Ronald Reagan

The Obscenity Of GOP Debate Audiences: What Is Wrong With These People?

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In the past two weeks, we have seen three Republican Presidential debates, and we have witnessed the obscenity of debate audiences.

What is wrong with these people?

In the first debate, the audience cheered at the mention of Rick Perry’s all time record of 234 executions of prison inmates while Governor, as if this is a great accomplishment!

In the second debate, when the idea of a person in a coma needing medical care but having no medical insurance was brought up, a few in the crowd yelled that the unfortunate gentleman should just die!

Yesterday, in the third debate, when a question came up about the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, and a gay member of the military was shown on screen, a portion of the audience booed him, and then Rick Santorum added insult to injury by suggesting that he would re-institute the policy if he became President! Why was there no respect for this man serving in the military and recognition of his sacrifices fighting for this nation, so that wealthier, privileged people do not have to serve?

What is wrong with these people,who have such hate, and take such SICK stands on capital punishment, health care, and gays in the military? Is this what we face if the Tea Party radicals gain control of the Republican Party?

Does the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan really want to gain the support of these whackos?

It is time for the party to repudiate these hate mongers, and for any further outbursts at future debates to witness ALL the candidates make it clear that they consider it reprehensible!

If they do not, then all of them deserve to be repudiated overwhelmingly by the American people!

Death Of One Of Last “Liberal” Republican Senators: Charles Percy Of Illinois

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The era of “liberal” Republican senators, who were loyal to the party but crossed the aisle to work with Democrats, and had moderate views on most issues, is just about over, as the death of Charles Percy, who served three terms in the Senate from 1967-1985, was announced over the weekend.

Percy died at age 91 of Alzheimers Disease, which he had suffered for the past two years, according to family sources.

Percy, often seen as a possible Presidential candidate, might have run for the nomination in 1976, if President Gerald Ford had decided not to seek election, after replacing President Richard Nixon as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Percy served alongside other Liberal Republicans, including Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Charles Mathias, and Mark Hatfield, all of whom passed away before him.

Percy served as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under President Ronald Reagan, and spoke openly against President Richard Nixon in the time of Watergate.

He was not afraid to fight for his principles, and was highly respected by his colleagues.

His death reminds us of just how extreme his party has become, and one can only wish for a return to moderation some day by his party, when they regain their senses!

The Republican Culture: Death, Hate, Selfishness, Lack Of Compassion!

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The Republican Party, in its mad dash to the far Right with Texas Governor Rick Perry in the lead, is demonstrating its ugly side, arguably the most despicable agenda since the creation of the party in the Civil War era!

Always a major backer of corporations and the rich upper class, the party always maintained some sanity, and while not promoting the social safety net as a principle, we saw members of the party in different northern states and in Congress who worked in unison with Democrats to support the Progressive Era reforms, the New Deal, and the Great Society, and reforms under Richard Nixon.

The one time the party went this far to the Right, they suffered a massive defeat under Barry Goldwater a half century ago. When Ronald Reagan became President on much of the Goldwater agenda, he managed to work across the party lines and take away the rough edges of the right wing, mouthing support but not pursing much of their agenda.

But now with the advent of the Tea Party loonies, the party is adopting a new culture, that should sicken any civilized, decent American citizen!

Unfortunately, as witnessed at the recent Republican debates in California and Florida, there are many Americans who fail to act and believe in a dignified manner of behavior!

Now death, in the form of capital punishment endorsement and advocacy of letting people without health insurance die, has been endorsed enthusiastically by right wing Republican whackos!

Now, hate of illegal immigrants and their children, and wishes to deny them basic education, health care and ability to work and contribute to American society, is endorsed wholeheartedly!

Now, selfishness, including desire to destroy labor organizing, and lack of respect and appreciation of the contributions of public workers, including police officers, firefighters, prison guards, teachers, nurses, librarians, social workers and others is endorsed!

Lack of compassion for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly, and for minority groups in America is hailed as a virtue!

One day, when this sickness in the psyche of the Republican Party is finally expunged, we will look back on this period with shock and regret, and wonder why a major political party would allow itself to engage in such insane behavior!

The great Republican heroes of the past–Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan–would be shocked and embarrassed by what the party has allowed itself to become!

But even the lesser Republican Presidents–William Howard Taft, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush–would, and in the case of the two Bushes, are very disturbed at what their party has become. This is the reason why Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney are seen as mainstream by the Bush family, and why they are clearly against the horrible message of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann!

Even the great heroes of the conservative Republican movement in the past–Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater–were not as ugly as these Tea Party Republicans are today!

Hopefully, this poison in the political debate going on, will be soundly defeated in 2012, by sane, intelligent people, who realize what the Tea Party control of the GOP has done is to make America far worse off than it was just nine months ago when they took power in the House of Representatives and declared war on basic values of decency!

Rick Perry: Dangerous For The Republican Party And America’s Future! He Must Be Stopped!

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Texas Governor Rick Perry may have flubbed a bit in his debate performance in Tampa on Monday, but he remains the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination as of today, and it is looking more likely that he really could end up as the nominee of the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan!

This is dangerous for the party and the nation, as Perry has many shortcomings, as well as dangerous aspects in his background and viewpoints!

For the party, Perry represents a threat to the Establishment Republicans, the middle, the mainstream of the party in the past, and gives power to the extremists of the Tea Party Movement!

With Jon Huntsman apparently floundering, even though the author feels he came across very well in the past two debates, the only hope in the field of candidates is Mitt Romney, with all of his shortcomings and faults, but it will not be easy to overcome the Tea Party takeover of the party!

One could say that if the party nominates Perry, they will lose, and that will be, therefore, only their problem as to how to recover from a disastrous defeat in 2012.

But with the economy so bad right now, the idea is starting to develop that maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama COULD lose in 2012, giving us President Perry, and possibly a Tea Party Congress, enough to make one hysterical and give one nightmares, and the purpose here is NOT to joke, but be very serious!

Were Perry to win, we would face the following, with and without a Tea Party majority in Congress:

1. We would have a President who is not very smart, not very curious to learn, not open to new ideas, very rigid in his right wing beliefs, unwilling to compromise, arrogant, cocky, with a swagger about him, and not willing to be transparent in his activities in the White House!

2. We would have a complete takeover of right wing conservatism, leading to total deregulation, cutting of taxes even further on the rich, attempts to destroy several government agencies or make them ineffective in their work, and resulting in widespread corruption due to “cronyism”!

3. We would have a President who would be arrogant toward the outside world, create crises and possible interventions in other countries, and boast about “American exceptionalism”, undermining relations even with our allies and friends around the world.! The neoconservative view of foreign policy would dominate.

4. Civil Liberties would be violated worse than any President in modern times, and civil rights enforcement for Latinos, African Americans, women and gays would end!

5. We would see a theocracy develop, as Rick Perry would constantly invoke Jesus Christ, talk about God and religion more than any President, including Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush, and promote as much combination of church and state as one can imagine might happen.

6. The economy would NOT get better, and instead we would have more poverty, deprivation, and human suffering, similar to the reality in Texas under Governor Perry.

7. War would be declared on environmentalists, and scientists, in the name of industry and religion, undermining our education system nationally, as well as our health care programs.

8. Justice and fairness in the law would be undermined, as capital punishment would become a virtue, and the courts, including the Supreme Court, would become the most right wing in American history since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

9. The goal of a Perry Administration would be the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and all other social safety net programs, and basically the repeal of the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other reforms under Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

10. Fundamentally, America would go back a full century to the Gilded Age, with the total or near total repeal of the 20th century, which made America the envy of the free world!

This is serious stuff here, no joking, and all efforts must be made in the Republican Party to defeat Rick Perry, and if that fails, and even if it succeeds, do everything necessary to reelect Barack Obama as the only hope for moving forward in the second decade of the 21st century!

Falsehoods At GOP Debate Abound! So What Else Is New?

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The Republican Presidential debate last night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California abounded with falsehoods!

Rick Perry claimed that there is a crisis at the border with Mexico, and Michele Bachmann seconded that idea, but that is NOT the case! In fact, records of the federal government agencies show that crime is far lower in cities close to Mexico than they are in the rest of the country’s cities. The cities that have low crime rates include El Paso and Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and San Diego, California. But it is part of the plan of the GOP to exploit the illegal immigration issue, and instill fear in the American people!

Michele Bachmann said, regarding immigration, that we need to make citizenship difficult as it was in the 1950s and early 1960s, when literacy in English was required; knowledge of American history and politics was mandated; taxes had to be paid on time and accurately; a criminal record would eliminate the chance for citizenship; and having a communicable disease was also ground for refusal of citizenship. The problem with what Bachmann cited is that these are the SAME requirement now, as they were then!

Mitt Romney claimed to create more jobs in four years in Massachusetts than Barack Obama has in two and a half years! Wow, what a whopper that was, as he only created 48,000 jobs, while Obama has created or saved at least TWO million jobs over the past 30 months!

Herman Cain called for a 9-9-9 tax structure, which means 9 percent income tax rate 9 percent corporate tax rate, and 9 percent national sales tax, claiming that would raise enough money and be totally fair to everyone! Really, what a whopper, as a national sales tax would hurt the poor and the middle class much more because they spend almost all of their income on things, while wealthy people save a lot of their income. And Cain wants no estate tax and no capital gains tax, which means more distortion of national income in favor of the rich!

Ron Paul shocked many by openly criticizing Ronald Reagan on much that he did, and calling for cutbacks on federal regulation and enforcement in areas that almost everyone recognizes need federal involvement, including education, health, natural disasters, and corporate practices!

Only Jon Huntsman avoided any inaccuracies or ridiculous statements, seeming very statesmanlike, reasonable, and sensible. Despite this, just about everyone in the news media seem to be ignoring him, seeing him as not a major factor in the race.

This is folly, as John Kerry and John McCain proved in 2004 and 2008 that making judgments in September, and going by fluctuating public opinion polls, is a major mistake.

Some observers are saying that if Huntsman fails to gain in the next polls over the weekend, that he will be dropped from future debates, although he is scheduled for the CNN debate next Monday. It would be ironic if the Fox News Channel debate a week later saw editorializing by that channel, and led to Huntsman being eliminated from that debate. But if that happened, the answer would be: What else is new?

The Targeting Of Bin Laden: The Most Important Accomplishment Of Barack Obama And Will Guarantee A Second Term In The White House!

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Here we are 14 months away from Election Day 2012, and many observers project that Barack Obama is in deep trouble, and will lose reelection.

Certainly, with the horrible economy and the highest number of unemployed citizens in history, and the lack of any cooperation by the Republican opposition, Barack Obama has many problems and issues that could affect how people vote in 2012.

Despite these realities, the President remains personally popular, which is a major positive in his favor.

And after having watched the HISTORY CHANNEL two hour special tonight, entitled TARGETING BIN LADEN, revealing all of the details of the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, it became clear to the author that this accomplishment will always be remembered as the most significant single action of Barack Obama, just as the Cuban Missile Crisis will be always seen as the major accomplishment of John F. Kennedy in office!

The courage, the decisiveness, the handling of the Bin Laden matter will be enough to give Barack Obama a second term as President!

Imagine if this action had failed! Barack Obama would be seen as Jimmy Carter after the failed mission to release the hostages in Iran in April 1980, the major reason for Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in the Election of 1980.

For the same reason, Obama will be able to use this great deed to insure that he will be reelected in 2012!

A Sobering Labor Day: Bad Times For Labor Unions And Workers!

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As Labor Day 2011 comes on tomorrow, it is a sobering time for labor unions and workers, whether in unions or not.

Labor unions have been under sharp and sustained attack across America, continuing a 30 year decline beginning under Ronald Reagan.

Workers’ wages are stagnant or declining in purchasing power, and most employees know they are in a weak state, afraid of antagonizing management in a time of extremely high unemployment, where any problems created with employers can lead to quick unemployment lines.

With 9.1 percent official unemployment in August, and absolutely no job growth at all, for the first time since February 1945, there is great fear among the unemployed, as well as those who have jobs, that the labor situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

African Americans have an unemployment rate nearing 17 percent, and Hispanics and Latinos have over 12 percent, and people without a college degree have about 9.5 percent, while college graduates actually have only about a 4.5 percent unemployment rate.

So race and ethnicity and lack of adequate education are key factors in unemployment. But also, alarmingly, many people between 50-60 years of age are experiencing long term unemployment for the first time in their adult lives, with little opportunity to retrieve an equivalent job and salary anytime, and with Social Security and Medicare still years away from occurring.

Also, while the unemployment rate remains stagnant at 9.1 percent, the REAL unemployment rate of those with only part time hours added to those who have no work, is closer to 18 percent, an unacceptable and dangerous number!

We must not forget that it is young people, plus discontented older people, who have led for change in the “Arab Spring”, and also now are demanding major change in government policies in our Mideast ally, Israel.

How much longer can labor conditions continue the way they are going without a reaction which might include radical action, some of it violent or incendiary?

So the urgency of a serious jobs program by Barack Obama, and cooperation by Congress is needed, but not likely due to the divided Congress, and the power of the Tea Party Movement, which wants no government involvement in creating jobs!

So crisis conditions and divisions are bound to get worse very soon, a troubling scenario!

The Virtues Of A Perry Or Bachmann Candidacy: Long Range Positive Impact On America!

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With the growing likelihood, at least before a series of debates in a six week period in September and October that will test legitimacy, that Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann might win the GOP nomination for President, it must be said that there are numerous virtues if such an eventuality actually occurs!

The virtues are as follows:

1. The odds of such a far RIght WIng candidate winning the national election is extremely low, as America is a centrist nation, and will reject such craziness!

2. The Republican Party would be cleansed by the defeat of a Perry or Bachmann, and come back to its senses, moving to the center of the political spectrum, and by so doing, would have a good chance to win the White House in 2016, as it is not uncommon to have parties switch power in the Presidency every eight to twelve years!

3. The impact of the Tea Party Movement would be dramatically lessened, if not destroyed, by a massive defeat!

4. The Influence of the Christian Right evangelicals would be eliminated as a major factor in future Republican Presidential battles if the candidate loses in a disastrous way!

5. The urban-rural split within the country could be resolved by the triumph of the urban areas, where most of the people live–80 percent in 28 states with only 40 percent of the land area, as compared to 20 percent in 22 states with 60 percent of the land area!

6. Centrists and Independents would return to the Democratic Party in large numbers with an extreme right wing Republican such as Perry or Bachmann!

7. The chances of a strongly Democratic Congress in both houses would increase, as the “coat tail” effect of an Obama landslide would help to bring in Democrats, even in some Republican or swing districts, allowing the accomplishment of more of the President’s agenda, and making the GOP control of the House of Representatives a bad memory!

This election could be similar to the massive defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, changing the political climate for nearly a generation, bringing to power a moderate Republican, Richard Nixon, as compared to Goldwater.

Of course, such a defeat does not mean the complete end of the Right Wing forces in the GOP, but it would set them back for a period of at least 12-16 years as occurred from 1964-1980. And even Ronald Reagan ended up smoothing the rough edges of the Goldwater ideology when he was President of the United States in the 1980s!

The purging, the purification of the Republican Party, from its extremist roots is necessary to make the party a true, legitimate alternative for America in the 21st century! The American people will not allow such reckless candidates, as Perry or Bachmann would be, to win the White House, as at least the vast majority of them, believe in American “exceptionalism”, a different kind that will not allow anyone in the White House who represents a threat to the whole 20th century democratizing and reforms, and wishes to promote theocracy in America! Even Barry Goldwater did not wish to do that, and in fact, opposed religious influence to dictate to the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower!

The Republicans, Barack Obama, And The 2016, NOT 2012, Presidential Election!

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All of America is focused on the 2012 Presidential Election, as the Republicans compete over who should oppose President Barack Obama for re-election.

There are a lot of people who seem to think that Barack Obama will be easy to defeat, because of the high unemployment rate, which will be the highest for a President running for re-election since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But these are not ordinary times, and the thought that Barack Obama is going down the road of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush is a false premise!

Remember that Ford, Carter and Bush I all had strong primary challenges, with Ford having to deal with Ronald Reagan, Carter with Ted Kennedy and Jerry Brown, and Bush I with Pat Buchanan in the primaries and Ross Perot in the general election.

Also remember that none of those three Presidents had a record of domestic accomplishments that Barack Obama has!

Also remember that none of those three had the charisma or oratorical ability of Barack Obama!

Also realize that Obama has foreign policy accomplishments in the fight against terrorism, unmatched by any of those three, except briefly with the Gulf War under George H. W. Bush!

Although there are those competing for the Presidency in the Republican Party, actually, on the sidelines, there are others who desire the job, but either are not ready yet to run for the office, or are smart enough to realize that the odds of ultimately defeating Obama are long, so better to wait to 2016, when Obama would be finishing his two terms of office, if he is reelected.

It is a gamble, of course, to sit back and wait, but likely a good gamble, and if it is an open Presidential election, the odds of success for the Republicans grows by 2016.

So who is sitting on the sidelines, salivating for the Presidency, and secretly hoping no Republican is elected in 2012?

In no special order, here is a list of ambitious Republicans:

1. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey
2. Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin
3. Former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida
4. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
5.Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts
6. Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia
7. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin
8. Governor Rick Scott of Florida
9. Governor John Kasich of Ohio
10.Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina

Notice particularly THREE Floridians who have ambitions–Bush, Rubio and Scott, and realize the fact that Florida will have 29 electoral votes, the fourth largest number, as Florida is the fourth largest state.

So, particularly among Republicans in Florida, there are those who secretly hope that 2016 will be an open election, and are willing to sit back and wait for just that reason!

Ironic: Stalemate On Capitol Hill Would Nearly Balance The Budget By Lack Of Action, Raising Taxes On The Wealthy And Corporations!

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It has recently been recognized that the budget stalemate on Capitol Hill could actually have a great result at the end of 2012, just in time for the inauguration of the new Presidential term!

The reason is that the so called “Bush tax cuts” expire then, and if the Democratic Senate and Republican House do not cooperate on budget issues, and if President Obama determines he will make no deals with the GOP, as he has done too often in the past, the accomplishment will be that trillions of dollars will be raised through taxation, and the nation will come close to balancing the budget!

The deficit would be cut by almost 40 percent under the circumstances of NOT having any legislation, and the richest 5 percent of the population, who received half the entire benefit of the Bush tax cuts, would have to pay up in major ways, about time!

The tax rates would go back to those of the Clinton Presidency, when 23 million new jobs were created, as compared to 3 million under George W. Bush!

If Congress does nothing, a total of $7 trillion in revenue will be available over the next ten years, solving most of the problem of growing debt by increased taxation!

So the attitude of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party should be to stall, create gridlock and stalemate, which the Republicans have been excellent at doing, and turn the tables on the Republicans and their wealthy taxpayer-corporation supporters! If the elite could pay even higher tax rates under Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, more so than even under Bill Clinton, and economic growth was the result, the answer is to “Bring It On!”