Ronald Reagan

The True Nature Of Republican Anarchism Reveals Itself!

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The Republican Party has moved so far to the Right that the list of outrageous views and statements that can be compiled gets worse all of the time! There seems to be no limit to their nastiness, selfishness, mean spiritedness, and anarchistic statements against government!

Witness the following in no special order:

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library in California, condemns the entire New Deal and Great Society, saying Social Security and Medicare have been a total failure! He seems to suggest that such parts of the social safety net should be phased out, and demonstrates no recognition of how these programs have made old age much more dignified over the past 50-80 years, plus offering assistance to widows, children, and the disabled!

Virginia Congressman and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Wisconsin Congressman and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan say that earthquake and hurricane relief will be dealt with, but that equivalent budget cuts will have to be arranged to cover those costs! This will affect average Americans and cause more joblessness, and shows absolutely no concern about the economic effect on the long range future of the nation!

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, running for President, says that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should not exist and is unnecessary, as the states and local governments can handle natural disaster, describing that as the response in past storms in Texas decades ago! He conveniently forgets or is ignorant of the fact that the worst hurricane in history, in Galveston, Texas, part of his district, experienced 6,000-12,000 dead in the year 1900, because of lack of awareness and response to that hurricane! Paul wants to go back a century, and what he is calling for is anarchism of the worst kind, such hatred of national government that he would leave recovery to states, particularly in the Gulf area, which historically have had just about the worst concern and commitment to their citizens, particularly the poor who are always more often the victims of natural disasters!

There will be more outrageous statements and criticisms of the federal government on the role they should play regarding the social safety net, and the reaction to natural disasters. We are living through a time of lunacy and insanity, of anarchism just as dangerous as any Islamic terrorist could ever present to our nation!

And sadly, it is also some Christian “terrorists”, just as dangerous to our nation, who are claiming that these natural disasters visiting the Atlantic Coast are due to gay marriage and abortion and having a black President! And the hatred prevalent at some church services conducted by these lunatic pastors against Barack Obama is terrifying! Jesus Christ has been totally distorted in his message of compassion and love by these reckless, hate mongering pastors who manipulate gullible followers in a dangerous, inciting manner!

We are in a very dangerous political climate that makes one wonder about the stability of the American republic!

A Horrifying Scenario: A Tea Party Republican Congress And President–What It Would Portend!

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Any sane, centrist oriented American, who might be disgusted with and frustrated by how the federal government is working these days, and therefore is tempted to join the Tea Party Movement that has taken over the Republican Party in the House of Representatives and in many state governorships, needs to realize what would happen if the Right wing tilt that began in the midterm elections of 2010 went all the way to a dominant Tea Party Republican House of Representatives, Senate, and a President Perry or Bachmann!

The purpose is not to promote horror and fear, but to make people realize, based on the agenda of the Tea Party Movement, what would happen without any barrier in the way, such as one of the legislative bodies or the Presidency being in the hands of the Democrats.

In no special order, the following would be likely:

1. The repeal of the Obama Health Care Plan in its entirety
2. The privatization of Medicare over ten years
3. The cutting of Social Security benefits over time
4. No government assistance for home owners in trouble on their mortgages
5. No federal limits on greenhouse gases, and the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, and therefore no limits on strip mining of coal or regulations on oil drilling
6. A “war” on labor unions, and the elimination of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, plus the end of the minimum wage laws
7. The elimination of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and lack of regulation of big business and banking, regarding consumer rights, including the right to lawsuits for malpractice or discrimination
8. The cutting back or elimination of the federal Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Transportation, Energy, and Health and Human Services, or agencies within those cabinet agencies at the least, as well as the Federal Reserve Board
9. Promotion of anti abortion legislation to end legal abortions
10.Enactment of laws to discriminate against gays, and return “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military
11. Restrictions on immigration, and deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants
12. Promotion of Christianity in all areas of government institutions and activities
13. Refusal to raise the debt level, and ruthless cutting of government programs to deal with the elderly, the poor, racial minorities, and the disabled instead
14. Further cutting of taxes on the wealthy and corporations
15. Promotion of a right wing based education system in the areas of science and history in the schools
16. End of funding for National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System.
17. Cutbacks on civil rights enforcement for African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, and native Americans, and total end of affirmative action programs
18. Growing hostility and confrontations with the Islamic world, as part of the Christian crusade against Muslims
19. Civil liberties limitations in the name of public safety against domestic terrorism, including against social media and public demonstrations of protest against government policies
20. Making the Supreme Court more right wing than it is now, guaranteeing the longevity of conservative Republican Tea Party policies for a generation or more

Can anyone reading this list NOT be terrified at the thought of a Tea Party Republican dominant Congress and President?

This is why it is ESSENTIAL that at the worst, we have a divided Congress as we had under President Ronald Reagan from 1981-1987, with a Democratic House and Republican Senate and Republican President, with the House under Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill preventing the worst excesses of the Reagan agenda, and in the process, actually making Reagan look a lot better in history than he would have without a Democratic House of Representatives.

And based on the present situation we face, it is clear that it would be better to have a Democratic House and Republican Senate, the opposite of what we have now, as the House has greater impact and control over spending and the budget. A Republican Senate, as has occurred five times in the past century, is far less negative and destructive than the present experience with a Republican House!

While hating to think of a Republican Senate, it seems likely now with only four seats needed to gain control, while for the Democrats, regaining 25 seats for a majority in the House, seems more than likely to occur!

So a split government the opposite of what we have now might be the best scenario, if not an all Democratic controlled Congress and President, to avoid the nightmare of a Tea Party Republican dominated government!

Could Jon Huntsman Be The John Anderson Of 2012? What Effect Could It Have On The Presidential Election?

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Some speculation and rumors are beginning that Jon Huntsman, the moderate centrist candidate in the Republican race for the Presidential nomination, might abandon the party and run as a third party candidate, appealing to the center of the population. Right now, in reality, he scores exactly one percent in eighth and last place of the Gallup poll, on the Republican race for President, so he might not have any sustaining influence, but who can know this far ahead?:

Huntsman has been depicting Barack Obama as too far to the Left, and all of his GOP opponents as too far to the RIght, and his argument is that the Center, where most people are, needs to have representation in the election.

Huntsman is an appealing candidate in his appearance and speaking manner, and comes across as rational and reasonable to people who are disgusted at the growing right wing extremism of the Republican Party. He has personal wealth, and is courted by the news media, so in theory, he could run a substantial third party of independent bid.

In many respects, he appears to be similar to former Illinois Congressman John Anderson, once one of the top leaders of the Republican minority, who left the party and ran as an Independent in 1980, claiming that President Jimmy Carter had been disappointing and that Ronald Reagan was too far to the Right. After winning a lot of media support and 15 percent in polls, he was able to gain the opportunity to meet Reagan in one debate, with Carter refusing to confront him. Anderson made Reagan look weak in their debate, but then Reagan performed well against Carter and won a landslide victory, with Anderson only winning 7 percent of the vote. Many who flirted with Anderson, including this author, ended up not voting for him, with the recognition that third party or independent candidates only hurt one of the candidates, and cannot win with the Electoral College reality which favors the major party candidates.

If Huntsman were to run, the question is would he hurt Obama or the Republican nominee more? There is no easy answer to this question, but it would certainly “muddy up the waters” of the campaign were he to do that.

Sadly, even if one hoped that such a so called Centrist candidate were to run, at the end we are going to have either Obama or the Republican nominee as our President for the next term, and easily the preference would be for Obama, who the author regards as the best Democratic President since Lyndon B. Johnson!

The author was not thrilled at the time with Jimmy Carter, and often even with Bill Clinton later, but right now, he would be opposed to a Jon Huntsman, or any other, third party candidate, who might just harm Obama and elect the horrors of a Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Ron Paul!

Michele Bachmann Pledges $2 Gasoline If She Is President: Yeh, Sure!

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Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has been making a total fool of herself to anyone who has any brains or common sense!

She has made the most stupid, idiotic, statements imaginable about all kinds of subject and topics, making intelligent people’s eyes roll!

But now she has REALLY accomplished her all time greatest blunder ever: a campaign pledge that when she is President, gasoline will be below $2 a gallon!

Michele Bachmann apparently thinks that she can control the world’s oil prices, the oil cartel and the oil companies! She has no understanding of basic economics, and yet she is going to produce miracles! This woman is a raving maniac, hallucinating to the extreme, in her belief apparently that her so called connection to God is going to bring back $2 gasoline, which will NEVER occur!

This is a greater pledge than Herbert Hoover promising in 1928 to end poverty in America, and that every American would have two chickens in every pot, two cars in every garage! It is greater than Ronald Reagan saying he would balance the budget by the end of his first term, 1984! It is greater than Richard Nixon promising a return of law and order and bring us together when he first won the Presidency in 1968!

There is more chance that we will land on Mars in the next decade than that we are going to have $2 gasoline return!

This woman, Michele Bachmann, has lost all credibility, and needs to be drummed out of the race as a fool and a danger, because she can only incite mindless people who have no clue to how government works, and she promotes division, not unity, in the midst of major economic crisis, when wisdom, not stupidity and hallucination, needs to be present to deal with our problems as a nation!

The Political Hypocrisy Regarding President Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard Vacation!

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President Obama, his wife, and two daughters are leaving Washington, DC for a ten day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and the political attacks are beginning.

The argument that is given is that the country is in economic crisis, and that many people are not taking vacations and cannot afford them, and therefore, the President is not entitled to any vacation break.

What hypocrisy this is, when one considers that President George W. Bush took month long vacations regularly at Crawford, Texas, and President Ronald Reagan spent inordinate amounts of time on vacation at his ranch in California, but that is alright because they are Republicans, and the Republican House Speaker John Boehner is not in DC, and neither are his House members! If indeed, the President is not entitled to a vacation break, then neither are the GOP members of Congress!

The fact that Obama has more stress and tension than any President since Franklin D. Roosevelt, a lot of it engendered by the refusal of Republicans to be patriotic enough to cooperate with him on any matter or issue, is enough reason for Obama to have the right to a vacation break!

The President needs some off time to recharge his batteries, so to speak, and it is important for mental health and stability. And besides, it is not as if he will be out of the loop in dealing with issues and crises that might arise when he is away from the White House!

In a sense, the President is NEVER away from his job, just in a physical sense, not being in the building. What is more important is that he be aware of what is going on, and the commitment to avoid being lazy, such as George W. Bush being too lax to read the memos about Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden being an imminent threat to the United States in August 2001!

President Obama is always up to date, and more committed and dedicated to his job, than George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan EVER were, so give him slack and stop complaining that he has a vacation break, and in the process, is promoting “family values”, which the GOP claims to wish to promote!

The Mid Third Year First Term Presidential Slump: Perfectly Normal!

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When one looks at the history of the Presidency, in the third year of the first term of a President, it is very normal that he suffers a loss in public opinion support, and is usually the low point of his first term, but often has had no effect on future electoral success.

Witness the following examples:

1, Franklin D. Roosevelt in his third year (1935) was denounced as a socialist, a communist, a fascist, and every other dirty name by opponents, including the American LIberty League, Huey Long, Dr. Francis Townsend, Father Charles Coughlin, and others. He went on to a smashing reelection victory, winning all but two states in 1936.

2. Harry Truman in 1947 was very unpopular and predicted to have no chance at reelection, particularly with the opposition party in control of Congress, and some members of his party suggesting he resign, because of the vote of no confidence represented by the Republican 80th Congress. He proceeded to win a miracle upset victory for reelection!

3. John F. Kennedy in 1963 was in deep trouble in the South because of his stand on civil rights, and he was on a campaign swing in the South, trying to mend fences, when he was assassinated.

4. Richard Nixon was at a low point in 1971 over the Vietnam War, with the Pentagon Papers being revealed and attempts of Congress to end the war by cutting funds. It was fear that his Democratic opponent might be strong that convinced Nixon operatives to become involved in the Watergate scandal, but Nixon won all states but one in 1972.

5. Ronald Reagan in 1983 had the highest unemployment rate since FDR, and low public opinion ratings similar to those of Barack Obama now (low 40s), but went on to win all but one state in 1984.

6. Bill Clinton had low public opinion ratings in 1995, particularly after the Republicans took over both houses of Congress, but won reelection in 1996.

7. George W. Bush had a lot of opposition and criticism about the war in Iraq in 2003, but went on to win reelection in 2004.

So it is not a danger sign that Barack Obama is suffering a low point in the summer of 2011, as despite many problems, he still has strong popular support personally, and the opposition Republicans are being blamed by many for the Debt Ceiling Crisis and its aftermath!

So don’t count the President out by any means, as the odds still strongly favor his reelection in 2012!

The Iowa Straw Poll: The Triumph Of Illusion Over Reality!

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The results of the Ames Iowa Straw Poll is proof that those who participated in the straw poll, a total of about 17,000 people, are living on hallucinatory medication!

The fact that Michele Bachmann won about one out of four voters, and that Ron Paul was a very close second, demonstrates that those who participated are far from the norm of America, as there is NO POSSIBILITY that either Bachmann or Paul will be the Republican nominee, and were either to be so, it would be the suicide of the Republican party!

Ron Paul’s libertarian view has no chance at all to carry the country, and his isolationist foreign policy, while appealing to many emotionally, would never gain the support of most Republicans in a nationwide race.

Michele Bachmann, who says God speaks to her, and tells her what to do, and that she believes in being “submissive” to her husband, is clearly someone who alarms those who believe in separation of church and state, and those who believe in gender equality, with the vast majority of modern women refusing to consider a candidate with her religious views of the role of women in 21st century America!

Yesterday was a day quite depressing for mainstream Republicans who are alarmed at what is happening to the party of Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower, and Reagan. But should, or will the votes of 17,000 right wingers in Iowa be enough to cause the party to commit suicide? That is extremely hard to imagine!

A Pitiful Republican Presidential Debate Sponsored By Fox News Channel In Ames, Iowa!

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If a neutral observer was watching the Republican Presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, last night, sponsored by Fox News Channel, he or she would likely come away with the thought: Are these eight people competing for the Presidential nomination of the party of Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower and Reagan the best they can find to run for the highest office in the land? Are these candidates NOT a tremendous embarrassment to themselves, as well as the nation? Even if one is dissatisfied with President Barack Obama, why is it that the opposition party cannot find a candidate who matches the level of past candidates, including losers like Charles Evans Hughes, Wendell Willkie, Thomas Dewey, Bob Dole and John McCain?

When one looks at the eight people in the debate, the conclusions are the following observations:

1. None of the candidates was willing to commit to ANY tax increase at all, even with the theoretical deal suggested of ten dollars of budget cuts for each additional dollar of tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, an unbelievable commentary on the lack of financial responsibility of the Republican candidates who wish to be President of the United States!

2. The number of factual errors and miscues by all of the candidates is mind boggling, and demonstrates just how ignorant of economics, foreign policy, and civil liberties these candidates are!

3. Michele Bachmann came across as totally loony and whacky in her presentation, far weaker than her performance in the last debate which brought her to prominence in June.

4. Herman Cain proved that he should go back to running a pizza corporation, as he has no understanding of any issues, displaying total stupidity in just about everything he enunciated.

5. Rick Santorum surprised when he seemed to defend the rights of gays in Iran, but not in America, but also showed stupidity when he referred to the people of Afghanistan as “Afghanistanis”, rather than Afghans.

6. Ron Paul did his usual ranting and raving like a crazy man, with a total isolationist view that has zero chance to be adopted by the party which has promoted overseas engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

7. Newt Gingrich actually improved somewhat, but is already fatally flawed because of past blunders, statements, actions, and resignation of his staff members.

8. Tim Pawlenty also did a bit better, but still comes across as too weak, and often seeming more like a governor who had trouble defending his record against attacks by fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann.

9. Jon Huntsman disappointed tremendously, having an opportunity to stand out in the race as the one reasonable moderate centrist, and instead showed timidity, and even distorted what the Obama Administration has done in dealings with China, while he was Ambassador to China, contradicting positive statements about the President that he had made while working for him.

10. Mitt Romney, the theoretical front runner, at least until Rick Perry enters the race officially this weekend of the Iowa Ames Straw Poll, still can be considered the front runner, but he does not enthuse party members or the general public, and when one hears that he is worth $264 million, one has to say how in the world can he understand average Americans, and have the nerve to say that corporations are people, and joke that he is also unemployed!

What a sad commentary on the opposition to Barack Obama, and no matter how displeased many Americans may be with the President, it is very hard to conceptualize that they will vote him out in favor of any of these candidates, all of whom could rightly be condemned as LOSERS in every sense of the word!

50th Anniversary Of Berlin Wall: The Ultimate Symbol Of Oppression Remembered!

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Today, a half century ago, the East German government in lockstep with the Soviet Union, its master, started construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, which became the ultimate symbol of oppression, the true image of what Soviet Communism was all about!

For the next 28 years, until the evening of November 9 and day of November 10, 1989, the Berlin Wall became the center of the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, evoking the worst images of the Cold War.

Many people died trying to ram through the checkpoints with their cars; or attempting to climb over the wall with its barbed wire top, or jumping over the wall from nearby buildings at the location of the wall, or digging tunnels under the wall in a multitude of locations.

President John F. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan were remembered for their condemnations of the Berlin Wall and what it represented.

When the wall came down suddenly in November 1989 during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, it was a sign of the end of the Cold War, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet system of government in 1991, after all of Eastern Europe was liberated from the yoke of communism in 1989.

It was a great moment of rejoicing, still in many ways hard to conceptualize, that the wall had actually come down, with East German border guards assisting in the destruction themselves.

It made many think that there would be peace in the world, and that the United States would be the only super power, with no realization that we were entering a new era, in many ways more dangerous, the era of Islamic Terrorism with those engaged in that terrorism having absolutely no limits, including suicide, in their fight against the Western world and Christianity and Judaism!

So today is a day to celebrate, but with great sense of the challenge that we still face in the future, and at a time when America has so many domestic complexities and lack of cooperation by the two major political parties, endangering, therefore, America’s future!

Right Wing Talk About Impeachment Or Resignation: A Dangerous And Preposterous Idea!

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The right wing will stop at nothing to get President Barack Obama out of office!

Talk of impeachment comes from a Texas Republican Congressman Michael Burgess of the Dallas area, the same district that used to be represented by Dick Armey, the head of Freedom Works and promoter of the Tea Party Movement. Burgess’s reasoning is that Obama is totally ineffective and should be removed for that reason, rather than any specific violation of the Constitution.

The concept of impeachment has already been abused, as with the proceeding against former President Bill Clinton in 1998-1999. It is preposterous to say that even if a President is ineffective, which is highly debatable, in the case of Obama, that it should be considered an impeachable offense. In any case, even were an impeachment proceeding to develop, there is no possibility of a two thirds vote in the US Senate to convict and remove the President, and all it would do, therefore, is cause more economic tumult and political disarray, which is precisely what this country does NOT need!

If one wants to place blame for the chaos and tumult going on right now, it must be shared not only by the President and his party, but also, and to a greater extent, the refusal of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, and their extremist Tea Party allies, to negotiate and compromise on any agreement that would raise taxes to help balance out the budget crisis!

But now, we also have right wing critics who are suggesting that the President resign because of lack of public support, and that he first replace Joe Biden as Vice President with someone more unifying. This assumes that Joe Biden would resign, and one wonders who would the right wing prefer to become Vice President temporarily before becoming President. Would the extremists accept Hillary Clinton? Highly doubtful, and in any case, why should the right wing tell us who our President is, when Obama was elected for a four year term and should finish that term, and leave it to the American people as to whether they prefer him or the Republican opponent as their next President!

It would be unprecedented for Obama to resign, even if one thinks of him as a failure, which he is clearly NOT!

Only Richard Nixon has resigned, just 37 years ago on August 9 because of the Watergate Crisis, and that was for criminal activity!

Only Woodrow Wilson secretly planned to resign in 1916 if he lost reelection, with World War I on, and America in danger of getting involved. His secret idea was to hand over the Presidency to his opponent, Charles Evans Hughes, ahead of time, if Hughes had won.

Many Presidents have been seen as failures in different ways, but NEVER has a President resigned because of that belief, and it would destroy the whole American system of government if every time there was discontent, the President should be forced out by resignation.

Think of the many cases that would exist:

1, James Madison, when Washington, DC was attacked by the British, and Congress and the President had to flee, during the War Of 1812.
2. Martin Van Buren, when the country suffered from the Panic of 1837.
3. John Tyler, upon succeeding the dead William Henry Harrison in 1841, being told he was illegitimate even though he had been Vice President.
4. James Buchanan, when we went through the Panic of 1857, and later when the South was seceding from the Union.
5. Abraham Lincoln, when he waged war against the South, and violated civil liberties in wartime for purposes of saving the Union.
6. Andrew Johnson, who was actually impeached but found not guilty, who many wanted to resign as well, because of his opposition to the goals of the Radical Republicans on Reconstruction policy.
7. Ulysses S. Grant, who presided over the worst political corruption up to that point of time, and under whom we suffered from the Panic of 1873.
8.Warren G. Harding, who had the most corrupt administration after Grant, but died just as we learned about the extent of the corruption.
9. Herbert Hoover, who was cautious and ineffective as the Great Depression became the worst economic crisis in American history.
10. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for his controversial domestic and foreign policy actions and strong executive leadership in the time of the Great Depression and World War II.
11. Harry Truman, who many thought should resign after the Republicans won both houses of Congress in 1947-48, and for his Korean War policies.
12. Jimmy Carter, for his ineffective policies on the economy and the Iran hostage crisis.
13. Ronald Reagan, for the Iran Contra scandal which erupted in his second term of office.
14. Bill Clinton, for various accusations of scandals, and for his affair with Monica Lewinsky, which led to impeachment, but not conviction by the Senate.
15. George W. Bush, for taking us into war In Iraq on false pretenses, and reckless spending, creating the debt problems of today.

The answer is NOT to have a President resign, but rather to overcome partisanship in a crisis as we have now, and unite around the President, help him, not attack him, and put COUNTRY FIRST!

The Presidency will be destroyed if we let the naysayers rule the roost, and tell the occupant of the Oval Office to resign, as that will not restore confidence!

We have survived good and bad Presidents, and the answer is to follow the US Constitution and stop this irresponsible attack by the right wing on the Constitution they claim to revere, but in practice violate and abuse on a regular basis!