will not run!

Limbaugh criticizes the lack of social conservatism of Christie, his outspoken criticism on some hot button issues of the Tea Party Movement!

So now Limbaugh and others are faulting Christie, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman, and ridiculing Ron Paul'[s libertarian stands, and have problems with Newt Gingrich’s past as well.

As a result, Limbaugh recommends the likes of Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum instead!

It is time to do what Limbaugh and other whackos want! NOMINATE Cain, Bachmann or Santorum! Give the extreme Right what they want, and it will kill them off for a generation, much like the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 delayed their cause for a generation, and softened the stands on issues by the time Ronald Reagan won the Presidency in 1980!

Nominate one of these three, and it will be a massive victory for Barack Obama, and a repudiation of these loud mouths who care not a whit about doing harm to the nation and its future!

The Ongoing Civil War In The Republican Party: Similar To 1964 Goldwater-Rockefeller Race?

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A recent CNN poll demonstrates the chasm that exists in the Republican Party, as the 2012 Presidential campaign comes on the scene more every day.

The demographics, ideology, and temperament of the two warring groups creates a real problem for their future. By 51-49, the majority do NOT support the Tea Party Movement, and can be seen as “Establishment” Republicans.

The Tea Party Republicans are older, more educated, and more male, while the Establishment Republicans are more likely female, less educated, younger, and less likely to be evangelical Christians.

The Tea Party Republicans are more angry about how things are working out in the country. And they are more concerned about the deficit; more likely not to believe science in regards to global warming and evolution; more likely to believe in the abolition of the Department of Education; more skeptical about abortion and gay marriage; more critical of the Federal Reserve Board; and more likely to think social security needs to be changed.

The Establishment Republicans want a candidate who can defeat President Obama, and less concerned about purity in principles.

Realistically, the Tea Party Republicans favor Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann, although some like Rick Santorum, Ron Paul or Herman Cain.

The Establishment Republicans strongly support Mitt Romney, or possibly Jon Huntsman, as legitimate candidates

So the present Perry-Romney frontrunner battle in many ways represents a similar battle to that of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller in 1964!

The Texasfication Of America: Is This What We Want?

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Governor Rick Perry of Texas has come out charging like a bull as a Presidential candidate, offering Texas as a model for America, but is it?

Texas is low down in the list of states in the following areas:

1. Educational spending and attainments and curriculum accuracy
2. Health Care spending and coverage
3. Minimum Wage Jobs
4. Environmental Protection from pollution
5. Corporate Regulation in the public interest
6. Stratification of wealth between rich and poor.
7. Mistreatment of Mexican American citizens
8. A backward legal system with high crime rates and execution numbers.

Besides all of the above, Rick Perry would like to wipe out most of the reforms of the 20th century, including:

1. 16th Amendment–Federal Income Tax
2. 17th Amendment–Direct Election Of Senators
3. National Labor Relations Act
4. Federal Education Programs
5. Environmental Protection Agency
6. Consumer Products Safety Commission
7. Medicaid, Medicare as we know it, and Obama Health Care
8. Occupational Safety And Health Administration
9. Food Stamps and Unemployment Compensation
10.Corporate and Banking Regulations
11.Repeal of Social Security

We will be learning a lot more about Rick Perry as time goes on, and as research by journalists is completed, but is not the above enough reason to reject Rick Perry for President of the United States?

It is clear that Rick Perry would be the most reactionary, right wing candidate for President since Barry Goldwater in 1964!

Enough said!

The Coming Implosion Of The Republican Party: Congress And The Presidential Race!

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Just as Barack Obama shows evidence of great fund raising, an all time high, and the Republicans show weakness in fund raising, the Republican Party is facing an implosion on both the Congressional and Presidential campaign level!

The Debt Ceiling Crisis has shown chinks in the armor of the Congressional Republicans, as the leadership of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell has split the Republicans on Capitol Hill, into the predictable split between Establishment Republicans and the Tea Party Movement freshmen in the House and a few in the US Senate!

Boehner has been pressured by his deputy, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is obviously trying to overrule Boehner and push him out, as everyone in the know is aware of Cantor’s personal ambitions to be Speaker of the House!

McConnell, convinced that no deal on the debt ceiling extension can be reached, has come up with a plan he thinks will help the Republicans win control of Congress and the White House in 2012, declaring he cannot work with Obama. His plan is to allow three votes of disapproval on extensions of the debt limit–one now, one in the Fall and one in the Summer of 2012, assuring an extension of the debt but with only Democrats voting for it, giving Republicans a campaign issue to be used in the upcoming election, and avoiding the financial uncertainties of NOT raising the debt ceiling.

Tea Party freshmen are furious at McConnell, and Boehner who has backed him, so a rebellion within the party is in evidence, with Eric Cantor leading it in the House and Jim DeMint and Rand Paul in the Senate!

The thought that the Republicans will somehow be able to use this debt issue as a way to win control of the executive and legislative branches in 2012 is a real long shot, as it is not as if the Republicans did not raise the debt ceiling SEVEN times under George W. Bush! It is much more likely to reverberate against them, and with a split party in Congress, actually cause them to lose seats in both chambers and likely lose control of the House of Representatives, where a switch of 25 seats gives Democrats control, not all that hard to attain!

And with Michele Bachmann surging as the real threat to Establishment Republicans and Mitt Romney, we could see Bachmann become the nominee, and end up as the Barry Goldwater of 2012, as to imagine her winning the White House and helping her party to win control of both houses of Congress requires hallucination on a major scale!

To top it off, IF Sarah Palin or Rick Perry, or both, end up running for the Presidency, still hard to imagine or conceive, it will only complicate the situation even further, and undermine GOP hopes for control, so it is now more likely that they will go back to minority status, through their own ineptness and incompetence, and failure to recognize the needs of the American people in the midst of the aftermath of the Great Recession!

The State Of The Republican Presidential Race

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Here we are at the end of June 2011, and Michele Bachmann is gaining all of the attention in the GOP race for the Presidential nomination, due to her excellent performance in the New Hampshire Presidential debate two weeks ago!

It seems clear now that the race is down to a choice of Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman vs. Michele Bachmann!

Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty have self destructed, and Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum are not going anywhere!

Rick Perry and Sarah Palin are NOT going to enter the Republican race, and Chris Christie has made it very clear that he will not, while the former two continue to play games but take no moves toward running!

So we are in a situation similar to 1964 when the “Rockefeller” wing of the GOP could not take away the nomination from Senator Barry Goldwater, and the GOP had a landslide defeat!

Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman represent the equivalent of that old wing, although far less liberal than Nelson Rockefeller, while Michele Bachmann actually makes Barry Goldwater seem more moderate by comparison!

So IF the Republicans allow themselves to be hijacked by social conservatives and Tea Party activists, Michele Bachmann will be the Republican nominee and Barack Obama will win a landslide victory!

If they come to their senses and run either Romney or Huntsman, either has a real chance to defeat Obama, but upon taking office, either would be dogged by extremists that neither one would feel comfortable with, so they might wish they had lost, rather than won, as a President Romney or a President Huntsman would have a “shotgun marriage” with extremists in their own party!

The Crisis Within The Republican Party For 2012!

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The Republican Party, once a proud party, is in total disarray, as all the attention is grabbed by what many call the “joke” candidates who have no chance to win, and yet are promoting a terrible image for the party, so much so, that the American people are totally unimpressed!

And yet, there is growing discontent with President Obama, due to the budget crisis, the stubbornly high unemployment, and the soaring gasoline prices, but there is no valid alternative!

At this point, there could be a landslide effect toward Obama, similar to what was the situation when Lyndon Johnson walloped Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election, and in fact, no candidate gains 20 percent support in the latest polls, similar to what Goldwater had 47 years ago!

The control of religious conservatives and Tea Party activists are entrapping all reasonable, rational thought, and holding hostage any realistic, mainstream candidates from emerging!

Face the facts! The following so called “candidates” are disasters in the making in any order: Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Herman Cain, Gary Johnson, Haley Barbour, and any others who come out of the woodwork to claim they wish to run!

The “birther” issue and the race issue and the gay issue have destroyed all of the above from serious consideration by anyone with intelligence!

The only “serious” candidates, but lacking excitement for now, are Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman, and really stretching it, Mitch Daniels and Jeb Bush, who have evinced no interest in running, but would have to be seen as serious and viable were they to announce for President!

Any “bully” Governor, such as Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Rick Snyder, or John Kasich, would be counterproductive, as all of them have caused great opposition and controversy!

It is time for Republican leaders to follow former George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove and do everything they can to derail all the loonies, and promote Romney, Pawlenty, Huntsman, Daniels or Bush as the ONLY viable candidates out of a sad group of people who betray the Republican heritage since 1854–the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and yes, even Ronald Reagan!