Hopefully, for the good of the nation, the party will reject its most extreme billionaires and politicians and return to the classically conservative side of true American values...
Everyone says we need two viable competing parties. I get it. It would be foolhardy to argue against having a balance between the opposing human tendencies which constantly confront us. But I have to say that, without making a clean break away from the radical religion based on Biblical literalism driving the conservative masses, and the fearfulness and cynicism about human nature and government which pervades right-wing thinking, we are only going to keep fighting a losing battle. If logic, reason, science, wisdom, knowledge, and love do not start winning more skirmishes in this drama, we are going to be in a world of pain and pity, sooner rather than later.
Eisenhower fought in WWII. He knew what Fascism truly meant. He recognized the Fascists in the USA for what they truly meant. He knew they cared for nothing and no one except themselves. Today we must see them as the school yard bullies they once were. How truly did the Harry Potter books and movies represent them.
Eisenhower was labelled as "pink" by the John Birch Society. He had one brother who was a a registered socialist and another who was a defacto member of his cabinet and was labeled as an internationalist. Those Birchers rose in the party and control under Reagan.
The father of our Republican Congressman was a John Bircher. We have no Democratic candidate on the ballot. Longevity of the county is 76.8 while the average in the state of Illinois is 79.3. That includes all of Chicago, violent crimes included. Within the next four years, we can expect at least 312,000 premature deaths because we don't have Medicare for All, a disproportionate number where my family lives. To answer Hartman's question today, I believe the Democratic party will split between the corporatists and the progressives if Harris fails to deliver a survival economy that includes a survivable healthcare system.
My concern too Gloria, I said it in more words with more explanations.
I am voting for Harris, this will be the first time in my life that I have voted for a candidate and not against a candidate.
But there will be serious pressures on her from The Association of Health Insurance Providers (AHIP) and PhRMA, not to mention the Chamber of Commerce, financial insititutions and the lobbyists who infest D.C,.
We have to keep up the pressure, as a countervailing force, not sit back and celebrate and go about our business protesting for this and that cause, as we have done in the past.
Yes, it is FFFing time for us to face the failures of both parties and lets hope that Harris and her running mate has the courage to go up against an antiquated system that is denying Americans all the comforts that most Europeans enjoy.
Start by gathering the billions of tax dollars from the super weathy and highly wealthy to pay for healthcare for all. The list of comforta is long but this is a good one to start with
And living in a red Georgia county I don't dare post a Harris-Walz sign for fear that some knuckle dragging red hat would harm my dogs or horses in retaliation. They are truly a cult of bottom feeding scum.
A lot of D voters across the country may feel as you do. Show H-W signs and suffer the consequences.
With less visible support for H-W, and lots of T-V signs, (because they don't care,) it's going to appear Trump has greater support than he really will.
NBC just did a poll that indicates half of Gen Z will vote for Harris/Walz, but one third of them are saying they will vote for Trump.
I so want to believe this Trump folly will end the conservative economic disaster Republicans keep creating. It would be great to see a real health CARE system for all, affordable housing, and education or trade-type training for anyone that wants a good job.
But that statistic of a "left" half and "right" third seems to hold true even in Scandinavia. The right and center-right of their parliaments have not been strong enough to coalesce and take over.
There are absolutely conservative brains whether they are born or created. The Grim Reaper will clear out the Trump debris. It's logical to think the party lives on in some form.
Left and center-left knows how to work together. We have to keep our tent big and growing if we want to run the circus.
The oldest of this group is now 23, Suzie. We know now the "judgement" part of brains take a while longer. Conservative thinkers often realize things after the issue lands on THEIR doorstep. I'm not sure 18-23 year old people actually listen to anyone.....I know I didn't.
At 23 I knew better than to vote for a dictatorship? I also knew that Reagan was evil. And the Vietnam war was unjustified. If they don't know this stuff when they get out of high school, they may never.
Absolutely, Bob. The ages of 18-23 are when young adults start breaking free and have been talking to one another about what is right and wrong with the world.
I have a bit more faith, as I have known some pretty smart 23-year olds. They do listen...they don't always do the smart thing, but I agree they can be easily led sometimes.
Actually the point I'm making is that they are NOT led. They often get together and try to figure it out together. That's a peer thing with no pressure. It's a time of gaining independence and finding yourself. Whether they are still home or away at college they are breaking loose.
I had to develop my own mind at a very young age. Letting mommy and daddy decide what religion or what political party I was, would have violated my personal boundaries. Right wingers have a problem with respecting other people's boundaries! No wonder so many of their children are thugs and sociopaths.
Yes at 23 I had already spent time in DC prison with several hundred VietNam protesters that Nixon just arbitrarily picked up off the streets. Of course I was a protester but many were not. We were moved in
the middle of the night from DC prison to DC collisium here we met 2000 others that were also being illegally detained.
I watched an interview on MSNBC yesterday it sems a good portion of GenZ, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generations are voting for Trump because of LGBT rights and equality.
The Hispanic culture is religious, lots of Evangelicals, and very conservative.
Thanks Daniel, Missing on that graphic are young black males and young black Hispanics, both of which are very much anxious about, afraid of and opposed to LGBT
I liked that they acknowledged the challenges this group has grown-up with. Also, that they spoke about them being attracted to grit and joy. Harris/Walz has it while Trump keeps feeding his dumpster fire.
I think you absolutely touched on some of it, William. But, my point that they are born into THAT kind of religious thought and the conservatism probably go hand in hand.
Probably right. Thom has said, and written, that there is a Turning Point every 80 years, it takes that long for the institutional memory of the grandparent generation to pass.
The present generation, takes for granted the rights, opportunities and freedoms they have, if they have any knowledge, they gloss over it, and don't fully realize how fragile those gains and freedoms are.
They can't internalize and relate to the world of their grandparents, or even parents, and that goes for everyone.
The frequence of gay and transgenderism is higher among black and Hispanic communities than among white communities, just peruse the news when you read of a transwoman being killed and stuffed in a dumpster and almost always she is black or Asian.
When I lived in Panama I went to a Cantina in Santiago de Veraguas, with my cuñado an open air thing strung with Christmas lights, and there were men dancing with quite obviously transvestites or maybe transsexuals. I was told that such conduct was perfectly acceptable the men were called maleates. and the wives preferred that, than them having a girlfriend or a mistress, getting her pregnant then having to divorce him, as happened to my suegra.
That leads me to a Stanford Study, where they scientifically determined that the degree of homophobia was directly related to the degree of repressed sexual desire for the same sex.
That can be translated into a culture.
For instance ISIS is noted for throwing queers off roofs, but they live in a society, a culture where femininity is hidden behind bee keeper suits, because what a man is suppose to do is spent all of his time thinking of Allah, and not be distracted by sex
Without any outlet for the sex drive, they naturally turn to other men, and homosexuality must be rampant, which leads to extreme forms of homophobia, and acting out...
The Republican Party of my childhood in Pennsyltucky had two factions, the Lincolnians and the Hamiltonians. There was flux. E,g, Arlen Specter, US Senator, originally a Democrat, became a Republican in the 1960s before switching back to the Democratic Party in 2009. In may home town, deep in the heart of Heinzland, when the Republican Party attacked Teresa Heinz Kerry, widow of former Republican Senator John Heinz, remarried to the Democratic candidate for president, many of our local gentry supported the Democratic candidate. Today, virtually none will admit they support the orange antichrist, even if they are titular Republicans.
For me, the "classically conservative side of true American values" was actually the the Hamiltonian, "I got mine I want yours too," philosophy.
All politics are local.
My dad switched parties in 1955. He had been head of Veterans for Eisenhower in 1952 in Pa, and when there were local political problems, ran for DA as a Democrat and won.
Statewide the Republicans had a political boss and controlled all jobs via a spoils system. My dad had been the head of the WPA in our county, controlled by a Republican Party boss, even when in law school, and after he became a lawyer had been appointed an assistant DA before the war. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted. After the war he was commander of the American Legion, and had been a Republican candidate for judge in the 1953 primaries.
It was the era of Joe Pewism. "In 1933–34 Pew went to Washington, D.C., to fight the New Deal petroleum code, which he believed would lead to price-fixing. This endeavor was the beginning of his political career. Pew was heavily involved in Republican politics, mostly in Pennsylvania, for much of his life and was a delegate to Republican National Convention. He employed John Hamilton as a personal advisor and political consultant. He strongly opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, such as price-fixing and organized labor. By strategically spending millions of dollars, Pew earned a reputation as Pennsylvania's political boss, controlling state and national elections. He funded the operations and staff of the Republican National Committee headquarters in an effort to keep Franklin D. Roosevelt out of office. Although largely unsuccessful on the national scene, Pew's work in his home state was responsible for a number of elections. Pew is also given credit for the election of both Arthur H. James and Edward Martin as Pennsylvania Governor and Bernard Samuel as Mayor of Philadelphia." From wiki. Family controlled Sun Oil Company....
Virtually all of my family, my neighbors and my classmates' families were petit bourgeois professionals, small businessmen and Lincolnian Republicans.
When my dad switched parties, he became the enemy of the Hamiltonian head of the Republican Party, who had become the state wide boss. The boss was a neighbor. I knew him from the golf course. I caddied for him a couple of times. He was a manufacturer, and had been president of the National Association of Manufacturers, chair of the board of directors at Penn State.
When my dad ran, and later the Republicans started a whisper campaign. Dozens of my classmates, predominantly Presbyterians, reported to me that their parents had gotten a call to oppose any "other," Jews or Catholics, and were asked not to shop at non WASP businesses.
At age 13, I quit my membership in Boy Scouts, Builders (Demolay) and similar groups because I could sense the hostility of some former friends.
Today, most of the Lincolnians oppose Trump. Many have switched parties. Most of those Hamiltonians' families remain registered Republicans. That whisper campaign is the same as Trump's dog whistle to the racist collective subconscious of many of his cultists.
Trump's attraction within the party reminds me of Joe Pewism in Pa and Trump demands loyalty and obedience.
Liz Cheney voted twice for the orange antichrist, knowing full well he was nothing but a grifter, based on party loyalty. Party before country. She came around only after she was personally targeted.
Daniel said: "z Cheney voted twice for the orange antichrist, knowing full well he was nothing but a grifter, based on party loyalty. Party before country. She came around only after she was personally targeted." That is why I don't trust Liz, Rachel Maddow expressed my sentiments to Liz' face. Thanks for standing up for the constitution Liz, but you and I are still on opposite sides of the wall and there is no middle ground. (my words not hers)
I see we share something in common Daniel, I caddied at the Melrose Country Club in Philadelphia or was that Cheltenham, Made more money than my mom who worked as a waitress and in a bank. I also set pins in the YMCA bowling alley across the street. now an Autozone, formerly a Pizza Hut
Caddies were paid 2 dollars a bag for 18 holes and a standard tip of $1 if you knew the course and could recommend a club, $1 for 9 holes and a $.50 tip.
A typical day was carrying doubles (two bags) 36 holes, and topping it off would be doubles for 9, usually women's day. A bad day was singles 18 holes, only happened twice, when I was starting out.
We waited in the caddy shack, run by a hunchback and his son, we really earned good tips by spotting the lay of balls,and occasionally kicking it out of the rough onto the fairway, so long as we weren't caught.
A lot of caddies grew up to be golfers, a few professionals,not me, I never got the sport , but I hear that professional caddies make a good living and that some like Nicholson and Woods travel with their own.
I can see that, you know the lay of the land, the the rises,the valleys, windbreaks, the texture of the fairway's and the greens, and know which club to suggest to the golfer. I was doing that by the age of 14.
Must have been a sight,the bags were almost dragging on the ground.
The caddymaster didn't want me to compete with the professional caddies. I had a couple of regulars who were gamblers and would pay me a cut. I also cut grass, and I searched for lost balls on Mondays when the course was closed, which could be lucrative.
At one point, when I was a junior in high school, they introduced more carts. I think they did this to get rid of the Black caddies, some who were professionals .
We didn't dare go for lost balls, especially in the water hazards, those belonged to the caddymaster..
I mowed lawns, baby sat, had hree paper routes the Bulletin, a daily, the Sunday Enquirer and a local paper,the Lawndale Times. Also mined he battery graveyard of Exide batteries, we would crawl under the fence, salvage he lead and sell it of $.07a pound, right after the war, you could sell tin cans, magazines and newspapers at he junkyard. I made nough by 8 years old o buy my first radio (looked like a church), my first bike (26 inch, too big to ride until was 15, a bisque doll for mom and a string of fake pink pearls. Shoveled snow as well.
Alexander Hamilton lobbied for a permanent executive, basically a King, I have suspicion that he envisioned himself as did the Tidewater Aristocrats as nobility in the new land.
I'm curious too. "Hamiltonian" has generally meant fiscally conservative. I don't remember Hamilton being a fan of "I got mine, I want yours too." That sounds more robber-baronish to me.
In my home town we had the equivalent of landed gentry, who did no work. My dad called then "coupon clippers" -- taking their bonds and notes to the bank when they needed money. Some of them had homes in Palm Beach or Palm Springs and travelled extensively. The Hamiltonian class. I knew several lawyers who practiced "hobby law," but may have been on boards of major industries courtesy of the connection of the political boss.
The real Hamilton (Al Levine) was depicted by Gore Vidal in his novel Burr Hamiltonians represented the Brahmins, blue bloods in the party who were challenged by the Lincolnian "light blues" who they viewed as a threat to their entitlement. By the time of FDR, Joe Pew was the boss of the Hamiltonians, who owned everything, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in part via the wealth of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In Pittsburgh and Philly there are still exclusive eating and country clubs that are controlled by their progeny.
Canadians have an old saying about their sons who died in battle: "He bought the farm." In the American War of Independence and again in the American Civil War, the sons of the rich did not "do their duty". Their parents hired Canadian youths to fight in their place. Part of the contract was that if the Canadian boy died in battle, the American parents would buy a farm or pay off the mortgage on the farm for the Canadian family. The richest Americans today still despise the "lower classes" who still send their sons and daughters into real battle.
Thanks, one learns something every day here, but I doubt that the phrase came from Canada, because it is too embedded in American English. I need to some investigating now. It makes sense that the Rich would buy their sons a way out of the fighting, but Canadians? I know of no Cross border recruiting and during the Revolution Canucks were loyalists, no way they would fight for the Colonists, against the Colonist yes, they did fight against the revolutionaries
In 1775 at the start of the American Revolution, rebel forces invaded Canada, occupying Montreal and attacking the town of Quebec. American privateers also raided Atlantic ports, and revolutionary sympathizers in Nova Scotia attempted a rebellion in that colony.
Poverty makes sacrifices. It is possible that I am wrong about the Rebellion (LOL), but I know I am right about the Civil War. My Welsh ancestor lost his farm in Ohio and had to migrate to live with his brother in Bellville, Ontario in the Revolution.
That I can accept. The way it was first written was that the Rich Americans were recruiting Canadian boys to substitute for their sons.
Your clarification makes sense. The American rich were recruiting the sons of destitute Americans to fill in as substitutes.
Substitution was common during the American Revolution. wherein a local militia was conscripted (they served for a limited period of time, as little as three months)
And if they had a wife and kids, they could hire someone from a neighboring county, in fact it was a business, some teenage kid would put himself p for hire.
We may need two political parties, but we don't need a revived Republican party - we need a strong Progressive Worker's party as the second party. Let's move the Overton Window away from the right wing by centering the debate between the establishment Democratic politicians and the progressives led by Bernie Sanders and AOC, who push for policies that the public actually wants.
There's nothing worth salvaging from the GOP. Its capitalist supporters have always had one foot in the Democratic party anyway, so they'll still have a home - that was Nader's insight that he fallaciously followed too far to help get Bush elected. We can't evict them from the Democratic party, but we can establish a people's party not compromised by them.
There's nothing else in the GOP other than a fascist brew of mislabeled religious fanatacism that's actually against everything their bible advocates, anti-science "know nothingism," nationalism, nativism, and racism. Good riddance to all of it.
The irony is that the MAGAts are the offspring of the Reaganites., well actually Nixon.
Nixon capitalized on the politics of fear and resentment,, with his Southern Strategy, Reagan doubled down, and the snow ball has been rolling down hill.
The Never Trumpers may be horrifed by and eschew their kith and kin, but they all sprang from the same womb, fertilized by the same sperm and the cling to the same precepts that gave birth to the MAGAts. the antidote is progressivism, but they run from the needle and are vehemently anti vaxx.
A LOT are progeny of Democrats. If you check out the "Reagan Democrats" in Michigan, many were really Appalachians who took the Hillbilly Highway to work in the mills.
Trump, and therefore the Republican Party, are firmly in the pockets of social media trolls, funded and directed by Russia - some knowingly ($10M dollar payoffs,) and some just useful idiots.
As the cases unfold against the payoffs to right wing podcasters and posters, we are going to see a domino effect all the way to legislators and possibly Fox. "Q" (probably Ron Watkins, supported by his small army of online Incel trolls) will be implicated. The legacy press is hanging back right now, wondering how they will also be implicated. Somebody, likely somebodies, are going to squeal once it looks like they will go to prison over their payoffs from Russia. Expect the useful idiots to go first. Right now, they are humping the propaganda of "Russia, Russia, Russia, Hoax, Hoax, Hoax" again to try to save their sorry butts. Their social media fans may buy it, but hard-nosed investigators and DAs will not. The walls will close in very soon. From NationalZero's blog this morning.
"Dan Bongino, one of the leading lights in the right wing media-industrial complex grifter set, is doing what he and his cohort are wont to do: react to the new Russia shitshow by spreading conspiracy bullshit and paranoia about the "Deep State" coming for them. After all it was taped on a day that ended in "y."
Hmmm... I’m wondering if they see the possibility of the (Russian?) contagious physical ailment that affects balance and surefootesness that results in accidental defenestration
Ike was not totally blameless. He was co-opted by the corporate groups to the message of God favoring free enterprise. It was probably politically expedient but did start the country down a course to where we are now.
Listen to Dr. Kevin Kruse on his discussion about how Eisenhower was bought into the anti-New Deal religious movement in his analysis of "One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America."
Thanks for the link. Same lionization as they've done over that crook Reagan, who in large part, brought us to the kleptocracy we are now experiencing.
Keep in mind that McCarthy was in full cry during Ike's first term, and McCarthyism continued well after McCarthy croaked in May 1957. One might argue that it continues to this day.
I remember vividly and why the One nation under god was added to the Pledge. It was during the red scare period, the McCarthy era.
The church inspired propaganda was that communism was atheism, and that atheists were communists and the biggest threat to Christian America. And of course anything that hinted at socialism was equated with communism
To mollify the proto MAGAts and to assuage their fears, the government added "under god" to the pledge and In god we trust to our coins., thus imitating Das Grosser Reich, whose Heer wore belt buckles wtih Gott Mit Uns. and the Reichsmark had "Gott der Gerechte! Scho mieder ä naier cometh God the Righteous, I have no idea what the rest translates into.
I wasn’t born yet when Eisenhower was president. In my opinion there hasn’t been a decent Republican president in my lifetime! Doing what is best for their constituents has never been their priority. Business and profits are the most important to them. Reagan was an embarrassment but Trump is reprehensible!
I expect the end of the GOP as it has no vision of any future other than mudsill which is the faulty desire to make an economy that automatically generations unearned millionaire and billionaire thru the taxing policy to make the majority of American's to be living below the middle class status. FDR's solution for mudsill was to campaign by a 3 or 4 economic issues for low information base Dem voters. Talking about cultural values such as abortion is helpful to activate the base but cannot replace economic issues of import such as housing, food, healthcare, childcare, education, and all other universal rights. It is also important that the people understand the plan of the GOP based in mudsill to make at least half of American's live below middle class status. Reaganism has achieved this and we need to continue a Biden (FDR) economics to increase the middle class and the higher class to 100% so nobody lives below a living income.
Eisenhower was an anomaly as a Republican. He was courted by both parties, because they both understood that he would win regardless. I see him as an extension of FDR-HST, having served under them as commander of the ETO during WWII. But there has been a persistent undercurrent of hard-core authoritarianism in the GOP since the beginning of industrialization, fueled entirely by the super-rich. It is as obvious now as it ever has been, and won't abate any time soon.
We hear the occasional disaffected Republican voice calling for Kamala Harris to move toward the “center”. It having moved rightward for decades, just where that center is today is anybody’s guess. If its Reagan’s center, no thanks; autocracy has too many champions now. If its Ike’s, let’s talk, starting with the military-industrial complex and infrastructure.
This is a concern of mine too, with all these never-Trump Republicans discovering their inner Democrat and some "moderate" mostly white Democrats calling any Dem who talks about economic justice "far left." VP Harris talks about "building up the middle class" but skirts the point that it needs building up because of the neoliberal, anti-union, tax-breaks-for-the-rich policies of Reagan and his successors. I get why she has to do this -- most USians freak out at the mention of the "s-word," aka socialism -- but I still wish that we as a country weren't so economically illiterate.
The Republicans are blatant in their desire to kill the middle class. They truly believe in rule by The Money, with everyone else an easily exploitable peasant/worker/soldier. Amazing to me that the peasants seem to be FOR this.
Yet, the Democrats have played along (Clinton and Obama.) It does us well to recall that Clinton militarized the police and Obama continued the wars he promised to stop and did nothing about Gitmo, which he promised to close. Much Hope turned out to be very little Change. He also oversaw the expansion of extrajudicial killings via drones - many, if not most, of which resulted in the deaths of innocents. The military budget flourished during both their reigns.
Politicians, at the top, need two things - money and guns. In return, they must provide largess to those who provide. The wealthy donors supply the money and either the military or the police supply the guns. The military was never going to support Clinton, hence the flow of money and advanced weaponry to the police. Obama focused on one thing, the ACA which was basically a bend-over for the insurance companies. Otherwise, he didn't court controversy.
I vote blue because they are marginally better. I can HOPE that Harris, with her experience as a DA, and reliance on grass-root donations, might rout out some of the more egregious corruption, but that's not going to be easy, primarily because both rightwing and legacy media are on the side of the conservatives.
At the core is are the decisions of the Robert's court that have made bribery sacrosanct. It is so obvious that so-called justices now accept money, gifts and luxury from their billionaire "friends." Now, both parties must serve the wealthy donors, while offering the public a different set of promises that will never be fulfilled.
I vote blue because the Democrats are at least marginally better. But I have no illusions.
I have that problem with Google Chrome and Windows 7 I suspect that if you haven't updated Windows, meaning relinquished more control to MS and are suckered into an annual subscription, then you haven't received updates and your browser is slowly being disabled. That happened to me with Windows 95, I refused to downgrade to Windows 98, and then my Firefox and Netscape browsers stopped working.
The GOP is a right-wing criminal terrorist organization currently! The right sees government as a tool to use to rob with. The whole brand needs to be destroyed! They need to come back as a party to the left because the Democratic party is already too far to the right!
Unlimited greed, religion, keep trying the same thing over and over again with the same results (the family unit), will never work.
Only when we can raise all babies from conception in agnostic communes or neutral growing centers where all the children's needs are met, can we end the other! We could end racism, crime, environmental caused insanity...
Sounds good Bob, but I believe that a little man with a toothbrush mustache tried that
with his Lebensborn program. Young girls were paired with SS Officers and the offspring raised in sanitized SS nurseries and schools. There are still a few wandering around Germany today, all of them dysfunctional and mentally damaged. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15548608
With wisdom like yours, the human race is definitely going to destroy itself. I'm firmly opposed to Hitler. And liars. Until you have a better way to get rid of the "others", I will have to put you in the same pile as the cult members, who can always complain, but have no solutions.
Bob my friend I am not comparing you with Hitler and please don't take offense, none intended. I know you better, and there is no need to stoop to insults either.
I am just a little more familiar with history than the average person, and Immediately spotted parallel between your idea and that of Lebensborn.
I am very careful about solutions, because unless thought through thoroughly, they have unintended consequences. And I mean thoroughly, they say a good chess player thinks four moves ahead, but when tinkering with humnity and the actsions, reactions, fears and needs of humans, one needs to think six or seven moves ahead,and then there are mind boggling alternatives, too much so, that people don't think they just react and pay the piper later.
For instance HAMAS, Islam, Arabs have a solution to the problem posed by Israel and it isn't a two state solution.. Get rid of the Jews or have them submit to Islamic rule.
Antisemites have a solution, a final solution.
Two states side by side are not a solution, but a precursor to war, because Islamists will continue to harass and even invade Israel, but this time Israel will retaliate by invading a sovereign state and that is an act of war.
Nobody thinks ahead of the consequences of their preferences, ideology and druthers.
William, I agree with your take on the Middle East, you can't bring peace to two close-minded lunatics, is my summary.
The current trajectory of the human race is on will be self-destruction, so doing nothing is destructive. We have tried the family unit for thousands of years and it appears to have stopped the evolution of the human race. Before birth control people were having babies for pleasure, breeding like animals. The faith religion still push that on their flock! The Catholic and Muslims both want large families so they can conquer the non-believers and the others!
I am a firm believer in the united we stand divided we fall. Whether Americans are this dysfunctional because it is genetic or environmental can only be solved with changing the environment, not the genes. That is where I differ from Hitler and selective breeding which Ie oppose. We can end daycare shortages, children going hungry, violent and angry adults and parents with kibutzes or whatever else you want to call it. We can end racism crime and hatred mostly. Raising children to think rationally not emotionally! My way of parenting has not even been tried! Play, learn and teache is the cycle of life, while play learn and teach and die is the circle of life and death. But two are totally different and they get confused a lot by the non-thinkers. You have to make a kid happy before the age of 7 or they will grow up to be thugs. And cult members.
My Dad was a sharecroppers son, but graduated from H.S., Joined the Marines because his older brother had,but because of his education and intelligence wound up a payroll clerk (a very important job those days)
But he met my mother when she was 16, and the sharecroppers son was smitten with oxytocin.
His commander would not give him permission to marry, so he married her anyone, and because he did not have permssion, he was not authorized to live off post, draw Basic Allowance for quarters and separation rations, and had to stupport himself, mom and eventually me on %30 a month. Mom lost two teeth to her demanding fetus (me) and I wound up with rickets.
He was reposted to a recruiting station in NOLA, my sis was born a month after the Japs bombed pearl harbor (to the day). I spent the war with my grandparents in the backwoods of Arkansas, and then in what is now cancer alley.
Thinks didn't work out after V-J day, and I grew up in a project in North Philadelphia..Mom had to work, so us kids raised each other,I had some brushes with the law, as you would expect for a kid from the projects, and spent three years in ninth grade (truancy)
But the three of us turned out pretty well. I had a bout with alcoholism,but I think that it is genetic (too much in the way of Irish genes),Dad did as well, Grandpappy didn't. The Irish genes come from grandmothers ,. Mom side and Dads.
One thing I can mention, my mom did not raise me to be intolerant, both she and sis dated the cousin of our neighbors the Edwards, a mullato couple specially chosen to integrate the project.
One of my friends was a blond haired gay kid, that nobody thought of messing with as he was black belt jiu jitsu.
The closest I came was me. I was the lone Protestant in a Catholic dominated project. My playmates Irish, Italians and German Catholics, and at 15 blacks, and even one deaf kid who taught me sign language
I learned Vietnamese and was accepted and protected by my community during Tet. I lived with Panamanians and learned the language by osmosis in situ.
And for anyone who reads this words, any opinions I may hold are well formed from experience and study..
I grew up in an impoverished dysfunctional family.
That is why I don't trust Garland or Biden. I go by a person's actions not their words. I have a very good liar detective nose. Liars are allergic to the truth. My religion is the truth. I can't trust a liar, or lunatic. They're all over in this society.
Excellent, constructive write up. Implied recognition that we need two (at least) functional parties, and they will have legitimately varying approaches. . Helpful.
I applaud Liz and those like her, but am wary of Reagan Republicians becoming Democrats, We have too many of them in the party already, like Joe Manchin and Menendez, Carper and Coons.
There is an Arab saying. Don;t let the camel get it's nose under the tent.
For those that don't get the drift, once a camel gets its nose under the tent, the rest soon follows.
Lot of Never Trumpers, like those in the Lincoln Project and the Bulwark have come to realize that the Republican Party is no longer the party of Reagan, but of George Lincoln Rockwell, George Wallace and David Duke, and are preregistering as Democrats.
And these are well connected people, intellectuals with access to money and clout, and the New Democratic Party will become the party of Reagan.
I don’t believe that Liz Cheney is turning Democrat. I think she is holding her nose and “pulling the lever” because the Republican Party of old is gone. What is left needs to be voted out. Adam Kinzinger and others have stated that Republicans need to put Country over party. We don’t send people to Washington to play “football” - our team vs their team. We elect them to work for the American people as a whole. Ever since Reagan it’s been this us vs them bullshit to the point of shutting down the government. It’s nonsense. No one would tolerate employees who acted like that. They work for us. They need to stop acting like pampered dolls and get to work with actual budgets etc. And stop listening to people who have been voted out!!
Yep, kind of forgot the Reagan Democrats, suckers fell for his fame and shtick.
Suckers born every moment.
I was a conservative and he snookered me, saying that he would not appoint CFR and Trilateral Commission members to the government, first thing he did was what he said he would not do, then he screwed the military, and fools still loved him. but he promised not to fire the Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) and then fired them, and the fools still loved him, Why, because he appealed to the racists and Christian right, the same yahoo's that have elected Trump their lord and savior.
Everyone says we need two viable competing parties. I get it. It would be foolhardy to argue against having a balance between the opposing human tendencies which constantly confront us. But I have to say that, without making a clean break away from the radical religion based on Biblical literalism driving the conservative masses, and the fearfulness and cynicism about human nature and government which pervades right-wing thinking, we are only going to keep fighting a losing battle. If logic, reason, science, wisdom, knowledge, and love do not start winning more skirmishes in this drama, we are going to be in a world of pain and pity, sooner rather than later.
See Robert, now you and I are in complete agreement.
Me too
Eisenhower fought in WWII. He knew what Fascism truly meant. He recognized the Fascists in the USA for what they truly meant. He knew they cared for nothing and no one except themselves. Today we must see them as the school yard bullies they once were. How truly did the Harry Potter books and movies represent them.
Eisenhower was labelled as "pink" by the John Birch Society. He had one brother who was a a registered socialist and another who was a defacto member of his cabinet and was labeled as an internationalist. Those Birchers rose in the party and control under Reagan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society
The father of our Republican Congressman was a John Bircher. We have no Democratic candidate on the ballot. Longevity of the county is 76.8 while the average in the state of Illinois is 79.3. That includes all of Chicago, violent crimes included. Within the next four years, we can expect at least 312,000 premature deaths because we don't have Medicare for All, a disproportionate number where my family lives. To answer Hartman's question today, I believe the Democratic party will split between the corporatists and the progressives if Harris fails to deliver a survival economy that includes a survivable healthcare system.
My concern too Gloria, I said it in more words with more explanations.
I am voting for Harris, this will be the first time in my life that I have voted for a candidate and not against a candidate.
But there will be serious pressures on her from The Association of Health Insurance Providers (AHIP) and PhRMA, not to mention the Chamber of Commerce, financial insititutions and the lobbyists who infest D.C,.
We have to keep up the pressure, as a countervailing force, not sit back and celebrate and go about our business protesting for this and that cause, as we have done in the past.
Yes, it is FFFing time for us to face the failures of both parties and lets hope that Harris and her running mate has the courage to go up against an antiquated system that is denying Americans all the comforts that most Europeans enjoy.
Start by gathering the billions of tax dollars from the super weathy and highly wealthy to pay for healthcare for all. The list of comforta is long but this is a good one to start with
And living in a red Georgia county I don't dare post a Harris-Walz sign for fear that some knuckle dragging red hat would harm my dogs or horses in retaliation. They are truly a cult of bottom feeding scum.
A lot of D voters across the country may feel as you do. Show H-W signs and suffer the consequences.
With less visible support for H-W, and lots of T-V signs, (because they don't care,) it's going to appear Trump has greater support than he really will.
Good News/Bad News
NBC just did a poll that indicates half of Gen Z will vote for Harris/Walz, but one third of them are saying they will vote for Trump.
I so want to believe this Trump folly will end the conservative economic disaster Republicans keep creating. It would be great to see a real health CARE system for all, affordable housing, and education or trade-type training for anyone that wants a good job.
But that statistic of a "left" half and "right" third seems to hold true even in Scandinavia. The right and center-right of their parliaments have not been strong enough to coalesce and take over.
There are absolutely conservative brains whether they are born or created. The Grim Reaper will clear out the Trump debris. It's logical to think the party lives on in some form.
Left and center-left knows how to work together. We have to keep our tent big and growing if we want to run the circus.
The third of them that will vote Trump will do so because of online propaganda, about which they tend not to think critically.
The oldest of this group is now 23, Suzie. We know now the "judgement" part of brains take a while longer. Conservative thinkers often realize things after the issue lands on THEIR doorstep. I'm not sure 18-23 year old people actually listen to anyone.....I know I didn't.
At 23 I knew better than to vote for a dictatorship? I also knew that Reagan was evil. And the Vietnam war was unjustified. If they don't know this stuff when they get out of high school, they may never.
Absolutely, Bob. The ages of 18-23 are when young adults start breaking free and have been talking to one another about what is right and wrong with the world.
I have a bit more faith, as I have known some pretty smart 23-year olds. They do listen...they don't always do the smart thing, but I agree they can be easily led sometimes.
Actually the point I'm making is that they are NOT led. They often get together and try to figure it out together. That's a peer thing with no pressure. It's a time of gaining independence and finding yourself. Whether they are still home or away at college they are breaking loose.
I had to develop my own mind at a very young age. Letting mommy and daddy decide what religion or what political party I was, would have violated my personal boundaries. Right wingers have a problem with respecting other people's boundaries! No wonder so many of their children are thugs and sociopaths.
Yes at 23 I had already spent time in DC prison with several hundred VietNam protesters that Nixon just arbitrarily picked up off the streets. Of course I was a protester but many were not. We were moved in
the middle of the night from DC prison to DC collisium here we met 2000 others that were also being illegally detained.
Did you read Hartman's book, "Cracking the Code"? It explains a lot.
No, but thanks for pointing people in that direction, Gloria.
I watched an interview on MSNBC yesterday it sems a good portion of GenZ, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generations are voting for Trump because of LGBT rights and equality.
The Hispanic culture is religious, lots of Evangelicals, and very conservative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiHHzlsUcT4
Thanks Daniel, Missing on that graphic are young black males and young black Hispanics, both of which are very much anxious about, afraid of and opposed to LGBT
I liked that they acknowledged the challenges this group has grown-up with. Also, that they spoke about them being attracted to grit and joy. Harris/Walz has it while Trump keeps feeding his dumpster fire.
Thanks Daniel for your work on registration.
I think you absolutely touched on some of it, William. But, my point that they are born into THAT kind of religious thought and the conservatism probably go hand in hand.
Probably right. Thom has said, and written, that there is a Turning Point every 80 years, it takes that long for the institutional memory of the grandparent generation to pass.
The present generation, takes for granted the rights, opportunities and freedoms they have, if they have any knowledge, they gloss over it, and don't fully realize how fragile those gains and freedoms are.
They can't internalize and relate to the world of their grandparents, or even parents, and that goes for everyone.
The frequence of gay and transgenderism is higher among black and Hispanic communities than among white communities, just peruse the news when you read of a transwoman being killed and stuffed in a dumpster and almost always she is black or Asian.
When I lived in Panama I went to a Cantina in Santiago de Veraguas, with my cuñado an open air thing strung with Christmas lights, and there were men dancing with quite obviously transvestites or maybe transsexuals. I was told that such conduct was perfectly acceptable the men were called maleates. and the wives preferred that, than them having a girlfriend or a mistress, getting her pregnant then having to divorce him, as happened to my suegra.
That leads me to a Stanford Study, where they scientifically determined that the degree of homophobia was directly related to the degree of repressed sexual desire for the same sex.
That can be translated into a culture.
For instance ISIS is noted for throwing queers off roofs, but they live in a society, a culture where femininity is hidden behind bee keeper suits, because what a man is suppose to do is spent all of his time thinking of Allah, and not be distracted by sex
Without any outlet for the sex drive, they naturally turn to other men, and homosexuality must be rampant, which leads to extreme forms of homophobia, and acting out...
The Republican Party of my childhood in Pennsyltucky had two factions, the Lincolnians and the Hamiltonians. There was flux. E,g, Arlen Specter, US Senator, originally a Democrat, became a Republican in the 1960s before switching back to the Democratic Party in 2009. In may home town, deep in the heart of Heinzland, when the Republican Party attacked Teresa Heinz Kerry, widow of former Republican Senator John Heinz, remarried to the Democratic candidate for president, many of our local gentry supported the Democratic candidate. Today, virtually none will admit they support the orange antichrist, even if they are titular Republicans.
For me, the "classically conservative side of true American values" was actually the the Hamiltonian, "I got mine I want yours too," philosophy.
All politics are local.
My dad switched parties in 1955. He had been head of Veterans for Eisenhower in 1952 in Pa, and when there were local political problems, ran for DA as a Democrat and won.
Statewide the Republicans had a political boss and controlled all jobs via a spoils system. My dad had been the head of the WPA in our county, controlled by a Republican Party boss, even when in law school, and after he became a lawyer had been appointed an assistant DA before the war. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted. After the war he was commander of the American Legion, and had been a Republican candidate for judge in the 1953 primaries.
It was the era of Joe Pewism. "In 1933–34 Pew went to Washington, D.C., to fight the New Deal petroleum code, which he believed would lead to price-fixing. This endeavor was the beginning of his political career. Pew was heavily involved in Republican politics, mostly in Pennsylvania, for much of his life and was a delegate to Republican National Convention. He employed John Hamilton as a personal advisor and political consultant. He strongly opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, such as price-fixing and organized labor. By strategically spending millions of dollars, Pew earned a reputation as Pennsylvania's political boss, controlling state and national elections. He funded the operations and staff of the Republican National Committee headquarters in an effort to keep Franklin D. Roosevelt out of office. Although largely unsuccessful on the national scene, Pew's work in his home state was responsible for a number of elections. Pew is also given credit for the election of both Arthur H. James and Edward Martin as Pennsylvania Governor and Bernard Samuel as Mayor of Philadelphia." From wiki. Family controlled Sun Oil Company....
Virtually all of my family, my neighbors and my classmates' families were petit bourgeois professionals, small businessmen and Lincolnian Republicans.
When my dad switched parties, he became the enemy of the Hamiltonian head of the Republican Party, who had become the state wide boss. The boss was a neighbor. I knew him from the golf course. I caddied for him a couple of times. He was a manufacturer, and had been president of the National Association of Manufacturers, chair of the board of directors at Penn State.
When my dad ran, and later the Republicans started a whisper campaign. Dozens of my classmates, predominantly Presbyterians, reported to me that their parents had gotten a call to oppose any "other," Jews or Catholics, and were asked not to shop at non WASP businesses.
At age 13, I quit my membership in Boy Scouts, Builders (Demolay) and similar groups because I could sense the hostility of some former friends.
Today, most of the Lincolnians oppose Trump. Many have switched parties. Most of those Hamiltonians' families remain registered Republicans. That whisper campaign is the same as Trump's dog whistle to the racist collective subconscious of many of his cultists.
Trump's attraction within the party reminds me of Joe Pewism in Pa and Trump demands loyalty and obedience.
Liz Cheney voted twice for the orange antichrist, knowing full well he was nothing but a grifter, based on party loyalty. Party before country. She came around only after she was personally targeted.
Daniel said: "z Cheney voted twice for the orange antichrist, knowing full well he was nothing but a grifter, based on party loyalty. Party before country. She came around only after she was personally targeted." That is why I don't trust Liz, Rachel Maddow expressed my sentiments to Liz' face. Thanks for standing up for the constitution Liz, but you and I are still on opposite sides of the wall and there is no middle ground. (my words not hers)
I see we share something in common Daniel, I caddied at the Melrose Country Club in Philadelphia or was that Cheltenham, Made more money than my mom who worked as a waitress and in a bank. I also set pins in the YMCA bowling alley across the street. now an Autozone, formerly a Pizza Hut
Pin setting was hazardous.
When we had events, like tournaments, I made more money carrying bags from the cars and back to the clubhouse, than union workers in the steel mills.
Caddies were paid 2 dollars a bag for 18 holes and a standard tip of $1 if you knew the course and could recommend a club, $1 for 9 holes and a $.50 tip.
A typical day was carrying doubles (two bags) 36 holes, and topping it off would be doubles for 9, usually women's day. A bad day was singles 18 holes, only happened twice, when I was starting out.
We waited in the caddy shack, run by a hunchback and his son, we really earned good tips by spotting the lay of balls,and occasionally kicking it out of the rough onto the fairway, so long as we weren't caught.
A lot of caddies grew up to be golfers, a few professionals,not me, I never got the sport , but I hear that professional caddies make a good living and that some like Nicholson and Woods travel with their own.
I can see that, you know the lay of the land, the the rises,the valleys, windbreaks, the texture of the fairway's and the greens, and know which club to suggest to the golfer. I was doing that by the age of 14.
Must have been a sight,the bags were almost dragging on the ground.
The caddymaster didn't want me to compete with the professional caddies. I had a couple of regulars who were gamblers and would pay me a cut. I also cut grass, and I searched for lost balls on Mondays when the course was closed, which could be lucrative.
At one point, when I was a junior in high school, they introduced more carts. I think they did this to get rid of the Black caddies, some who were professionals .
We didn't dare go for lost balls, especially in the water hazards, those belonged to the caddymaster..
I mowed lawns, baby sat, had hree paper routes the Bulletin, a daily, the Sunday Enquirer and a local paper,the Lawndale Times. Also mined he battery graveyard of Exide batteries, we would crawl under the fence, salvage he lead and sell it of $.07a pound, right after the war, you could sell tin cans, magazines and newspapers at he junkyard. I made nough by 8 years old o buy my first radio (looked like a church), my first bike (26 inch, too big to ride until was 15, a bisque doll for mom and a string of fake pink pearls. Shoveled snow as well.
What do you mean by Hamiltonian's. I must have a different idea of Hamiltonian's from Hartmann's book on Neoliberalism.
Alexander Hamilton lobbied for a permanent executive, basically a King, I have suspicion that he envisioned himself as did the Tidewater Aristocrats as nobility in the new land.
I'm curious too. "Hamiltonian" has generally meant fiscally conservative. I don't remember Hamilton being a fan of "I got mine, I want yours too." That sounds more robber-baronish to me.
In my home town we had the equivalent of landed gentry, who did no work. My dad called then "coupon clippers" -- taking their bonds and notes to the bank when they needed money. Some of them had homes in Palm Beach or Palm Springs and travelled extensively. The Hamiltonian class. I knew several lawyers who practiced "hobby law," but may have been on boards of major industries courtesy of the connection of the political boss.
The real Hamilton (Al Levine) was depicted by Gore Vidal in his novel Burr Hamiltonians represented the Brahmins, blue bloods in the party who were challenged by the Lincolnian "light blues" who they viewed as a threat to their entitlement. By the time of FDR, Joe Pew was the boss of the Hamiltonians, who owned everything, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in part via the wealth of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In Pittsburgh and Philly there are still exclusive eating and country clubs that are controlled by their progeny.
Canadians have an old saying about their sons who died in battle: "He bought the farm." In the American War of Independence and again in the American Civil War, the sons of the rich did not "do their duty". Their parents hired Canadian youths to fight in their place. Part of the contract was that if the Canadian boy died in battle, the American parents would buy a farm or pay off the mortgage on the farm for the Canadian family. The richest Americans today still despise the "lower classes" who still send their sons and daughters into real battle.
Thanks, one learns something every day here, but I doubt that the phrase came from Canada, because it is too embedded in American English. I need to some investigating now. It makes sense that the Rich would buy their sons a way out of the fighting, but Canadians? I know of no Cross border recruiting and during the Revolution Canucks were loyalists, no way they would fight for the Colonists, against the Colonist yes, they did fight against the revolutionaries
In 1775 at the start of the American Revolution, rebel forces invaded Canada, occupying Montreal and attacking the town of Quebec. American privateers also raided Atlantic ports, and revolutionary sympathizers in Nova Scotia attempted a rebellion in that colony.
Poverty makes sacrifices. It is possible that I am wrong about the Rebellion (LOL), but I know I am right about the Civil War. My Welsh ancestor lost his farm in Ohio and had to migrate to live with his brother in Bellville, Ontario in the Revolution.
That I can accept. The way it was first written was that the Rich Americans were recruiting Canadian boys to substitute for their sons.
Your clarification makes sense. The American rich were recruiting the sons of destitute Americans to fill in as substitutes.
Substitution was common during the American Revolution. wherein a local militia was conscripted (they served for a limited period of time, as little as three months)
And if they had a wife and kids, they could hire someone from a neighboring county, in fact it was a business, some teenage kid would put himself p for hire.
Wow Susan, I had no idea where that phrase came from?
We may need two political parties, but we don't need a revived Republican party - we need a strong Progressive Worker's party as the second party. Let's move the Overton Window away from the right wing by centering the debate between the establishment Democratic politicians and the progressives led by Bernie Sanders and AOC, who push for policies that the public actually wants.
There's nothing worth salvaging from the GOP. Its capitalist supporters have always had one foot in the Democratic party anyway, so they'll still have a home - that was Nader's insight that he fallaciously followed too far to help get Bush elected. We can't evict them from the Democratic party, but we can establish a people's party not compromised by them.
There's nothing else in the GOP other than a fascist brew of mislabeled religious fanatacism that's actually against everything their bible advocates, anti-science "know nothingism," nationalism, nativism, and racism. Good riddance to all of it.
The irony is that the MAGAts are the offspring of the Reaganites., well actually Nixon.
Nixon capitalized on the politics of fear and resentment,, with his Southern Strategy, Reagan doubled down, and the snow ball has been rolling down hill.
The Never Trumpers may be horrifed by and eschew their kith and kin, but they all sprang from the same womb, fertilized by the same sperm and the cling to the same precepts that gave birth to the MAGAts. the antidote is progressivism, but they run from the needle and are vehemently anti vaxx.
A LOT are progeny of Democrats. If you check out the "Reagan Democrats" in Michigan, many were really Appalachians who took the Hillbilly Highway to work in the mills.
How soon we forget George Wallace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace
Some supported white supremacists like Pat Buchannan.
Trump, and therefore the Republican Party, are firmly in the pockets of social media trolls, funded and directed by Russia - some knowingly ($10M dollar payoffs,) and some just useful idiots.
As the cases unfold against the payoffs to right wing podcasters and posters, we are going to see a domino effect all the way to legislators and possibly Fox. "Q" (probably Ron Watkins, supported by his small army of online Incel trolls) will be implicated. The legacy press is hanging back right now, wondering how they will also be implicated. Somebody, likely somebodies, are going to squeal once it looks like they will go to prison over their payoffs from Russia. Expect the useful idiots to go first. Right now, they are humping the propaganda of "Russia, Russia, Russia, Hoax, Hoax, Hoax" again to try to save their sorry butts. Their social media fans may buy it, but hard-nosed investigators and DAs will not. The walls will close in very soon. From NationalZero's blog this morning.
"Dan Bongino, one of the leading lights in the right wing media-industrial complex grifter set, is doing what he and his cohort are wont to do: react to the new Russia shitshow by spreading conspiracy bullshit and paranoia about the "Deep State" coming for them. After all it was taped on a day that ended in "y."
Still, he seemed awfully specific in his warnings here, that Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, and the rest of their crew being exposed as Russian agents are just the first few dominoes to fall and that Bongino himself, as well as the people he was accusing non-specifically, could be next." https://nationalzero.com/2024/09/06/maga-influencer-douchebag-hints-at-bigger-trouble-for-his-type/
Hmmm... I’m wondering if they see the possibility of the (Russian?) contagious physical ailment that affects balance and surefootesness that results in accidental defenestration
And... another one bites, and another one bites, and another one bites the dust.
Lol.
Ike was not totally blameless. He was co-opted by the corporate groups to the message of God favoring free enterprise. It was probably politically expedient but did start the country down a course to where we are now.
Listen to Dr. Kevin Kruse on his discussion about how Eisenhower was bought into the anti-New Deal religious movement in his analysis of "One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America."
https://youtu.be/EyDg_jwYxH8?si=yoFbESWnZIILOOFy&t=680
Thanks for the link. Same lionization as they've done over that crook Reagan, who in large part, brought us to the kleptocracy we are now experiencing.
He also was "converted" to Presbyterianism by Norman Vincent Peale and others while president. Added "under God" to the pledge, etc.
I am old enough to remember the Eisenhower recession, when we lost a lot of our industry.
He screwed up Cuba, then our best ally, by inaction. See my book, Breaking Up with Cuba.
Good point on Cuba.
Let's also not forget his actions on setting up Vietnam!
Keep in mind that McCarthy was in full cry during Ike's first term, and McCarthyism continued well after McCarthy croaked in May 1957. One might argue that it continues to this day.
I remember vividly and why the One nation under god was added to the Pledge. It was during the red scare period, the McCarthy era.
The church inspired propaganda was that communism was atheism, and that atheists were communists and the biggest threat to Christian America. And of course anything that hinted at socialism was equated with communism
To mollify the proto MAGAts and to assuage their fears, the government added "under god" to the pledge and In god we trust to our coins., thus imitating Das Grosser Reich, whose Heer wore belt buckles wtih Gott Mit Uns. and the Reichsmark had "Gott der Gerechte! Scho mieder ä naier cometh God the Righteous, I have no idea what the rest translates into.
I wasn’t born yet when Eisenhower was president. In my opinion there hasn’t been a decent Republican president in my lifetime! Doing what is best for their constituents has never been their priority. Business and profits are the most important to them. Reagan was an embarrassment but Trump is reprehensible!
I expect the end of the GOP as it has no vision of any future other than mudsill which is the faulty desire to make an economy that automatically generations unearned millionaire and billionaire thru the taxing policy to make the majority of American's to be living below the middle class status. FDR's solution for mudsill was to campaign by a 3 or 4 economic issues for low information base Dem voters. Talking about cultural values such as abortion is helpful to activate the base but cannot replace economic issues of import such as housing, food, healthcare, childcare, education, and all other universal rights. It is also important that the people understand the plan of the GOP based in mudsill to make at least half of American's live below middle class status. Reaganism has achieved this and we need to continue a Biden (FDR) economics to increase the middle class and the higher class to 100% so nobody lives below a living income.
Eisenhower was an anomaly as a Republican. He was courted by both parties, because they both understood that he would win regardless. I see him as an extension of FDR-HST, having served under them as commander of the ETO during WWII. But there has been a persistent undercurrent of hard-core authoritarianism in the GOP since the beginning of industrialization, fueled entirely by the super-rich. It is as obvious now as it ever has been, and won't abate any time soon.
We hear the occasional disaffected Republican voice calling for Kamala Harris to move toward the “center”. It having moved rightward for decades, just where that center is today is anybody’s guess. If its Reagan’s center, no thanks; autocracy has too many champions now. If its Ike’s, let’s talk, starting with the military-industrial complex and infrastructure.
This is a concern of mine too, with all these never-Trump Republicans discovering their inner Democrat and some "moderate" mostly white Democrats calling any Dem who talks about economic justice "far left." VP Harris talks about "building up the middle class" but skirts the point that it needs building up because of the neoliberal, anti-union, tax-breaks-for-the-rich policies of Reagan and his successors. I get why she has to do this -- most USians freak out at the mention of the "s-word," aka socialism -- but I still wish that we as a country weren't so economically illiterate.
The Republicans are blatant in their desire to kill the middle class. They truly believe in rule by The Money, with everyone else an easily exploitable peasant/worker/soldier. Amazing to me that the peasants seem to be FOR this.
Yet, the Democrats have played along (Clinton and Obama.) It does us well to recall that Clinton militarized the police and Obama continued the wars he promised to stop and did nothing about Gitmo, which he promised to close. Much Hope turned out to be very little Change. He also oversaw the expansion of extrajudicial killings via drones - many, if not most, of which resulted in the deaths of innocents. The military budget flourished during both their reigns.
Politicians, at the top, need two things - money and guns. In return, they must provide largess to those who provide. The wealthy donors supply the money and either the military or the police supply the guns. The military was never going to support Clinton, hence the flow of money and advanced weaponry to the police. Obama focused on one thing, the ACA which was basically a bend-over for the insurance companies. Otherwise, he didn't court controversy.
I vote blue because they are marginally better. I can HOPE that Harris, with her experience as a DA, and reliance on grass-root donations, might rout out some of the more egregious corruption, but that's not going to be easy, primarily because both rightwing and legacy media are on the side of the conservatives.
At the core is are the decisions of the Robert's court that have made bribery sacrosanct. It is so obvious that so-called justices now accept money, gifts and luxury from their billionaire "friends." Now, both parties must serve the wealthy donors, while offering the public a different set of promises that will never be fulfilled.
I vote blue because the Democrats are at least marginally better. But I have no illusions.
For digital reasons beyond my comprehension, I am unable to “Like” replies to my observation here. FTR, I LIKE them.
I have that problem with Google Chrome and Windows 7 I suspect that if you haven't updated Windows, meaning relinquished more control to MS and are suckered into an annual subscription, then you haven't received updates and your browser is slowly being disabled. That happened to me with Windows 95, I refused to downgrade to Windows 98, and then my Firefox and Netscape browsers stopped working.
The GOP is a right-wing criminal terrorist organization currently! The right sees government as a tool to use to rob with. The whole brand needs to be destroyed! They need to come back as a party to the left because the Democratic party is already too far to the right!
Unlimited greed, religion, keep trying the same thing over and over again with the same results (the family unit), will never work.
Only when we can raise all babies from conception in agnostic communes or neutral growing centers where all the children's needs are met, can we end the other! We could end racism, crime, environmental caused insanity...
Sounds good Bob, but I believe that a little man with a toothbrush mustache tried that
with his Lebensborn program. Young girls were paired with SS Officers and the offspring raised in sanitized SS nurseries and schools. There are still a few wandering around Germany today, all of them dysfunctional and mentally damaged. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15548608
With wisdom like yours, the human race is definitely going to destroy itself. I'm firmly opposed to Hitler. And liars. Until you have a better way to get rid of the "others", I will have to put you in the same pile as the cult members, who can always complain, but have no solutions.
Bob my friend I am not comparing you with Hitler and please don't take offense, none intended. I know you better, and there is no need to stoop to insults either.
I am just a little more familiar with history than the average person, and Immediately spotted parallel between your idea and that of Lebensborn.
I am very careful about solutions, because unless thought through thoroughly, they have unintended consequences. And I mean thoroughly, they say a good chess player thinks four moves ahead, but when tinkering with humnity and the actsions, reactions, fears and needs of humans, one needs to think six or seven moves ahead,and then there are mind boggling alternatives, too much so, that people don't think they just react and pay the piper later.
For instance HAMAS, Islam, Arabs have a solution to the problem posed by Israel and it isn't a two state solution.. Get rid of the Jews or have them submit to Islamic rule.
Antisemites have a solution, a final solution.
Two states side by side are not a solution, but a precursor to war, because Islamists will continue to harass and even invade Israel, but this time Israel will retaliate by invading a sovereign state and that is an act of war.
Nobody thinks ahead of the consequences of their preferences, ideology and druthers.
William, I agree with your take on the Middle East, you can't bring peace to two close-minded lunatics, is my summary.
The current trajectory of the human race is on will be self-destruction, so doing nothing is destructive. We have tried the family unit for thousands of years and it appears to have stopped the evolution of the human race. Before birth control people were having babies for pleasure, breeding like animals. The faith religion still push that on their flock! The Catholic and Muslims both want large families so they can conquer the non-believers and the others!
I am a firm believer in the united we stand divided we fall. Whether Americans are this dysfunctional because it is genetic or environmental can only be solved with changing the environment, not the genes. That is where I differ from Hitler and selective breeding which Ie oppose. We can end daycare shortages, children going hungry, violent and angry adults and parents with kibutzes or whatever else you want to call it. We can end racism crime and hatred mostly. Raising children to think rationally not emotionally! My way of parenting has not even been tried! Play, learn and teache is the cycle of life, while play learn and teach and die is the circle of life and death. But two are totally different and they get confused a lot by the non-thinkers. You have to make a kid happy before the age of 7 or they will grow up to be thugs. And cult members.
It seems we find common ground Bob.
My Dad was a sharecroppers son, but graduated from H.S., Joined the Marines because his older brother had,but because of his education and intelligence wound up a payroll clerk (a very important job those days)
But he met my mother when she was 16, and the sharecroppers son was smitten with oxytocin.
His commander would not give him permission to marry, so he married her anyone, and because he did not have permssion, he was not authorized to live off post, draw Basic Allowance for quarters and separation rations, and had to stupport himself, mom and eventually me on %30 a month. Mom lost two teeth to her demanding fetus (me) and I wound up with rickets.
He was reposted to a recruiting station in NOLA, my sis was born a month after the Japs bombed pearl harbor (to the day). I spent the war with my grandparents in the backwoods of Arkansas, and then in what is now cancer alley.
Thinks didn't work out after V-J day, and I grew up in a project in North Philadelphia..Mom had to work, so us kids raised each other,I had some brushes with the law, as you would expect for a kid from the projects, and spent three years in ninth grade (truancy)
But the three of us turned out pretty well. I had a bout with alcoholism,but I think that it is genetic (too much in the way of Irish genes),Dad did as well, Grandpappy didn't. The Irish genes come from grandmothers ,. Mom side and Dads.
One thing I can mention, my mom did not raise me to be intolerant, both she and sis dated the cousin of our neighbors the Edwards, a mullato couple specially chosen to integrate the project.
One of my friends was a blond haired gay kid, that nobody thought of messing with as he was black belt jiu jitsu.
The closest I came was me. I was the lone Protestant in a Catholic dominated project. My playmates Irish, Italians and German Catholics, and at 15 blacks, and even one deaf kid who taught me sign language
I learned Vietnamese and was accepted and protected by my community during Tet. I lived with Panamanians and learned the language by osmosis in situ.
And for anyone who reads this words, any opinions I may hold are well formed from experience and study..
I grew up in an impoverished dysfunctional family.
That is why I don't trust Garland or Biden. I go by a person's actions not their words. I have a very good liar detective nose. Liars are allergic to the truth. My religion is the truth. I can't trust a liar, or lunatic. They're all over in this society.
Excellent, constructive write up. Implied recognition that we need two (at least) functional parties, and they will have legitimately varying approaches. . Helpful.
I applaud Liz and those like her, but am wary of Reagan Republicians becoming Democrats, We have too many of them in the party already, like Joe Manchin and Menendez, Carper and Coons.
There is an Arab saying. Don;t let the camel get it's nose under the tent.
For those that don't get the drift, once a camel gets its nose under the tent, the rest soon follows.
Lot of Never Trumpers, like those in the Lincoln Project and the Bulwark have come to realize that the Republican Party is no longer the party of Reagan, but of George Lincoln Rockwell, George Wallace and David Duke, and are preregistering as Democrats.
And these are well connected people, intellectuals with access to money and clout, and the New Democratic Party will become the party of Reagan.
I don’t believe that Liz Cheney is turning Democrat. I think she is holding her nose and “pulling the lever” because the Republican Party of old is gone. What is left needs to be voted out. Adam Kinzinger and others have stated that Republicans need to put Country over party. We don’t send people to Washington to play “football” - our team vs their team. We elect them to work for the American people as a whole. Ever since Reagan it’s been this us vs them bullshit to the point of shutting down the government. It’s nonsense. No one would tolerate employees who acted like that. They work for us. They need to stop acting like pampered dolls and get to work with actual budgets etc. And stop listening to people who have been voted out!!
You have been since Reagan democrats.
Yep, kind of forgot the Reagan Democrats, suckers fell for his fame and shtick.
Suckers born every moment.
I was a conservative and he snookered me, saying that he would not appoint CFR and Trilateral Commission members to the government, first thing he did was what he said he would not do, then he screwed the military, and fools still loved him. but he promised not to fire the Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) and then fired them, and the fools still loved him, Why, because he appealed to the racists and Christian right, the same yahoo's that have elected Trump their lord and savior.