Franklin D. Roosevelt And The New Deal

The First Hundred Days Of Trump Second Term More Revolutionary Than FDR!

Ronald 68 Comments

The First Hundred Days of Donald Trump, Second Term, is coming up on Wednesday, April 30.

The nation and the world have seen the most revolutionary, radical set of actions and statements by Donald Trump that the nation has ever witnessed.

One would have thought that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Hundred Days of the “New Deal” from March 4, 1933 to mid June 1933 would be a marker that would never be matched.

But Donald Trump has far surpassed the impact of FDR, and in many ways, trying to wipe out most of the last century and more of the federal regulatory state and the leadership of the democratic world in international relations.

Trump has demonstrated that Presidential power is way out of line, a growing problem since FDR onward, but with most occupants of the White House having good intentions in their assertion of power, unlike Trump.

The massive use of executive orders, 137 so far, an all time record for such a short time as President;

the threats and actions against universities, law firms, cultural institutions, corporations, state governments;

the bypassing of judicial interventions;

the Republican party in Congress refusing to assert their authority;

the growing dictatorial attitude of Trump appointees inside and outside the Cabinet;

the repudiation of our traditional alliances in world affairs;

the dangerous flirtation with protective tariffs that undermines the American economy;

the clearcut corruption and grift being conducted in clear vision;

and so much more not listed here,

all have created a whirlwind of chaos and anarchy that affects all Americans in deleterious ways!

Anti DEI Gone Mad: Removal Of All References To Race And Gender On Government Websites

Ronald 3 Comments

The vicious attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) by Donald Trump’s administration has gone totally bonkers, with removal of all references to race, gender, nationality, only allowing information that promotes white straight male dominance.

So the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II and the Tuskegee Airmen are removed from the Defense Department website.

There has been wiping out of Jackie Robinson and other African American contributions and accomplishments on various websites.

The Enola Gay Aircraft (Hiroshima Atomic Bombing in World War II) was removed from the website because it has the word “gay”!

Demeaning of women’s role in government agencies and organizations is full steam ahead.

There is total repudiation of gay or transgender personnel in the military and elsewhere.

Donald Trump is accomplishing the total wipeout of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and since, and also the federal government’s major role in promoting equality and fairness.

This beginning with the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt, the New Deal and Fair Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the advancements under Presidents from Richard Nixon through Joe Biden!

Trump’s War On Federal Government: Young Civil Servants, Higher Education, Veterans, And More! :(

Ronald 30 Comments

Donald Trump’s war on the federal government is an attack on the future and on so many other areas of life.

It is a war on young people who have and wish to enter public service, with many thousands of probationary workers now unemployed, due to major cutbacks in many federal agencies.

It is a war on higher education, cutting funding for training and educating an intelligent work force in the sciences, the humanities, and all other areas of public knowledge.

It is a war on our patriotic veterans, who are losing many government jobs, and a cutting of programs to help veterans who risked their lives, and now are being denied adequate consideration of their health and welfare needs.

It is a war on protection of our national security, with mass purges of dedicated intelligence, foreign policy, and defense personnel who have dedicated their lives and careers to protecting the homeland from foreign threats of authoritarian government, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

It is a war on health care, science, and medicine, and endangers all Americans when it comes to threats from many diseases worldwide, that now will not be dealt with in an efficient matter, and will cost a multitude of lives.

It is a war on the environment, conservation, and the realities of climate change, guaranteeing worldwide disasters that will threaten human existence in the future.

It is a war on our long held alliances with democracies in Europe and in Asia, and antagonizing, unnecessarily, our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, and inciting anti Americanism in Latin America. It is causing our closest allies in NATO and in Asia to reconsider sharing intelligence information.

It is a war on public virtue, with a certainty that we will witness the greatest level of corruption and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few evil individuals, ever seen in American history, far surpassing the earlier corruption that took place under Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and even the first term of Donald Trump.

The Trump Presidency is setting America back to an earlier time before all of the great reforms that took place from the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosvelt and Woodrow Wilson; the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt; the Fair Deal of Harry Truman; the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy; the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson; the movements forward under Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon; the accomplishments under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; and the advancements under Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Republicans’ War On Social Security (90 Years); On Medicare (60 Years); Affordable Care Act (15 Years)!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Party from the 1930s until now, the 2020s, has opposed and attempted to destroy the major successes of the Social Safety Net.

Social Security was adopted in 1935 under Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of the New Deal reform programs, which transformed the nation.

Medicare was adopted in 1965 under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed my Medicaid in 1966, as part of the Great Society reform programs.

The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was adopted under Democratic President Barack Obama in 2010, as part of his attempt to promote medical care availability for millions of people that had no medical coverage.

So for 90 years; 60 years; and 15 years, with some individual exceptions, the Republican Party’s aim has been, and remains under Donald Trump and Elon Musk today, that the Social Safety Net, that has worked so well, and is so humane, should be scuttled, with the aim being to enrich wealthy people through massive tax cuts.

The Republican Party is shameless, and reprehensible, as they have always been, but the battle by the Democratic Party and all decent people, must be to continue to fight to defend programs that in many European nations, are much better than ours!

Realignment Seems To Have Occurred, But It May Not Last Past Next Presidential Election!

admin 31 Comments

The Democratic Party has received a heavy rebuke from voters, who once could be counted upon to remain in support of the party.

It is mind boggling that 46 percent of Latinos, 39 percent of Asian Americans, 20 percent of African Americans, and working class Whites abandoned the party that promoted civil rights and social justice reforms over the 90 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the 1930s.

But their “abandonment” is more centered around the key issue of the economy, the reality that the COVID 19 Pandemic created high inflation which finally, but belatedly, has been overcome in recent months.

Overall, the economy has done well, but since people think first about the issue of groceries, gas, and other costs that had been mounting, they decided to avoid dealing with the other issues so important out there, such as survival of democracy, abortion rights, and foreign policy concerns.

The inability of Joe Biden to deal with the problem of immigration at the border also was effectively used by Republicans, along with creating the false issue of transgender rights.

Donald Trump is not going to keep the support of the groups who voted for him, once they realize he is only concerned about corporations and the wealthy, and is on the road to another massive tax cut, adding trillions to the national debt, and imposing tariffs that will raise the cost of living for the people who decided to support him.

Donald Trump is assured to antagonize and alienate groups that will realize they have been taken advantage of, and as long as the Democratic Party comes up with new proposals and plans and have a dynamic primary season for the 2028 Presidential nomination, the party will be able to retrieve what they have lost!

More Defections From Republican Party And Trump Than Ever Since 1964 And Barry Goldwater!

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The nation is witnessing more Republican Party defections from Donald Trump than from any Republican Presidential nominee in the past 60 years, since Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Goldwater, the most right wing Republican nominee ever, by comparison, is now seen belatedly as a libertarian. While definitely a right wing conservative who alienated the eastern liberal wing of the Republican Party, led by Nelson Rockeller, William Scranton, George Romney, and others, in retrospect, he was not as threatening as Donald Trump is.

Golcwater attacked the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and spoke of defeating Communism and the Soviet Union, including escalating the Vietnam War, but he did not call for the end of the Constitution, or prosecuting critics, or deporting millions of people as Donald Trump is advocating.

And in later times, Goldwater supported Abortion Rights and Gay Rights, so clearly, dramatically different than the present MAGA Republicans who swear by tyrant Donald Trump.

Goldwater was not personally corrupt as Trump is; did not have multiple marriages and divorces; did not promote the idea of overthrowing the results of an election; and did not personally promote character assassination of his opponent, Lyndon B. Johnson.

And most importantly, in 1974, ten years after his massive Presidential defeat, as again a sitting US Senator, he went to the White House and told Richard Nixon he should resign, or would face conviction on impeachment charges.

So Barry Goldwater was a decent loyal American, unlike Donald Trump, who makes Richard Nixon look like a “choir boy” by comparison!

One can be certain that he would repudiate Donald Trump, and would not have backed him in 2016 or 2020, as well as 2024!

A Century Ago Revived: Isolationism, Protectionism, Nativism!

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It has been a century since three “isms” were promoted, that undermined the United States!

We had the rise of Isolationism in the 1920s and 1930s, after World War I, a very powerful movement, particularly among Republicans, which became a major challenge for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

This author and blogger wrote about this in his first book–TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM: THE WESTERN REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THE NEW DEAL (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981).

We also saw the rise of Protectionism, the idea of high protective tariffs, which was pursued by Republican Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

Hoover, in particular, pursued this with the Hawley Smoot Tariff of 1930, which made the emerging Great Depression only multipled in 1930 and after, and this despite hundreds of economists taking out newspaper ads, appealing to Hoover to reject higher tariffs.

And we also had nativism, with the passage of extremely restrictive immigration laws in the 1920s under Calvin Coolidge, discriminating against Catholic, Jewish, and Asian immigrants, an apology that led to great human tragedy during the 1930s and World War II.

Now, we have Donald Trump and the Republican Party pursuing the goal of Isolationism (unwillingness to back Ukraine in its war with Russia, weakened support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and expressing doubts about supporting the sovereignty of Taiwan against mainland China)!

And we have Protectionism rearing its ugly head, with Trump promoting the idea of 10 percent tariffs on all foreign goods, which will raise the prices to American consumers, causing major rises in the cost of living!

Finally, we have Nativism, with the pledge of Trump to deport up to 11 million migrants, both undocumented immigrants and others who are not citizens of the United States, bringing back memories of detention camps promoted by Trump in his first term, including separation of children from their parents!

America cannot allow these old “isms” to become government policy again, as we need to learn from mistakes of a century ago!

Project 2025: War On Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDA, Affordable Care Act

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This author and blogger will delineate over the next days and weeks just how destructive the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 would be if enacted, with Donald Trump fully aware of the details, despite his false claim that he has no knowledge of the ideas organized by his own supporters and allies.

Regarding basic social programs that have long existed, and are basic to the lives of tens of millions of Americans, Project 2025 promotes the following:

Privatization of Social Security
Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security
Cut Social Security benefits
Cut Medicare benefits
Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
Raise Prescription Drug Prices
Dismantle the Food and Drug Administration
Threaten Medicaid Coverage for hundreds of thousands of Americans
Privatize veterans’ healthcare
Reduce funding for public health programs

This is a declaration of war on Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal; Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society; the reforms promoted by Barack Obama and Joe Biden; and on the Democratic Party promoted reforms that became law under Republican Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush (all having to deal with Democratic controlled Congresses).

Ultimate Issue Of 2024: 21st Century And Preservation Of 20th Century Advancements, Or Return To 19th Century?

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With all of the complex and often confusing issues that have an effect on American politics in the upcoming Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024, one reality stands out!

Are we to embrace the 21st century and preserve the 20th century advancements of the early 20th century Progressive Era, the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Earl Warren Supreme Court decisions, and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson?

Or are we to return to the 19th century post Civil War Gilded Age concept of limited national government, Jim Crow segregation of African Americans, lack of basic human rights for women, and states rights limiting basic freedoms and rights of all but the most powerful corporations and wealthy upper class of Americans?

Wisconsin And Michigan: Republican Party Beginnings And Ultimate Battleground In 2024 Presidential Election!

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The Republican Party was founded in 1854, in the upper Midwest, with its founding on March 20 in Ripon, Wisconsin, and its first party convention held in Jackson, Michigan on July 6.

It was a reform oriented party, opposed to the expansion of slavery, and would dominate in the United States over the next seven decades until the rise of the Democratic Party, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the midst of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Interestingly, the Republican National Convention in July will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so in a sense a return to the roots of the party of 170 years of history.

However, the Republican Party of history basically can be seen as dead, gone, unlikely to be revived in a form reminiscent of the party’s history, as Donald Trump and his MAGA followers have totally destroyed the roots and the base of the historical Republican Party!

This is the ulimate battleground in the Presidential Election of 2024, as whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden wins the upper Midwest ultimately will determine who is elected to the Oval Office!