(ThyBlackMan.com) So once again, in spite of all their claims of loving America and being solely dedicated to promoting the nations best interest, the GOP has found yet another pretext to hold America hostage and twist the arm of the American people in an attempt to force the nation to accept the malevolent agenda of their corporate cronies. And this is not the first time – it’s becoming a recurring event.
.
When my daughter was a teenager, and young boys started knocking at my door to profess their love, knowing that I would never be able to hold back the force of nature, I armed her with what I considered sage advice instead. I told her to “Pay no attention to what these young boys say. Watch what they DO.” That advice served her well, and it seems that it is now an excellent rule of thumb for the American people in dealing with the modern GOP, because their repeated behavior and obvious disregard for what’s in the best interest of the United States comes nowhere close to matching their political rhetoric.
.
Richard (R.J.) Eskow, a former executive experienced in healthcare, benefits and risk management, finance, and information technology, also a senior fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future and who hosts The Breakdown, says in his Huffington Post article, “The Shutdown: Republicans Win Standoff, Shoot Hostages Anyway,” the following:
.
“Even some other Republicans were appalled. One House member, mixing metaphors as effortlessly as his peers mix martinis, described his fellow Republicans as ‘lemmings with suicide vests.’.“What are they thinking? It’s hard to tell, since the GOP itself appears to be in complete chaos. But make no mistake about it:That is a hostage crisis, and however long or short the government shutdown turns out to be, the hostages — the American people — are already paying the price.”.
Eskow goes on to point out, “The economy has begun shrinking. Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that the Republican shutdown will “trim annual GDP growth by approximately 15 basis points per week of closing.”
.
Newsmax reported former Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine as saying the Republican Party has bowed to extreme elements, making it unrecognizable from the GOP she joined years ago. Sen. Snowe said:
.
“Obviously it’s moved to the extremes. I wouldn’t characterize everybody within the tea party movement, but certainly there are broad elements within the party now that are driving their own agenda for their own advantage, irrespective of what implications it has for the Republican Party,”
.
Then Sen. Snowe goes on to tell Ashleigh Banfield of CNN Newsroom, “And certainly, this isn’t a party that I recognize and the party that I joined when I first enrolled, and that’s regrettable.”
.
It has become clear that the GOP’s 30-year assault on our educational system has finally filtered down to having a negative impact on its own politicians. You cannot dumb-down America without also dumbing down the caliber of the politicians who assume elective office, and that has clearly taken place in the Republican Party. That’s why we’re witnessing unprecedented stupidity in government.
.
Many of these politicians fail to realize that giving political games priority over the interest of the nation is not only a blatant act of irresponsibility, but political malfeasance. That’s why this Republican congress has been rated lower than any congress in the history of this nation. They’re like a bunch of irate children. They’re stomping their feet and having a tantrum because America voted against letting them have their way.
.
This is not a debatable issue. As President Obama pointed out in his response to the government shutdown, there was absolutely no reason for the Republicans in congress to shutdown the government. It serves no useful purpose other than to inflict pain upon the American people in order to punish America for not letting them have their way. The president said the following:
.
“They’ve shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. In other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job . . .
.
“And of course what’s stranger still is that shutting down our government doesn’t accomplish their stated goal. The Affordable Care Act is a law that passed the House, that passed the Senate, the Supreme Court ruled constitutional. It was a central issue in last year’s election. It is settled, and it is here to stay.
.
“And because of its funding sources, it’s not impacted by a government shutdown. And these Americans are here with me today because even though the government is closed, a big part of the Affordable Care Act is now open for business.”
.
So the problem is, the GOP has become so radical in its agenda that it has a vested interest in electing ideologues over anyone with any kind of intellectual acuity. In fact, the GOP’s agenda is so toxic to America to anyone with common sense that it’s necessitated the Republican Party becoming openly hostile to all intellectuals, potential statesman, and even independent thought itself. In addition, their pretexts to push their agenda that is so obviously toxic to the American people has become so convoluted that they’ve become so prolific in their lies that if they ever did decide to tell the truth, it would only be in an attempt to confuse the public.
.
The facts are clear to anyone who’s truly interested in facts. Take a moment to ask yourself, who was the last Republican president who DIDN’T drag America under a bus? With the exception of Ike Eisenhower, the GOP has a one hundred year history of swindling the American people ( http://wattree.blogspot.com/2010/10/gop-one-hundred-year-record-of.html ). Period.
.
That’s how we’ve ended up with what we have today – a Republican congress filled with complete idiots who are totally oblivious to tradition, limits, and what’s in the best interest of the nation. As I’ve pointed out in previous articles, and with complete candor, if Al Qaeda represents a rattle snake in America’s garden, the current GOP constitutes a python in the bedroom. Because as big a threat as Al Qaeda is to America, they can only destroy buildings, but the modern GOP is out to destroy the very foundation upon which this nation rests. Thus, it is incumbent upon America to correct that situation in the very next election. It just may be our last chance.
[youtube SUZGkNAUSvY]
Terrance Amen,
Discussions about Republican vs Democrats are distractions..
Conversations along the lines of Conservative vs Liberal brings the real issues into the front and reveal where a person is coming from..
The real issue is do you want the government to be your servant or master?
Are you a collection of DNA and chemical processes or are you child of God created in his image?
Do you have the faith of our forefathers?
Until the black community collectively agree to live by a set of core values in regard to how we will treat one another, raise our children and belief about ourselves there will be no unity…
A Lesson in Republican Hypocrisy and Distortions
.
Is the modern Republican Party really “the party of Lincoln,” and responsible for freeing the slaves? I don’t think so. But the GOP regularly, routinely, and with a straight face makes that claim. One Republican recently confronted me and stated the following:
.
“It was Republicans who beat Democrats in the Civil War, thus freeing the slaves. It was Democrats who started the KKK as its military wing to intimidate the (largely black) Republican party who were running the south after the war. Can a leopard change its spots?? Are the Democrats now the party FOR the black people after being against them for so long? So many of you are duped by the Devil’s trickery. a few table scraps from massa’s table and you run right back to his side. The Democrat is the racist.”
.
The above assertion is a prime example of how many Republicans can take a kernel of truth and create a banquet of lies. The truth is, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and so was Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Luther King. But since the Civil War the Republican and Democratic parties have completely changed their relative political positions, so relative to their political philosophy, the modern Republican party bears absolutely no relationship to its predecessor.
.
Prior to the Civil War the Republican Party was made up of big business interests and Northern aristocrats, and the Democratic Party was made up of Dixiecratcs and Southern agrarian interests – farmers and slave owners. Thus, the Republicans were progressive liberals and the Democrats (or Dixiecrats) were Southern conservative slave owners.
.
But that began to change during the Great Depression when Democratic President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came out against the corporations and to the aid of the poor with his “New Deal for the American People.” With the “New Deal,” Democrats ushered in workers’ rights. They created Social Security so the elderly wouldn’t have to go to the “Poor House” or become a burden on their children when they became too old to work.
.
The Democrats also created unemployment insurance so people would have something to fall back on if they lost their jobs, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set rules of conduct for corporations that allowed workers to work with some semblance of dignity. The new law set a minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor standards, and many other regulations protecting workers.
.
Prior to the FLSA corporations could work employees for as many hours as they liked, and they often set wages so low that families had to send their children to work just to survive – and many of those children were maimed or killed because they had to work under the most horrific conditions, such as in coal mines and the like.
.
But after President Roosevelt brought relief to the people with these “big government, socialist programs,” the Democratic Party began to become associated with the common man, and the Republican party embarked upon a single-minded mission to reverse these “bleeding heart liberal” policies and return America to what had previously been the status quo.
.
Then during the fifties the Democratic Party came out in support of the Civil Rights Movement. As a result, during the fifties and sixties the Southern Dixiecrats became disenchanted with the Democrats and migrated to the Republican Party. At the same time, many Southern Blacks began leaving the Republican Party to become Democrats.
.
Thus, the Republican Party is now a coalition of three separate constituencies with confluent interests. The first group is made up of traditional conservatives. These are highly patriotic Americans who believe in limited government, the primacy of the people over government, and fiscal responsibility. But the other two groups that have coalesced within the GOP are much more malevolent – international business interests, and social bigots.
.
It is the former of these two, international business, that controls the GOP. It’s made up of wealthy and highly educated individuals with huge amounts of monetary resources, and thus, political influence – and they use every bit of that leverage to manipulate what has become their citizen army – the social bigots. These are the people who hate any and everybody who doesn’t look, think, and act like themselves.
.
The social bigots are the people we see armed to the teeth at presidential speeches, disrupting town hall meetings, and fighting against their own interests. In short, these are the “Joe the Plumbers” of the world who are being deluded by corporatist propaganda. Also among their ranks are the diehard racists who are still fighting to promote a segregationist agenda.
.
But the social bigots are merely the soldiers of the party. The corporatists, who control the GOP, have never lost sight of their seventy-year-old mission to undo the New Deal. But they’ve found that the safety-net that President Roosevelt provided for the people is much too popular to attack head on, so they had to devise a plan to chip away at it.
.
Then came 9/11, so they decided to used the war in Iraq to ravage the national treasury. They then gave themselves a $4 trillion tax cut to further deplete the treasury, and now they’re telling the poor and middle class, “Sorry, but we no longer have the revenue to fund the programs that you’ve come to depend on for the past seventy years. And in the meantime, Gov. Scott Walker is hard at work in Wisconsin trying to dismantle the Fair Labor Standards Act.
.
So, can a leopard change its spots? Yes it can – and with regard to the Democratic and Republican parties, the leopard has changed in a very big way. But the modern GOP has never been prone to allowing the facts to distort a well-crafted lie. That’s why they have such a fierce aversion to a well-educated electorate.
.
Thus, the facts dictate that the modern GOP’s claim to have any connection with President Lincoln whatsoever – other than the enemy of everything he stood for – is not only a gross misrepresentation of history, but a blatant lie. The fact is, if the Civil War was being fought today, the GOP would be the Confederacy . . . MORE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/03/lesson-in-republican-hypocrisy-and.html
@ CD Smith
I agree with you as well, with some exceptions. Let me first say, I’m looking at this from a Black perspective. I don’t study political or party history. My focus is on the last 50 to 100 years. Slavery was accepted by the majority of both parties, including the church. I agree that the slave holders were democrats and it was the republicans that eventually freed the slaves, temporarily. (Jim Crow) But it wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts to free the slaves. It was about money (south) and power (north) and the fact that the republicans were going to lose the wealth of the south by them seceding.
Lincoln didn’t really want to free the slaves. What a lot of people don’t realize and neither did I, because of the propaganda that has been promoted about him was, he actually agreed to keep slavery intact, as long as the south stayed in the union. Watch the civil war video on PBS. As far as conservatism, Black people were the most conservative at one point, but it had nothing to do with politics, it was about morals and values. I agree with you on the traditional values and educational choice, since as a country, we’ve totally given up on our public school system, which used to be number one in the world.
But I think the majority of republicans are being taken advantage of, based on the traditional values ploy. In my opinion the republican party is controlled by big business and they use traditional values and religion to dupe it’s members. As far as the free market system, there’s no such thing. The markets are controlled by those in control, (big business) and they control the government, while the majority of Americans fight and argue over the small picture, party lines, rather than focusing on the big picture, the issues like the diminishing middle class and the continued growth gap between the rich and poor, as Brother Wattree said, how the so called free market financial institutions almost put us in a depression, which I really think we’re in.
I could go on and on as well, but I don’t think I have to. We should all be independents and let the parties fight it out instead of the way it is now. As I said before, It’s the system that’s the problem. Want proof? How does one get elected on the state and federal level? You need three things. 1. a lot of money 2. You have to know somebody and 3. Name recondition. These are not the best criteria for someone to represent the country, yet this is what happens every 2-4 years. If you’re lucky enough to get elected, you’ve made it because we continue to vote for the same people, even though nothing changes.
Someone once said a sign of insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting a different result and please don’t say I should vote republican because that won’t change a thing. Want a solution? Take the money out of elections and let it be based on merit, but will this happen, I doubt it, but hey, we have a Black President, which I thought I’d never see in my lifetime. We have national teachers, policeman, fireman, why not politician. I guess anything is possible, but I doubt it, which is why I prefer to focus our energy on us doing for ourselves. This I do agree with on. It was just in the past and in certain circumstances, still now, we were discriminated against and didn’t have the opportunities we have now.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
Terrance Amen,
I am almost with you except on a couple of points;
1. Eric Wattree, with respect, barely knows what he talking about in regard to the history of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party predates the Republican Party by nearly one hundred years and it has been the primary party up until 1970, responsible for persecution of black people in America for 400 years. That is why he always begins his long diatribe about Republicans from the 1920’s. Which is around the same time that blacks as a majority stop voting Republican in response to fake overtures by the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has been the dominate party in this country until 1995 – The year when the Republicans finally controlled the House.
2. You state – ” But the republicans want you to pull yourselves up from your bootstraps, without giving you boots.”
Terrance with all due respect, here are the “bootstraps” and the “boots” that “Conservatives” feel that everyone should have:
1. Limited, smaller government that is not siphoning the money out of your pocket. You earn it, You should be able to control more of it for your family and to “FUND” your dreams.
2. Pro-Traditional Family- You cannot build a legacy or economic unity when you have scores of single parent women and children with no fathers. Our family is “CORE” by which we develop the next generation, pass on traditions and create “STABLE” communities.
3. Choice in Education – Using my tax dollars, I should have the ability to send my children to educated in the school of my choice.
4. Greater access to the Free Market system – Let’s reduce the regulations from deterring those who want to start a business.
I can go on but can you see that these are “boots” that we must be willing to put on instead on the liberal boot in which the “soles” have been removed.
@ CD Smith
I think Brother Wattree did a good job in covering the republicans. Having said that, the democrats waist your money, they make you or want to make you dependent on them, rather than helping you become independent. The welfare system was one of the worst things to happen to the Black community. In order to get support, you basically had to kick the man out of the house. No party is perfect. But the republicans want you to pull yourselves up from your bootstraps, without giving you boots.
The democrats will give you boots, but will expect you to forever beg them for the straps. To me the bottom line in this day and time, both parties are in the pockets of big business. The republicans don’t hide it. The democrats try to, while claiming not to. The real truth is our political system is messed up. Yes it’s better than many out there, but it has become totally out of control, pitting American against American, when in reality, we all want the same things. Last but not least, both parties are still racist. Didn’t mean to be so long winded, but you asked.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
Terrance Amen,
For my education, would you please elaborate on your comment on how the “Democrat Party” is the lesser of two evils?
@ Wattree
You make some good points, why I should still vote for Democrats, even though I still see them as the lesser of the evils who continue to take advantage of us. This is why I’d rather focus on us doing more for ourselves, rather than relying on the government to solve our problems. This is what the Asians and others do.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
Wattree
LOL, you are a funny guy.
If it barks like a dog, smells like a dog, …; It must be a cat.
Meow business man meeeow.
LOL
Ewill,
You said, “Wattree is a socialist and an atheist.”
I am neither of those things. Now I understand why you’re such an inefficient thinker – because you’re prone towards making unwarranted assumptions – “All dogs have fleas. My cat has fleas. Therefore, my cat is a dog.”
Thanks Ewill and Robert for your comments..
Eric’s lack of a direct response to my question in itself is an answer..
I thought this website was supposed to be about discussion on how the black community can be “uplifted” in our current state of affairs.
It is troubling that the black “intellectuals” have chosen “socialism” and “humanist” ideology as their guiding principles. The white liberals will continue to use them as their mouth pieces until Hispanic community will ensure them of victory during voting season and then they will be cast to the side.
Then the black community will be left with the Godless, sterile, empty, angry rhetoric that will doom most of as refugees in our own country.
In the meanwhile, Asian’s for example are continuing to do well in America, practicing capitalism the old fashion way, their children getting educated though they don’t have a Sharpton, Jackson and Wattree speaking for them.
I’m out on this one…Peace.
@C.D SMITH I believe the word you are searching for is FASCISM which is a different animal than SOCIALISM.
FASCISM: political philosophy; movement or regime that exalts nation and often race and stands for centralized autocratic often militaristic government.
MUSSOLINI described FASCISM as the marriage between government and industry.
IT’S the worst form of government a people can have ; we have three examples in history of what FASCISM does to a nation.
1.MUSSOLINI’S ITALY
2HITLER’S GERMANY
3STALIN’S SOVIET UNION
THERE many example of SOCIALISM being quite benign if there is a descent government to go along with it the SCANDANAVIAN countries come to mind.
BUT when a nation finds itself in the grips of FASCISM you will see the worst of humanity and that’s what we are about to receive here in AMERICA.
jdgwisd,
I don’t have a problem with your reponse nor disagree to any great extent, with what you say.
At times it is fair and reasonable to give peple a taste of thier own medicine. My “word time” was in reponse of Wattree’s reply to CD Smith.
“Such people have to be either ignorant, stupid, or both, since the very word “conservative” means to CONSERVE the policies and traditions of the past.”
Such people have to be either ignorant, stupid, or both, to think any one would want to CONERVE the bad while conserving the good aspects of policies and traditions of the past.
Wattree is a socialist and an atheist. He understands the best means for the end is though Democrats. He knows a Socialist party banner wont win. So he leads negros and other people against conservatives, GOP…
The past 120 years of history has been a slow battle that socialist have been quitely winning.
Wattree hides under the banner:
Thy Modern GOP – The Most Dangerous Force in America.
What he really means is:
Thy Modern GOP – The Most Dangerous Force in Socialist America.
Your are free to believe what you want. People (Whites,the GOP and Christians more than any other groups) gave you that right, not government.
C.D.
I answered that question earlier in this discussion. Don’t obfuscate. I asked you a question. who was the last Republican president who DIDN’T drag America under a bus? I’m awaiting your response.
Eric,
Can you state simply why you have so much faith in government and what aspects of liberal ideology uplifts a “poor” person to aspire materially and socially?
The namecalling………………….I dont argue with people who seem to have a sense of intellectual superiority. You know more than me…….In any event,Ewill, it’s okay to debate a position you don’t agree with. You become childish when you begin to attack the intellect of anyone you haven’t met. The danger of sitting behind a computer is that the amount of information one can access can turn anyone into a Progressive Era historian or a New Deal Scholar. Disagree with the writer, present your arguments, then move on. the namecalling lets all of us know that there may be style to your arguments, but not much substance.
Word Time
con·serv·a·tive
kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv
1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
stu·pid
stoo-pid
1. Wattree
2. Socialist Wattree
3. Atheist Wattree
4. Kool-aid drinking Wattree
Drink your kool-aid, give some to your friends.
Wattree,
Once again true history.
The Gilded Age saw the greatest period of economic growth in American history. From 1869 to 1879, the US economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for real GDP and 4.5% for real GDP per capita, despite the panic of 1873.[64] The economy repeated this period of growth in the 1880s, in which the wealth of the nation grew at an annual rate of 3.8%, while the GDP was also doubled.
Austrian Economist and scholar Murray Rothbard stated that for the 1880s:
Gross domestic product almost doubled from the decade before, a far larger percentage jump decade-on-decade than any time since.
Capital investment also increased tremendously during the 1880s, increasing nearly 500%, while capital formation doubled during the decade. Rothbard states that:
This massive 500-percent decade-on-decade increase has never since been even closely rivaled.
The During the 1870s and 1880s, the U.S. economy rose at the fastest rate in its history, with real wages, wealth, GDP, and capital formation all increasing rapidly. For example, between 1865 and 1898, the output of wheat increased by 256%, corn by 222%, coal by 800% and miles of railway track by 567%. Thick national networks for transportation and communication were created. The corporation became the dominant form of business organization, and a scientific management revolution transformed business operations. By the beginning of the 20th century, per capita income and industrial production in the United States led the world, with per capita incomes double that of Germany or France, and 50% higher than Britain. The businessmen of the Second Industrial Revolution created industrial towns and cities in the Northeast with new factories, and hired an ethnically diverse industrial working class
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) As president he led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery.
The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party from about 1854 (before the American Civil War) until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves “radicals” and were opposed during the war by moderates and conservative factions led by Abraham Lincoln and after the war by “conservatives” (in the South) and “liberals” (in the North). Radicals strongly opposed slavery during the war and after the war distrusted ex-Confederates, demanding harsh policies for the former rebels, and emphasizing civil rights and voting rights for freedmen (recently freed slaves).
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States (1877–1881). As a republican president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction.
The end of Reconstruction marked the end of the brief period of civil rights and civil liberties for African Americans in the South, where most lived. Reconstruction caused lasting bitterness among white Southerners toward the federal government, and helped create the “Solid South,” which typically voted for Democrats for local, state, and national office. White supremacists created a segregated society through “Jim Crow Laws” that made blacks second-class citizens with very little political power or public voice. The white elites (“Redeemers”, the southern wing of the “Bourbon Democrats”) were in firm political and economic control until the rise of the Populist movement in the 1890
While the Republicans were building America, the Democrats were tearing down the Negros.
Under Republican President Warren G. Harding, who called for normalcy and an end to high wartime taxes, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon raised the tariff, cut other taxes, and used the large surplus to reduce the federal debt by about a third from 1920 to 1930. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover worked to introduce efficiency, by regulating business practices. This period of prosperity, along with the culture of the time, was known as the Roaring Twenties. The rapid growth of the automobile industry stimulated industries such as oil, glass, and road-building. Tourism soared and consumers with cars had a much wider radius for their shopping. Small cities prospered, and large cities had their best decade ever.
Yes, I am white, an independent, and a christian.
Like I said at the beginning, It’s pointless to argue with an idiot
Well, Ewill,
It looks like I’ve reduced you to speaking in tongue, so I guess your done.
Have a good day.
Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.
C.D.,
You’re doing what conservative do so well – but not with me – contorting fact into a fiction that conforms to your point of view. But here’s the bottom line – tell me, who was the last Republican president who DIDN’T drag America under a bus? Think about that, because it says it all.
THE GOP: A ONE HUNDRED YEAR RECORD OF SWINDLING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
In 1921 — eight years before the great depression — Republicans took over the helm of this nation for 12 years. During that time there were three Republican administrations, the first of which was the administration of Warren G. Harding. History remembers Harding’s administration for one thing more than anything other — scandal. It was during Harding’s presidency that the Teapot Dome Scandal erupted. His administration was considered the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States — until Nixon’s, then Reagan’s, and finally Bush’s.
.
Next, in 1923, came Calvin Coolidge, the president that Ronald Reagan is said to have most admired. Coolidge’s policies of large tax cuts, allowing business a free-rein, and his encouragement of stock speculation contributed greatly to the impending stock market crash and the great depression that was to come.
.
Then in 1929 Herbert Hoover came to power. During his administration the stock market crashed, starting the great depression. In spite of the fact that by 1933 the unemployment rate was at 33.3% with 16 million people out of work, the Republican, Hoover, just sat, thinking that the economy would eventually rejuvenate itself. During Hoover’s administration 15,000 WWI veterans marched on Washington demanding that they be paid what they were owed by the government. Hoover responded by calling in federal troops to throw these ex-servicemen off government property.
.
Finally in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a liberal democrat, was elected overwhelmingly. He immediately surrounded himself with a group of the finest minds in the country, including Columbia professors Adolph A. Berle, Jr., Rexford G. Tugwell, and Raymond Moley, known at the time as the “Brain Trust.” After assembling these men and others he went about the business of developing a” New Deal” for the working class people of this country.
.
The New Deal had two components — one to help the economy to recover from the effects of the great depression, and a second component to give relief to the American people and to insure that they were never be placed in a position of total destitution again. To help heal the economy Roosevelt created programs that regulated business, controlled inflation, and brought about price stabilization; to bring relief to the people he signed The National Labor Relations Act which guaranteed workers the right to collective bargaining, and he created the Social Security Administration to guarantee workers some sort of income once they became too old to work. He also signed the Fair Labor Standards Act which protected workers rights and set a minimum wage for workers.
.
With his New Deal in place Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this “bleeding heart liberal”, not only led this country out of the worst, Republican generated, crisis that this country has ever faced, but went on to lead the free world in victory over Hitler in WWII. He then ushered in the most sustained prosperity that the world has ever known.
.
One would think that conservatives would have seen the light, but their passion to further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the middle and lower classes seems to supersede all logic. Therefore, from the moment that the New Deal went into place, conservatives have been determined to dismantle it. The closest they’ve come to succeeding started during the Reagan administration with Supply-Side Economics, or, “Reaganomics” — and the battle is currently raging in Washington D.C. as we speak.
.
Supply- Side Economics was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist Arthur Laffer and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually “trickle down” to the rest of us. The resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush, Reagan’s vice president to be, called it “voodoo economics.”
.
Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed.
.
Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of these schemes, the leveraged buy out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company’s assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. This practice cost the citizens of this country its industrial base. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 – 15 years before the Great Depression.
.
And what about Ronald Reagan’s promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit? By the time he left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined. And what does the Republican Party propose to do about that? One of the Republican proposals was their “contract with America,” a capitol gains tax cut — for the rich.
.
Due to the continued freewheeling fiscal policies of conservative Republicans, between 1986 and 1989, spanning the presidencies of Reagan and Bush Sr., the FSLIC had to pay off all the depositors of 296 institutions with assets of over $125 billion.
.
Then in 1988 Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $1.3 billion. It was headed by Neil Bush, brother of George W. The investigation alleged that he was guilty of “breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest.” The issue was eventually settled out of court with Bush paying a mere $50,000 settlement.
.
Then there was the Lincoln Savings and loan scandal in 1987, involving John McCain. The scandal was very similar to the one that is currently playing out on Wall Street. He was one of a group of senators dubbed “The Keating Five” involved in a scandal by the same name.
.
In 1976 Charles Keating moved to Arizona to run the American Continental Corporation. In 1984, shortly after the Reagan era push to deregulate the savings and loan community, Keating bought Lincoln Savings and Loan and began to engage in highly risky investments with the depositors’ savings. In 1989 the parent company, which Keating headed, went bankrupt, and it resulted in over 21,000 investors losing their life savings. Most of the investors were elderly, and the loss amounted to about 285 million dollars.
.
After having received over a million dollars from Keating in illegal campaign contributions, gifts, free trips, and other gratuities, the Keating Five–Senators John Glenn, Don Riegle, Dennis DeConini, Alan Cranston, and Sen. John McCain–attempted to intervene in the investigation into Keating’s activities by the regulators. Later, they were admonished to varying degrees by the senate for attempting to influence regulators on Keating’s behalf. Charles Keating ended up being convicted for fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, for which he received 10 years by the state court, and a 12 year sentence in federal court. After spending four and a half years in prison, his convictions were overturned. But prior to being retried, he pled guilty to a number of felonies in return for a sentence of time served.
.
Then came the George W. Bush administration that caused close to a million people to die uselessly in an illegal war in Iraq, robbed the American people blind, whose fumbling ignited the longest war in American history in Afghanistan, and whose greed came very close to sending the nation into yet another depression.
.
Now, after all of their repeated efforts to deplete the national treasury, they’re unanimously voting against every piece of legislation that the Democrats propose to repair the damage they created, and to bring relief to the American people. Then they have the audacity to claim that they’re doing it because they’re concerned about deficit spending.
.
They’re against affordable health care for American families; they’re against any kind of spending to put Americans back to work, and they’re against extending unemployment insurance to relieve the burden of America’s unemployed. What’s particularly telling, however, is they’re also against any kind of strong legislation to prevent the financial community (them) from being able to rob the American people in the future.
.
The fact is, what they really want is to maintain the status quo, and make damn sure that the American people suffer until the 2012 elections so they’ll have a chance to regain power and raid the treasury again. That’s their one and only agenda – period.
.
This is not just political rhetoric. Here is the activity of the Republican congress who ran in the 2010 election on their claim that their number one priority was to bring economic relief, and create jobs for the American people:
.
History is clear. The conservative Republicans don’t mind spending money, they just don’t want to spend it on those who need it – us. Remember, they’re the party of Alexander Hamilton, one of this country’s founding fathers who believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote. He also said:
.
“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people…. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government.” Debates of the Federalist Convention (May 14-September 17, 1787).
.
So, let’s set the record straight. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that “bleeding heart liberal”, not only brought the nation back from the Great Depression and saved the world from Hitler during his life, but his “New Deal” for the American people gave us the greatest prosperity we’ve ever known, and allowed him to reach back from the grave to save the nation from Ronald Reagan 50 years after his death.
.
That isn’t to say that the liberal Democratic philosophy corners the market on what is in the best interest of the nation — it is clear that both parties have had illustrious moments in the past — but rather, this is one of those defining issues in American politics that determines whether this is to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, or a government where the citizens or nothing more than disposable resources for big business.
.
In the past the Democratic Party has always been there to draw a line in the sand on this issue, but in recent history the liberal philosophy has been distorted to the point that even Democrats are distancing themselves from their own political philosophy.
.
But what makes America great, are those dramatic moments in American politics when that one individual has the courage to put everything on the line to defend, protect, and save the American people from disaster. And the annals of modern American history will clearly show that during those moments, it was a “bleeding heart liberal” that stepped up to the plate. First FDR, then Bill Clinton, and now Barack Hussein Obama.
.
Thus, future historians will record that there is nothing more honorable in American politics than a bleeding heart . . . because their hearts bleed for America.
Eric,
Your version of history once again is faulty. ..
It was also the “government” that “ENFORCED” the national slavery and segregation laws.
Blacks were made “free” by in combination of the “CHRISTIAN” led Abolition Movemen to end slaveryt and the first political party “Republican” to end slavery and the first “Republican” President and the “defeat” of the Southern military by the Northern military forces.
Under a “purely” capitalist system, if I do not want nor like a product or service, I can “choose” not buy it and the company will be “forced” change or go out of business.
You cannot force the government to go out of business. The government “trumps” everyone and has the power to kill you if they wish.
When the government colludes with business you no longer have capitalism. That is why for “now” the government is colluding with insurance companies by “forcing” people to buy their products.
Where can we find justice when the goverment is perpetrating an injustice under your liberal system of rule?
C.D. Smith,
If you would just take one moment to think, it would become perfectly clear to you why it makes perfect sense for Black people to trust government more than they trust people whose only reason for being is to make as much money as they can get their hands on. After all, the institution of slavery was created for, and by, people whose express purpose in life was to make as much money as they could make – in other words, businesspeople.
On the other hand, we were freed from slavery by government. In addition, government was directly responsible for integration of the schools, integration of housing, ending the practice of Black people having to sit on the Back of the bus, and bringing down Jim Crow in general. That’s why it is the height of stupidity for any Black person to embrace the conservative philosophy. Such people have to be either ignorant, stupid, or both, since the very word “conservative” means to CONSERVE the policies and traditions of the past.
Ewill,
You’ve just got to be a White Republican plant, because there are very few Black people who are dumb enough to come on a Black website and contend that the struggle for civil rights and the struggle for the rights of poor and middle-class workers constitute a communist conspiracy. You’re taking the very same position as J. Edgar Hoover that led to his bugging Dr. Martin Luther King. So based on your reading of “history,” I suppose you think Hoover was right to spy on Dr. King.
The complete idiocy that you espouse is a perfect example of why ALL Black sites should REQUIRE all participants to reveal their true identity in order for them to comment. If you have the courage of your convictions it shouldn’t be a problem for you to stand behind your point of view. On the other hand, anyone who feels the need to hide behind a fictitious screen name obviously know that they’re espousing a ridiculous or socially toxic philosophy, or either, they’re a plant by some malevolent group that’s trying to influence the thinking of the Black community. What category do you fall into?
Liberal ideology:
1. If you breathe, you must pay for healthcare insurance because it is your right.
2. Let’s not trust those evil capitalist insurance companies, instead let’s trust the government to determine who gets coverage and who doesn’t. Of course, they have the power to place me in prison or execute me but at least they are not some rich corporate guy. If I am in the right party, maybe I will live..
Just brilliant…
Wattree,
This is real history, over 90 years worth. The history and connections of Nergros, Democrats, Labor unions, Communist, and socilist.
Leading up to Obama and you. LOL
National Negro Congress
In May 1935 a conference on the economic status of the Negro was held at Howard University in Washington, D.C., out of which emerged a major civil rights coalition that was active in the late 1930s and 1940s. The National Negro Congress. The NNC represented one of the first sincere efforts of the 20th century to bring together under one umbrella black secular leaders, preachers, labor organizers, workers, businessmen, radicals, and professional politicians, with the assumption that the common denominator of race was enough to weld together such divergent segments of black society. It also signaled the Communist Party’s movement into the mainstream of black protest activity. In particular, the evolution of the National Negro Congress dramatized the growing convergence of outlook between Communists and activist black intellectuals that had taken shape in the protests of the early Depression years and reached full fruition during the years of the Popular Front.
Popular Front
THE COMMUNIST PARTY (CP) of the United States was the largest and most influential radical organization active in the tumultuous labor and social struggles of the 1930s and 1940s. While never a mass party by the standards of the French or Italian CPs, the U.S. CP had a real and significant impact on the mass struggles of industrial workers, the unemployed and African Americans before the anticommunist witch-hunts of the late 1940s and 1950s.
The CP’s “third period” (1928-1934) politics were hopelessly unrealistic and sectarian, Fortunately, in this view, the Soviet-dominated world movement allowed the CPs in the capitalist democracies to adopt a more realistic perspective after 1935, a perspective that allowed each party to root itself in its “national realities.” Thus the popular front alliance between radicals and socialists on the one hand, and liberal Democrats and “progressive” trade union officials on the other allowed the U.S. CP to become ‘Americanized” and reach the apex of its size and influence. In other words, the popular front was the only “realistic” and “practical” way the CP could help win and defend reforms and maintain and expand its political authority.
The CPUSA sought a joint Socialist-Communist ticket with Socialist Party of America in the 1936 presidential election but the Socialists rejected this overture. The CPUSA also offered critical support to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in this period. The Popular Front period in the USA saw the CP taking a very patriotic and populist line, later called Browderism.
Browderism
Earl Russell Browder (1891–1973) He was an American political activist, functionary and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
…Released from prison, Browder lost no time in joining the United Communist Party (UCP), as well as the fledgling Trade Union Educational League (TUEL) being launched by his old associate William Z. Foster.
Throughout the early 1920s, Browder and Foster worked together closely in the TUEL, trying to win over the support of the Chicago Federation of Labor in the establishment of a new mass Farmer-Labor Party that would be able to challenge the electoral hegemony of the Republican and Democratic parties.
Browder was instrumental in planning American activities relating to International Unemployment Day, March 6, 1930 — an international day of mass protest against unemployment set in motion by the Comintern. A network of Unemployed Councils were established under Communist Party auspices.
Still imagining President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a fascist dictator in the making, Browder and the Communists began to examine their political isolation from the American working class and to envision the establishment of a new labor party which would include both Communists and Socialists within its ranks. In December 1934 Browder won Comintern approval for his scheme, arguing his case in person in Moscow. Browder returned to the United States at the end of the month, revealing his plan to a surprised party membership in a public speech delivered on January 6, 1935.
This history goes on until this day, just giving you the foundation on the 20th Century Negro and Democrat indoctrination during the time period your specking about.
Ewill,
No, I am not a Democrat, as a matter of fact. So it’s facts you want. I’m filled with facts:
YOU SAY THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DEMOCRATS AND THE REPUBLICANS? YOU’D BETTER LOOK AGAIN.
.
People who think that there’s no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans are not only ignorant, but they’re a big part of the problem, because in many cases they use their ignorance as an excuse not to vote. They don’t have sense enough to realize that EVERYONE votes, whether they go to the polls are not, because the failure to vote is a vote for the side they like least.
They also fail to recognize that even the illusion of justice is far superior to the alternative, which we’re rapidly approaching – corporate feudalism. Research the Great Depression – where people had to send their 9 year-old kids out to work in coal mines to help sustain the family, and there was no Social Security, so you also had support your aging parents.
You might also want to think about what it was like when your boss could work you as many hours as he wanted, with no overtime, or even days off. Then, if you complained, he could fire you and your entire family would end up on Skid Row, because there was no such thing as unemployment. It was the Democrats who changed that, and just like they are with Obamacare, the Republicans have been fighting to return us to that condition for the past 70 years. So while ignorance may be bliss, it’s only so until reality sets in.
.
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2010/10/gop-one-hundred-year-record-of.html
Wattree,
You are just part of the Democrat spin machine. Making an opinion sound like a fact, no real facts to support statements, misuse of important words, and an abundance of “buzz” words are the tools of Democrat rhetoric. If the writer was talking about (The House), it would have been just as easy to type “House” rather than “Congress“. But, using “House” would require more knowledge of the situation and a more intelligent defense.
But you came to the rescue. dysfunction, fantasy, childish, temper tantrum, blind, angry, radical, immature, dangerous, enemy. A lot of opinions and buzz words with no facts. I guess I can assume you are a Democrat.
Approval rate of Congress: Republicans 10% Independents 12% Democrats 16%
I’m an Independent, not a Republican.
In my Opinion, I believe Obama and the Democratic Party are Socialist and want to fundamentally changing America into a completely Socialist country.
Obviously, you drank your kool-aid
But, you didn’t go to sleep.
Get another glass.
Ewill,
The United States Constitution give sole control over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Republicans. Congress’ primary dysfunction is in the House, which is controlled by the Republicans. So you’re living in a Republican designed fantasy which is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. So while you may choose to sleep on, the rest of the nation is waking up.
This, childish government shutdown says it all. It’s one thing to fight for your principles, but this shutdown is nothing less than a childish Republican temper tantrum designed to punish America for not letting them have their way. It accomplishes absolutely nothing. So just like your comment, there is no point to it. It represents nothing more than the lashing out of a blind and perpetually angry faction of a radical, immature, and dangerous faction within America. In fact, they represent the domestic enemy of the United States.
Just one for you Wattree,
“That’s why this Republican congress has been rated lower than any congress in the history of this nation. ”
It’s not a Republican Congress. It’s a Republican controlled House and a Democrat controlled Senate.
Bed time story is over.
Drink your cool-aid and go to sleep.
Sweet dreams.
That tends to be especially true when you have no valid argument.
There is no use or value to argue with an idiot.