Progressive Democrat Issue 102: THOUGHTS
We are at that quiet period between Christmas and New Years. I was expecting last week's readership to be low given the holidays, but I really had somewhat more readers than usual. Maybe I should just stop obsessing over the patterns of readership and just assume what I'm doing is what people want me to do! But being a scientist, I do love data and the patterns of how many reders from what places interests me. For the record, last week saw a continued resurgence of New Jersey readership and more than average California readership. Right now NYC, NJ and CA are my three biggest areas of readership.
This last week Gerald Ford died. I want to take a moment to consider his death in a broader context.
There was a time, barely remembered today, when the idea of bipartisanship really seemed reasonable. There was once a kind of Republican, now driven to the verge of extinction, called the "Eisenhower Republican." Today, the equivalent beast would be called a "Moderate Democrat." The Republican Party itself has largely purged itself of Eisenhower Republicans in its radical shift to the right.
I have always been a Democrat. But even the earliest President I remember, Richard Nixon, though a crazy, paranoid, power hungry SOB, could be ideologically reasonable, as evidenced by his establishment of the EPA. But Nixon, probably unintentionally, began the decline of the Eisenhower Republican. Some of those he brought into government are the very same "barking crazy rightwingers" who have systematically been destroying our nation under Bush. That, combined with Nixon's spectacular and televised downfall, discredited the reasonable, moderate Republican. The Democrats, then more liberal than now, were ready to take advantage of Nixon's downfall, and the far right wing Republicans, then marginalized but poised to strike, were ready to begin their plans to take over the nation through lying, stealing and cheating.
One man had a small chance of saving the Eisenhower Republican: President Gerald Ford.
Gerald Ford, the last of the Eisenhower Republicans who had any chance of saving the Republican Party from the barking crazy rightwingers, has died.
Gerald Ford had been a well-respected Congressman, someone who could work with both parties to get things done. As criminal charges consumed Nixon and his administration, Gerald Ford was the last chance Republicans had of restoring respectability. Centrist, traditionalist and all around nice guy, Ford might have been the only person who could have saved the Republican Party from being taken over by extremists or lapsing into obscurity.
Pardoning Nixon and the stagflation Ford inherited from Nixon pretty much made it impossible for Ford to succeed. In the end, a moderate Democrat (Jimmy Carter) defeated Ford for President, and the right wing fringe of the Republican Party swept in to destroy the Eisenhower Republicans and take over. Those right wing nutcases have not only gone to great lengths to destroy our Constitution and to run up the biggest budget deficits in hitsory, but have also by now alienated moderate Republicans. The death of the Eisenhower branch of the Republican Party was one reason why Democrats won this year.
And with the Republican Party now nearly completely dominated by anti-democracy, right wing fools, and with Democrats winning by appealing to American moderates, Gerald Ford, at the age of 93, has died.
America has always been and should remain a two-party system. Why? Because we, as a culture, divide pretty solidly into Federalist and State's Rights camps...strict interpretation vs. loose interpretation of the Constitution... These are very real ambiguities within our system, left ambiguous by those who formed our government, and it is the give and take between these two views of government that has made our nation strong. The big danger now is that one party, the Republicans, have been taken over by a group that believes in neither of these philosophies of government except as a way of fooling voters. Instead, the barking crazy rightwingers have, in essence, thrown the whole Constitutional dichotomy out the window and have tried instituting a one-party, Soviet system of crony capitalism, corruption and war profiteering.
I have always been a Democrat and almost certainly will remain a Democrat for life. Why? Because I like the fact that the Democratic Party represents America's diversity in almost every way and, by and large, is more representative of the average American than the more elitist, pro-wealthy Republican Party has been since Harding's time. You'd have to go back before Harding before I would consider the Republican Party more representative of my views than the Democratic Party.
But I respect a healthy, moderate Republican Party, the Eisenhower Republicans, to balance the two-party American system. That is why Ford's failure to hold the line against the right wing extremists within the Republican Party is a shame and why I am saddened by Ford's death.
Since Ford's presidency, the entire track of the Republican Party has been towards more and more extremism, more and more lies, more and more greed, and more and more corruption. Almost every traditional, Eisenhower Republican ideal has been thrown out by the barking crazy rightwingers, as the three largest deficits in our history came from Reagan, the elected Bush and the current little Bush and as the idea of "small government" has been thrown out the window in a greedy rush to publicly fund the corrupt military-industrial-religious extremist complex.
I can only hope that the Republican Party can rediscover its Gerald Ford/Dwight Eisenhower side and reject the extremists who currently control their Party.
Hope everyone has a happy new year!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The First Step in Iraq (humor)
A COMMENT ABOUT 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
BUSH CRONYISM: Shilling for Shell
NYC FOCUS: Atlantic Yards and Development in NYC
NYC GROUPS AND EVENTS
VIRGINIA FOCUS: Raising the Minimum Wage
VIRGINIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
NEW JERSEY GROUPS AND EVENTS
BLOGGING THE MIDWEST
MIDWEST GROUPS AND EVENTS
RUNNING FOR DELEGATE IN CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
This last week Gerald Ford died. I want to take a moment to consider his death in a broader context.
There was a time, barely remembered today, when the idea of bipartisanship really seemed reasonable. There was once a kind of Republican, now driven to the verge of extinction, called the "Eisenhower Republican." Today, the equivalent beast would be called a "Moderate Democrat." The Republican Party itself has largely purged itself of Eisenhower Republicans in its radical shift to the right.
I have always been a Democrat. But even the earliest President I remember, Richard Nixon, though a crazy, paranoid, power hungry SOB, could be ideologically reasonable, as evidenced by his establishment of the EPA. But Nixon, probably unintentionally, began the decline of the Eisenhower Republican. Some of those he brought into government are the very same "barking crazy rightwingers" who have systematically been destroying our nation under Bush. That, combined with Nixon's spectacular and televised downfall, discredited the reasonable, moderate Republican. The Democrats, then more liberal than now, were ready to take advantage of Nixon's downfall, and the far right wing Republicans, then marginalized but poised to strike, were ready to begin their plans to take over the nation through lying, stealing and cheating.
One man had a small chance of saving the Eisenhower Republican: President Gerald Ford.
Gerald Ford, the last of the Eisenhower Republicans who had any chance of saving the Republican Party from the barking crazy rightwingers, has died.
Gerald Ford had been a well-respected Congressman, someone who could work with both parties to get things done. As criminal charges consumed Nixon and his administration, Gerald Ford was the last chance Republicans had of restoring respectability. Centrist, traditionalist and all around nice guy, Ford might have been the only person who could have saved the Republican Party from being taken over by extremists or lapsing into obscurity.
Pardoning Nixon and the stagflation Ford inherited from Nixon pretty much made it impossible for Ford to succeed. In the end, a moderate Democrat (Jimmy Carter) defeated Ford for President, and the right wing fringe of the Republican Party swept in to destroy the Eisenhower Republicans and take over. Those right wing nutcases have not only gone to great lengths to destroy our Constitution and to run up the biggest budget deficits in hitsory, but have also by now alienated moderate Republicans. The death of the Eisenhower branch of the Republican Party was one reason why Democrats won this year.
And with the Republican Party now nearly completely dominated by anti-democracy, right wing fools, and with Democrats winning by appealing to American moderates, Gerald Ford, at the age of 93, has died.
America has always been and should remain a two-party system. Why? Because we, as a culture, divide pretty solidly into Federalist and State's Rights camps...strict interpretation vs. loose interpretation of the Constitution... These are very real ambiguities within our system, left ambiguous by those who formed our government, and it is the give and take between these two views of government that has made our nation strong. The big danger now is that one party, the Republicans, have been taken over by a group that believes in neither of these philosophies of government except as a way of fooling voters. Instead, the barking crazy rightwingers have, in essence, thrown the whole Constitutional dichotomy out the window and have tried instituting a one-party, Soviet system of crony capitalism, corruption and war profiteering.
I have always been a Democrat and almost certainly will remain a Democrat for life. Why? Because I like the fact that the Democratic Party represents America's diversity in almost every way and, by and large, is more representative of the average American than the more elitist, pro-wealthy Republican Party has been since Harding's time. You'd have to go back before Harding before I would consider the Republican Party more representative of my views than the Democratic Party.
But I respect a healthy, moderate Republican Party, the Eisenhower Republicans, to balance the two-party American system. That is why Ford's failure to hold the line against the right wing extremists within the Republican Party is a shame and why I am saddened by Ford's death.
Since Ford's presidency, the entire track of the Republican Party has been towards more and more extremism, more and more lies, more and more greed, and more and more corruption. Almost every traditional, Eisenhower Republican ideal has been thrown out by the barking crazy rightwingers, as the three largest deficits in our history came from Reagan, the elected Bush and the current little Bush and as the idea of "small government" has been thrown out the window in a greedy rush to publicly fund the corrupt military-industrial-religious extremist complex.
I can only hope that the Republican Party can rediscover its Gerald Ford/Dwight Eisenhower side and reject the extremists who currently control their Party.
Hope everyone has a happy new year!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The First Step in Iraq (humor)
A COMMENT ABOUT 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
BUSH CRONYISM: Shilling for Shell
NYC FOCUS: Atlantic Yards and Development in NYC
NYC GROUPS AND EVENTS
VIRGINIA FOCUS: Raising the Minimum Wage
VIRGINIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
NEW JERSEY GROUPS AND EVENTS
BLOGGING THE MIDWEST
MIDWEST GROUPS AND EVENTS
RUNNING FOR DELEGATE IN CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA GROUPS AND EVENTS
posted by mole333 | 11:58 PM
|
1 comments
1 Comments:
There are good points in your article. I would like to contribute what I know of a problem that has plagued both parties and all presidents since
Eisenhower warned us about it.
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments”
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html
The Pentagon is a giant, incredibly complex establishment, budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Administrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.
How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the new Sec. Def.Mr. Gates, understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?
Answer- he can’t. Therefore he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.
From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.
This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.
This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen until it hits a brick wall at high speed.
We will then have to run a Volkswagen instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.
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