Right Wing Extremism

The Tea Party Threat To Conservative Republican Senators In 2014

Ronald Leave a comment

The Tea Party Movement is now threatening conservative Republican Senators coming up for re-election in 2014, who they regard as not conservative enough, including

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
Pat Roberts of Kansas
Thad Cochran of Mississippi

It is not as if any of these five Senators are flaming liberals, or even know what the word “moderate” is, but to the Tea Party Movement, they are RINOS (Republican In Name Only).

The effect of the right wing attack on these Senators is that some, or all of them, may be replaced by more extremist candidates, and in some cases, Democrats might win the seats.

And it makes the idea of cooperation and “crossing the aisle” in the future even more unlikely, and makes stalemate and gridlock the long term future in the Senate, as well as it already is in the House of Representatives.

Imagine having to root for these Senators to keep their seats, or their possible replacement by Democrats, by far the better scenario!

Such is the craziness of the Tea Party Movement, and its disastrous effect on American politics! It needs to be rooted out as a cancer that must be eradicated as undermining the American future, and bringing us back to the 19th century!

Harpers Ferry Anniversary 1859 And America On The Economic Brink 2013: A Lot In Common!

Ronald Leave a comment

On this day in 1859, 154 years ago, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the military arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today in West Virginia), killing about 60 people in an an attempt to begin a racial war to end slavery.

While Brown had a great purpose in mind, to end slavery, his tactics were reprehensible, but started the movement toward civil war and the breakup of the Union.

Today, 154 years later, America faces an economic brink, as those who wish to change the course of our economic system, including the destruction of ObamaCare, are about to put us into an economic collapse that will reverberate throughout America and the world at large, and could also incite bloodshed and conflict that might never stop, as citizens turn against each other, and right wing elements plot to overthrow the government, and force President Obama out of office!

We are in a time more dangerous than any since September 11, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and it is self induced by anarchists on the right who refuse to accept the results of legislation passed legally by both houses of Congress, approved by the Supreme Court, and reaffirmed by the Presidential Election Of 2012.

It is time for responsible, sane heads in government to push back, and refuse to allow reckless, irresponsible, ignorant lunatics to hijack our government, and its good name in terms of economic responsibility. This is a day to pray for strong leadership in Congress and the White House! It is time for the Republican Party to take back control from its Tea Party lunatics!

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Sarah Palin And The Confederate Flag At The White House: Reprehensible!

Ronald 3 Comments

A crowd descended on the gates at the White House on Sunday, led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP Vice Presidential nominee.

They stood by as Confederate flags were brandished, and a speaker said it was time for Barack Obama to stop obeying the Muslim faith, and to resign from the Presidency!

What a spectacle it was, with National Park police called out in riot gear, in case the demonstration became unruly or worse.

These three demagogues—Cruz, Lee, and Palin—who are destroying the Republican brand with their fight to undermine the federal government, blamed Obama for the shutdown of the federal government, rather than Cruz and Lee taking responsibility for encouraging House Tea Party Republicans to do what everyone knows they provoked, intimidating Speaker John Boehner into what has become a disaster for the Republican Party brand!

By appearing with these Confederate, secessionist, states rights riight wingers, they are encouraging violent insurrection against the government, and poisoning the atmosphere for peaceful resolution of differences, and also undermining respect for the office of the Presidency!

Republican leadership—much more than Senator John McCain of Arizona and Congressman Peter King of New York—must speak up and denounce these tactics, or the GOP is totally doomed as a major political party for the long run!

The Growing Threat Of Violence and Bloodshed In America, Due To Incitement By Tea Party Movement!

Ronald 2 Comments

America is now living through a very tumultuous, confrontational time, and the Tea Party Movement is responsible for much of this turmoil!

Their vehemence against ObamaCare; their desire to destroy the safety net that has developed under the New Deal and Great Society; their rhetoric which promotes hate and fear; their campaign to promote hysteria that America is becoming a left wing dictatorship under President Obama; their willingness to destroy the two party system and undermine Republican Party stability in the name of eliminating RINOS (Republicans In Name Only); their lack of concern about the damage to the world economy caused by the possibility of a debt ceiling being breached; and their ignoring of the suffering many Americans are experiencing with the government shutdown ending its second week, is an alarm bell in the night, warning of tragedy ahead!

For extremists of the right, the elimination of President Obama from office is their goal, and all decent Americans must worry about his personal safety and security, as the number of death threats are so numerous, that it has set a record for any President of the United States, probably unsurpassed except by Abraham Lincoln! And we know the end result of the 10,000 or more death threats against our 16th President!

This is a time to pray, to remain calm, and to hope that our Secret Service and other government agencies are equipped to protect our 44th President, and allow him to contribute to the betterment of the nation, and have a dignified retirement life after January 20, 2017!

Republican Party Captive To Tea Party, Holding America Hostage!

Ronald 15 Comments

The Republican Party has officially become hostage to the Tea Party lunatics, and now the Tea Party is holding America hostage, and Speaker John Boehner seems unable to do anything about it, so we are now in a very difficult economic and political crisis! The government will now be “shut down”, with no end in sight!

The government is being undermined by these anarchistic, radical, anti government whackos who hate government and hate progress, and hate anyone but the rich and powerful!

They are mean spirited, and will do everything to keep the middle and lower classes in desperation, while enriching the elite, and they answer to the Koch Brothers and other despicable oligarchs of wealth!

The Republican Party, now 159 years old, is on its last legs, and soon will be part of history, with a sad ending, as a more moderate party will emerge, as this extreme, regressive, right wing party does not represent America and its democratic values!

America is not about to wipe out the advancements of the progressive movement of the early 20th century; the New Deal; the Great Society; and other political, social, and economic advancements over the past century, which have made America a better place, a country of hope and change and progress for all, not just the elite wealthy!

Ted Cruz Shows His True Colors: Ambition, Greed, And Maniacal Egotism!

Ronald 7 Comments

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is extremely ambitious, very greedy, and has a maniacal egotism, as he seeks to become the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016.

He will stop at nothing, dividing his own party, and promoting recklessness, to the extreme, that he now advocates the closing down of the military, along with putting millions upon millions of Americans in danger of economic calamity, by stopping Social Security and Medicare benefits, Veterans benefits, and closing down government agencies, paralyzing the every day activities of government, and stopping pay checks to federal employees and soldiers fighting overseas.

The fact that ObamaCare was passed into law by a majority of both houses of Congress; upheld by the Supreme Court; and reaffirmed by the second term victory of President Obama, seems not to be enough to Cruz, who does not care about the effects on our economy and national security due to his lunatic behavior.

But now, even the House GOP Tea Party Caucus is starting to turn on him, and Senator John McCain has not minced words, in calling Cruz a “whacko bird!”, which he most certainly is.

Cruz’s behavior is now likely to undermine his campaign for President, and it is certain that if, somehow, he makes it through GOP primaries and caucuses in 2016, and is the Republican Presidential nominee, he will be handed a walloping defeat, which will cleanse the GOP of its right wing extremist elements! Either that, or the party will be relegated to the dustbins of history!

“Natural Born Citizens” And The Issue of George Romney, John McCain, And Ted Cruz

Ronald Leave a comment

With Texas Senator Ted Cruz angling to run for President, showing up in Iowa this past weekend, the question arises as to whether he is a “natural born citizen” and eligible to be our President.

The thought of Cruz being the nominee of the Republican Party, and a possible occupant of the White House, is literally horrifying, as the Texas Senator is like a bull in a china shop, out to antagonize and confront Democrats, progressives, the news media, and anyone who is not a believer, as he is, in the Tea Party Movement.

So Cruz has been criticized by John McCain and other Senate Republicans, as well as the Republican “Establishment”, as he represents a radical right wing extremism, who has no problem in making enemies, and showing a level of arrogance and hubris rare in a first term, first year Senator.

In many ways, Cruz would be worse than Barry Goldwater represented in his right wing views in the Presidential Election of 1964, showing just how far right the GOP has gone in recent years.

It seems clear to most observers that Cruz could not unite the GOP, and would be likely to be an electoral disaster against Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or any other Democrat, but one can never be too confident or too cocky to believe that the world could not turn inside out and upside down in a time of difficult economic conditions.

This author will spend a lot of time on Cruz as we get closer to the 2016 primaries and caucuses, as he is certainly going to be an important factor in the Presidential campaign of 2016.

But right now, the question is whether Cruz, born in Canada of a US citizen mother and a Cuban immigrant father, is even eligible to run for President in the first place.

This will be the third time this issue has arisen, as Michigan Governor George Romney, a likely candidate in the Presidential Election of 1968, was born in Mexico of American Mormon parents, and John McCain, who was the GOP nominee in the Presidential Election of 2008, was born in the Panama Canal Zone.

Romney never got that close to the nomination, and not much was made of his Mexican birth at the time, while McCain had little challenge on his birth, as he was born to a military family in what was then US territory in the Panama Canal Zone.

While one might wish that Cruz was ineligible to run for President, there is unlikely to be a serious challenge to his candidacy for the Presidential Election of 2016.

It is also ironic that these three cases all involve Republicans, and yet a person born in Hawaii, Barack Obama, two years after it became the 50th state, still faces challenges from “Birthers” who contend he was born in Kenya! This would be unlikely to be an issue were Obama not a Democrat, but rather a Republican, and of course, if he was white, instead of African American! What a sad state of affairs!

George W. Bush And Immigration Reform: Is Bush The Last GOP President We Will Ever See?

Ronald 6 Comments

Former President George W. Bush, who has been very quiet, and stayed out of the public spotlight for four and a half years, has come out in full support of the Senate bill on immigration reform, a cause he lost in 2007, but feels deeply about, and he was able to gain 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, compared to Mitt Romney’s 29 percent in 2012.

Bush spoke of a “benevolent spirit”, of a “confident and successful nation” which embraces immigration, but the Republican Party of 2013 is very different than the “compassionate conservative” image that Bush cultivated, and he has little clout or respect among Republicans today.

So it is clear that unless the Tea Party Movement cancer is overcome, we are likely going to look back in the future, and say that George W. Bush was the last Republican President we would ever see take the oath of office as the occupant of the Oval Office!

A new moderate, centrist political party will eventually arise to replace an extremist, right wing party that fails to understand that the American people will not accept their mean spirit, their refusal to accept the demographic changes in America, their desire to make the rich wealthier and push the middle class into poverty, and denounce those who are poor, blaming them for their own degradation!

The American people want an optimistic spirit, a compassionate government, and on this issue, at least, former President George W. Bush; his brother Jeb Bush; Senator John McCain; former China Ambassador Jon Huntsman; and a small percentage of Republican Senators and others affiliated with the party understand this, and could be the basis of a new party which gets the message of the vast majority of the American people!

Virginia Republicans: Scandal, And Right Wing Extremism On Display

Ronald 3 Comments

The state of Virginia, the home of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, W H Harrison, Tyler, and Wilson is in political crisis as the state faces not only political scandal of its Governor, Bob McDonnell, but also of its gubernatorial candidate to replace McDonnell, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who makes McDonnell look “progressive” by comparison, due to his extreme right wing social views! This is not saying that McDonnell is less right wing, but less confrontational in his public statements than Cuccinelli!

McDonnell, who has Presidential ambitions, has been shown to have accepted major gifts from a corporation which does business with the Virginia state government, including large amounts of cash given to his wife and children. There are already calls for his resignation, and it seems likely that he will face criminal charges and the possibility of time in prison.

But Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli also has accepted gifts from the same corporation, although he denies any wrongdoing, just as much as McDonnell so declares! The fact of a denial means nothing, however, as that is standard for politicians of both parties who are accused of wrongdoing, and almost always are shown to be engaged in just that, wrongdoing!

Cuccinelli has also been extremely controversial with his anti gay, anti women, anti immigrant, anti science crusade, stronger in rhetoric and action than even Governor McDonnell!

This gubernatorial nominee has abused his power as Attorney General, and called for the criminalization of private sex acts between adults, along with doing everything he can to insure that ObamaCare is never instituted in the state of Virginia. He has also worked to intimidate all immigrants of Hispanic-Latino ancestry in Virginia. He has also campaigned against the promotion of environmental standards on global warming, declared war on science, and attempted to intimidate various state university faculty who promote such standards. And he is a leader in taking away the rights of women to their own reproductive lives!

To top it off, Cuccinelli’s running mate for Lieutenant Governor, an African American minister named E. W. Jackson, has made statements that make him seem even more extreme than Cuccinelli himself, Jackson has said that the Great Society programs of the 1960s under Lyndon B. Johnson were worse than slavery had been for African Americans! He also has declared that homosexuals and Planned Parenthood are worse than the Ku Klux Klan ever was, and that Barack Obama has Muslim tendencies!

These crazy lunatic statements have made the team of Cuccinelli and Jackson extremely right wing, and with the corruption surrounding both McDonnell and Cuccinelli as well, it has made Virginia a center of controversy and embarrassment that can only be ended by the hoped for victory of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, former head of the Democratic National Committee, who would be in the tradition of former Democratic Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who now grace the two Senate seats from Virginia!

Michele Bachmann To Leave Congress: Goodbye, Good Riddance, And Please No More Public Appearances Once You Leave (Fat Chance)!

Ronald 55 Comments

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, arguably the most infuriating Republican House member, although there are others who could certainly compete for that honor, has announced she is not going to run for a fifth term in her Congressional district, and everyone should celebrate this news!

Bachmann will go down as one of the most reckless, most irresponsible members of the US House of Representatives in its entire history!

She said stupid, inane things on a regular basis; worked at character assassination of Democrats and progressives; and her husband added to the embarrassment of her public appearances and speeches, both on the floor of the House and off!

She contributed NOTHING positive to American politics, working at dividing Americans, rather than unite them on anything!

She was also an embarrassment to the advancement of women in politics, and her Presidential campaign was a disgrace, that she even thought she was qualified to serve in the Oval Office!

To believe that she is a tax attorney is hard to conceptualize, as he came across as brain dead, having no understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and rejected science totally, and accepting mythology and hearsay as fact!

To believe that this dumb moron was on the Intelligence Committee of the House demonstrates what a mockery the Republican Party has become in the House of Representatives, accomplishing the least legislative action of any Congress in 70 years!

Bachmann claims that she was not worried about losing her seat, even though her margins of victory were smaller each time, and the last round, she won by one percent.

Bachmann also claims that she is not concerned about the investigation of her Presidential campaign funding by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but an active pursuit of information about likely corruption is in process, and do not be surprised that she could be indicted, and could, in theory, face expulsion from the House if the investigation develops quickly enough over the next 18 months.

It would be fitting for Bachmann to be repudiated and forced out, as she is a a literal nightmare that brought out the ugliest side of the American right wing!

And the Tea Party Movement, of which she was the leading member, is also in trouble, and hopefully, there will be a repudiation of that hateful, backward, movement that promoted selfishness and greed, and condemns people who are not part of the elite upper class white establishment that put us into the Great Recession!

Meanwhile, we have rid ourselves of Florida Congressman Allen West, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, other morons and threats to a stable future in America, so we do have some things, as progressives, to be happy about!