Ronald Reagan

Barack Obama Should Be Added To List Of “Transformative” Presidents

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As 2012 nears an end, it is appropriate to add President Barack Obama to a short list of “transformative” Presidents, Chief Executives who have had a major impact on the nation in a way that makes them historic figures who have changed the politics of America for the long term!

The list of “transformative” Presidents is short and would include the following:

Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosvelt
Lyndon B. Johnson
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama

Each of the eight Presidents listed above changed our political system in a way that lasted way beyond their time, and it seems likely that Obama will have the same impact electorally!

Just as Thomas Jefferson co-opted the Federalist Party agenda; Andrew Jackson created a party of the masses; Abraham Lincoln saved the nation in the Civil War and made the Republican Party the dominant national party; Theodore Roosevelt made “progressivism” a term and a movement that would be pursued by Woodrow Wilson and others later on; Franklin D. Roosevelt would save the nation from the Great Depression via the New Deal, and World War II, and make the Democratic Party the dominant national party; Lyndon B. Johnson would transform the nation on civil rights and Medicare; Ronald Reagan would make conservatism the dominant national ideology for nearly thirty years; so will Barack Obama transform the nation on health care, gay rights, the growing role of women and minorities, and in fighting the war on terrorism!

There were Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans; Jacksonian Democrats; Lincolnian Republicans; TR Progressives; FDR Democrats; Johnson Loyalists of the Great Society; Reaganite conservatives; and now Obama Democrats who will affect the future for decades, as his predecessors did!

We are, indeed, living in very historic times!

Robert Bork, Controversial And Rejected Supreme Court Nominee, Dead: Brings Back Memories And Reflections On Effect On Supreme Court

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Twenty five years ago, President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork, former Solicitor General and Acting Attorney General under President Richard Nixon, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His death was announced today by his son.

Bork had become controversial for firing Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate Scandal, as ordered by President Nixon. But he also became controversial for the judicial viewpoint known as “originalism”, which contended that judges and Justices should always interpret the Constitution solely on the basis of what the Founding Fathers enunciated in the 18th century, and not consider changing times in their decisions.

This alarmed progressives, liberals, labor supporters, African Americans, women, environmentalists, and others who saw him as a threat to progress on race and gender, and also on privacy rights, including abortion and contraceptives, of which he vehemently was on record as an opponent of such rights not contained in the original Constitution. Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden became major critics, and his nomination became a massive controversy, and made it that future Supreme Court nominees would be examined with a “fine tooth comb”, making them less willing to be as forthcoming as Bork was in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

Bork also believed in no limitation on police rights, and thought evolution should not be taught in public schools as fact, therefore promoting fundamentalist religion as part of the curriculum of schools. He was confrontational in his approach, giving as good as he received in the pursuing debate. He displayed no problem with the growth of monopolies, and had no interest in the rights of gay men and women.

After a bitter battle, he was rejected, and this affected the future Court, as Anthony Kennedy became the new appointee the following year, and now after almost 25 years on the Court, has become in recent years the “swing” vote on many cases, therefore having a major impact on constitutional law.

Do not forget that Kennedy’s vote on Gay Privacy rights, in Lawrence V. Texas in 2003, transformed the gay rights movement, and it is thought likely that his vote will call for the allowance of gay marriage when the cases presently before the Court come up for consideration in March, and decision in June!

There is no way that Robert Bork would have been a “swing” vote on the Court, and might very well have been MORE conservative and right wing than either Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas have turned out to be, so it was a great moment when Bork, with his radical right agenda, wishing to turn back the decisions of the Earl Warren and Warren Burger Courts that expanded individual rights from the 1950s through the 1980s, was soundly rejected!

Paul Krugman And Robert Reich: Sages On The Economy Too Much Ignored!

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We have two brilliant, courageous educators who have promoted the understanding that the only way to get out of the economic downturn we have been in, is to do more stimulus spending, and have proved by what is going on in Europe that austerity is a disastrous policy, but they are too much ignored by many people, who choose to believe the conservative and Republican mantra on the economy, which is to do more of the same economic policies that have failed, those of George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan before him.

Paul Krugman of Princeton University, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and columnist for the New York Times, is a brilliant economist, and has called for a budget package that does not destroy the middle class any more than it is already!

So has Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, and Professor of Political Economy at the University of California, Berkeley, who has advised policies that make sense, but is also ridiculed by those who do not understand our history, and the economic cycle!

To promote austerity is seen as wrong headed, and would lead to a disastrous downturn in the economy, something Great Britain’s government has discovered, and both men advise us NOT to follow the same course!

The future of the middle class and the poor is at stake, and we would be wise to respect and follow the advice and counsel of both Krugman and Reich at this delicate time!

Two Heroines Of Gun Control: Senator Diane Feinstein And Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy!

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This nation is fortunate to have two heroines in Congress, ready to fight for realistic gun control in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Connecticut.

Senator Diane Feinstein of California and New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy have both known what gun violence has done, and how it has affected their lives.

Senator Feinstein became Mayor of San Francisco in 1978, after the assassination of gay Councilman Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, and she fought for the Brady Bill’s passage in 1993-1994, named after the press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, wounded during the attempt against the President’s life in 1981 by John Hinckley. She achieved the impossible two decades ago, and the Brady Bill remained law until 2004, when President George W. Bush refused to support an extension of this gun control law. Feinstein is now willing to lead the fight for an equivalent ban nine years after the last one expired, with the horrible record of violence ever since, much of it with assault rifles and vast magazines of ammunition, something that no hunter, and no civilian, needs!

Congresswoman McCarthy lost her husband in 1993, due to violence on the Long Island Railroad, and nearly lost her son, who needed many months of rehabilitation. She lobbied for the Brady Bill, ultimately signed by President Bill Clinton, and ultimately ran against the Long Island Republican Congressman Dan Frisa when he refused to support the Brady Bill, and was elected in 1996. She has made it clear that she intends to fight for another Brady Bill, alongside Feinstein and other courageous men and women in the House and Senate, including New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who worked on the Brady Bill in the House back in 1993-1994.

These two women are indeed true heroines, and let’s hope they can accomplish their goal of a safer America, as we cannot continue to live in a nation where 11,000 to 12,000 men, women, and children are killed annually by gun violence!

Rumored Deal On Raising Medicare Eligibility Age Totally Wrongheaded!

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As the “Fiscal Cliff” deadline nears, there are rumors emerging that President Barack Obama might be ready to make a deal with Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Party, that in exchange for their support on raising taxes on those making over $250,000 a year by a few points, that the Democrats agree to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67.

Some see this as similar to the “grand deal” between President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, adopted thirty years ago in 1983, that raised the Social Security age from 65 to 67 in graduated amounts over a long period of time.

However, that was a totally different situation, and only involved a delay in gaining full benefits on Social Security over a long period of years.

This involves a rapid move to 67, and with no benefits until that age for Medicare, while Social Security has always allowed a smaller benefit as young as 62.

Also, this is MEDICAL, not a check every month, and people in their mid 60s are more likely to have health issues, and many jobs are such that a person cannot be expected to work extra years (particularly physical kind of jobs), and will therefore have a gap of years without medical coverage, and any such coverage would be prohibitively expensive!

The answer is to tax a higher percentage amount for Medicare, as everyone should be entitled to Medicare at no later than 65!

It would be unconscionable to throw people nearing or in retirement off of guaranteed health care at a vulnerable age!

Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Tom Harkin of Iowa are leading the fight against any changes in the retirement age, and President Obama needs to have pressure brought to prevent such a radical change that would really hurt working class people, both white and minority!

Progressives and liberals need to let Obama know that they have his back, and that he must NOT bend to Republicans on this issue, and if he does, he will have lost much of his support which put him in the White House twice!

And this would anger this blogger as well! Let me make that perfectly clear!

126th Anniversary Of Founding Of American Federation Of Labor: The Struggle For Labor Rights Never Ends!

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On this day in 1886, the American Federation of Labor, the first long term successful national labor union, was founded by Samuel Gompers and others, with Gompers being its leader for nearly four decades.

The battle for labor rights was a tormenting, and often bloody, struggle, and despite many victories and contributions to the lives of working people in and out of labor unions, the struggle of workers for justice and human rights in America is a never ending battle, with major losses since the administration of Ronald Reagan, and facing new challenges from the “Bully” Republican Governors, many elected in 2010, who have declared war on workers and their basic rights to collective bargaining, and decent pay, benefits, and working conditions.

And we have seen the rise of new monopolies, best personified by Walmart as a symbol, who have reneged their responsibilities to their work force, and used their power and influence to leave it to taxpayers to support underpaid workers on food stamps and Medicaid.

And the Tea Party radicals, and their corporate backers, best personified by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires, have tried to gain control over Congress and the White House through their spending and lobbying, with success in Congress, but thankfully, failing to defeat President Barack Obama!

This is a day to celebrate about organized labor, but also a day to recommit ourselves to revive the labor movement which has made so many lives much better than they might have been, by leaving all power to corporate influences and the Republican Party, which has been anti labor for many decades!

Michigan Republicans Declare War On Organized Labor In State Where Labor Unions Became Nationally Significant In 1930s

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The state of Michigan was the location of the great auto strikes during the Great Depression years of the 1930s, and their success led to the rise of labor unions as major factors in American society and politics for the next fifty years.

But the Republican Party continued to be anti labor over those decades, and Ronald Reagan coming to the Presidency thirty years ago, ironically a labor leader himself with the Screen Actors Guild, became the beginning of a concerted attack on labor,which has continued in the states with the “Bully” Republican Governors elected in 2010.

And now, Michigan Republicans have declared war on collective bargaining, and have rammed through the legislature a “right to work” bill, which will be signed by Governor Rick Snyder, despite massive protests at the state capital in East Lansing.

Those who believe in collective bargaining and the right of labor to organize must organize and fight over the next two years, not only in Michigan, but in many other Republican states, to defeat the Governors and the reactionary members of the legislatures, in order to regain their basic human rights to decent conditions of work!

Nuclear Disarmament and Nuclear Security: Senator Obama To President Obama

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One of President Obama’s great commitments is to promote nuclear disarmament and nuclear security, an issue also pursued by Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in office. Also, other efforts were made by Gerald Ford and both Presidents Bush, as well.

But Obama showed interest and concern over this as early as being a freshman in the Senate, when he traveled to the former Soviet Republics in Eastern Europe to promote such activities, in league with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in the year 2005.

Obama made a new commitment to such work in a speech today at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, explaining the need to dismantle nuclear weapons, one by one, to lower the danger of a nuclear disaster caused by accident worldwide, or by terrorists gaining control of such weapons.

So Barack Obama can be added to the list of Presidents who have worked to make a safer world for future generations of people worldwide! There is no more important responsibility for any American President!

Vice President Joe Biden’s Eulogy Of New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman: A Mirror Image In So Many Ways!

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For once, many members of the US Senate, who these days are at odds much of the time, got together today to eulogize New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman, a reputable, decent moderate conservative Republican, who served from 1980 to 1993, and passed away earlier this month at age 82.

Rudman was always a person who was genuine, decent, caring, and willing to cross the aisle in a compromising manner without giving up his principles. Rudman often bemoaned the way the Senate has become in the nearly twenty years since he left the upper body..

Rudman brought up the importance of fiscal sanity, and came across as a man of principle, concerned about the growing national debt, even back in his time in office, when the Reagan Presidency tripled the national debt.

Biden’s eulogy was heartfelt, describing Rudman as a man who really cared, was sincere and genuine, very approachable, a person who never forgot where he came from, and always treated ordinary Americans with dignity and respect.

Watching that eulogy by Biden reminded me that these descriptive characterizations of Rudman also fit Biden perfectly!

That is the reason why this author has such admiration for Joe Biden, because he is REAL and a GOOD GUY in every conceivable way!

The Extraordinarily Close Relationship Between President Obama And Vice President Biden

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Now that the first term of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is ending, it is worth a few moments to recognize the extraordinarily close relationship that exists between the President and the Vice President.

When one looks back on such relationships in the past, it is clear that no other relationship has been quite as close, as warm, as personally friendly, since the time when Jimmy Carter utilized Walter Mondale as practically a “co President” from 1977-1981.

Vice Presidents never really mattered or were close to a President until the 1950s, when Richard Nixon made the office of Vice President a significant office. But President Dwight D. Eisenhower was not very happy, a lot of the time, with his Vice President, and there were hints that he would have preferred a different running mate in 1956,

The John F. Kennedy–Lyndon B. Johnson relationship was not close at all, and neither was the Johnson–Hubert Humphrey relationship.

The Richard Nixon–Spiro Agnew relationship was not much better, and Nixon with Gerald Ford was only a brief period where the two men avoided contact with the other during the Watergate crisis.

Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller were closer, but Ford chose to drop Rockefeller in favor of Bob Dole for the 1976 Presidential race to please the conservative wing led by Ronald Reagan, and years later, Ford expressed regret that he had allowed himself to dump Rockefeller.

Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale were extraordinarily close, with Mondale being treated as an absolute equal, and the two men remain close friends now after nearly 32 years out of office, the longest lasting Presidential-Vice Presidential team, breaking all records for longevity every day.

Ronald Reagan was not very close to George H. W. Bush personally, and Bush did not take Dan Quayle very seriously at all as a Vice President.

Bill Clinton and Al Gore were friendly and close until the Monica Lewinsky and impeachment issues arose, and then Gore stayed away from Clinton during his own campaign for President in 2000, which very well may have harmed his ability to win, despite a popular vote majority of about a half million votes.

George W. Bush relied on Dick Cheney a great deal, but their closeness, if it ever existed, dissipated in the second term over various matters.

The Obama-Biden friendship and closeness seems not at all affected in any way by events, or Biden’s well known problem with gaffes, and he has played a major role as an adviser on so many issues, domestic and foreign. One can see in so many situations and photos that the two men are close, and have a very warm, personal relationship with each other.

This could create a problem for President Obama IF both Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decide to run for President, as the President owes a lot to both of them, as well as to former President Bill Clinton, for having worked so hard for his reelection, and giving what many consider the best speech for Obama at the Democratic National Convention as well.

The best situation for Obama then, would be to remain neutral, but with the hope that maybe one or both would decide ultimately, because of their ages and long careers, not to run for President in their 70s (Biden) or nearing 70s (Clinton).