“Minorities”

The Total Hypocrisy Of Republicans’ Concerns About Future Generations!

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Republicans love to claim that they are concerned about future generations!

But they are unconcerned about the large number of poor children who do not have adequate education and health care, and their refusal to do anything to provide such services, because it might require the rich to pay more taxes!

They are unconcerned about the dangers of gun violence, as at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as an example and even the many incidents of children killed by accident by reckless parents or siblings, or simple lack of protection of weapons from children’s hands!

They are unconcerned about the dangers of climate change, with rising sea levels, erosion, and dangerous storms, which will destroy housing, lives, and security of millions of future Americans, most of them poor or middle class!

They are unconcerned how corporations and banks victimize poor and middle class people on a regular basis, without any conscience, including exploitation of their labor forces!

They are unconcerned about the quality of life of minorities, the poor, and those who are gay or lesbian, and are denied equal opportunity and fair treatment, which victimizes them all of their lives.

They are unconcerned about the sending of our young people off to wars to protect oil and other strategic interests, and fail to be concerned about proper treatment of these courageous veterans when they return home from war.

The Republican Party has no ethics or morality, only selfishness and greed about their own power, and protection of corporations, banks, and the wealthy one or two percent! Their hypocrisy is massive!

A society which focuses on the top two percent is a very sick society, and requires action on a large scale to change the attitudes and concern for the mass of Americans, who have to look to a long term future, and government should represent their interests, not the elite who already have too many advantages and too many assets!

The Republican Party: The Party Against Life! Pro-Gun, Anti Medicaid, Pro Death Penalty!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party and conservatives love to say they are the Pro Life Party, as they oppose abortion rights for any reason, including rape, incest, and life of the mother (for the most so called “religious”).

But at the same time, they are against any gun regulations to prevent future Sandy Hook Massacres or the reality that 12,000 people a year are killed by lack of regulation of firearms. So many cases of children killing siblings because of reckless parents who leave loaded firearms around, or killing of partners by wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, abound.

Also, about half of the states have refused to expand Medicaid, and are therefore responsible for the death of people within their states who cannot gain health care.

And for those states which have the death penalty, and allow the idea that a mix of drugs used to execute prisoners, without awareness of what they are, and their effect on the victim, can lead to the botched execution in Oklahoma last night, is an atrocity only fit for the Middle East or Russia or China, not the United States.

These Republican and conservative and “religious” promoters of death should be condemned, and it is clear that the states have run amuck in regards to basic human rights, including the right to live, free from gun violence, with access to health care, and the abolition of the death penalty, as it has not led to lower crime rates, but simply as a method to kill more people of minority status. The vast number who face execution in states that have a record of racial discrimination over the long period of years is testimony enough to this truth!

Republicans, Race, And The Confederate South: Successors To Old Southern Democrats!

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The Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln; the Emancipation Proclamation; the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments; large scale support for civil rights in the 1960s; and having three progressive Southerners as President (Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton); and many New South Governors (including Jimmy Carter, Reuben Askew, Dale Bumpers, Bill Clinton), has now fully adapted itself to the old Confederate South, the old Southern segregationist Democrats, the South that wants the “good old days” of slavery and discrimination that existed before the Civil War and continued for another century until the civil rights movement transformed the South, or seemed to do so.

The fact is that the old Confederate South still exists, and the Republicans have become the successor to the old racist, Southern Democrats. Many of the members of Congress from the South and the Border States have no problem spewing racist statements, and backing racists, including, just recently: Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling, Paula Deen, George Zimmerman, Ted Nugent–all of whom identify with the Republican Party.

At the same time, the majority of the Supreme Court, appointed by Republicans, have weakened the Voting Rights Act enforcement and have now made affirmative action something that will be ended, rather than reformed; and the use of abusive language toward the first African American President has been done with absolutely no sign of any respect or deference for a person in the Presidency, who at least has the right to expect that. Some would say that every President suffers abuse, but none since Abraham Lincoln has faced as much hate and personal threats as Barack Obama.

Additionally, the Republican Party has done everything it can to limit the right to vote to African Americans and other minorities as the only way for them to keep power in the South, but also in the heartland, as well!

It is indeed sad that the GOP has become what conservatives love to condemn the old Southern Democrats for doing, but indeed have copied–a party of support of racism and inequality of treatment!

South Florida Wars On Homeless And Voters: Signs Of Heartless Attitude Toward Poor, And Minority Right To Vote

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The Republican Party in the state of Florida has become as heartless and disgraceful in their treatment of the homeless, the poor, and minorities, as already demonstrated in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and elsewhere.

But now South Florida, where the author lives, has reached a new low!

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, center of Broward County, is now working to outlaw the homeless in their jurisdiction from having ANY personal items with them, including clothing, food, medicine, and personal items. These homeless are already degraded, but now they can have no personal possessions, an absolute outrage!

And Dade County is now setting up voting rules that will close all public restrooms on voting days, since many of them do not have adequate conditions for disabled people, so that means voters will have to wait on line for hours under restrictive rules for voting days and hours, and be unable to relieve themselves, thereby discouraging many voters from even getting on line.

What kind of community bars anyone from having personal posessions on their person or near them, and what kind of community cloes all restrooms as a method to cut voting numbers?

This is unconscionable, and the Department of Justice MUST intervene to stop both actions, and similar ones elsewhere in the nation!

How could anyone claim that the Department of Justice should not sue on these matters, as a violation of civil rights?

What kind of a nation are we becoming, when we take away all human dignity from the homeless, and have jurisdictions closing restrooms to prevent voting?

How can anyone justify this in the name of human decency and compassion and justice?

The Republican Party Battle Has Gone On For A Century!

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When the Republican Party was founded in 1854, it was an activist liberal oriented party, against the expansion of slavery as an official doctrine, and with many of its founders and followers also being against slavery itself, wishing to abolish it.

Under Abraham Lincoln and Radical Republicans, the Republican Party advocated freedom, citizenship and voting for African Americans, while at the same time promoting the growth of industrial capitalism.

But in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, the party lost its bearings, becoming a corrupt party, beholden to the top one percent of the nation. There was a need to reform the party, and Theodore Roosevelt came along at the turn of the century, and revolutionized the Presidency and promoted progressivism, and activist government, including labor rights, consumer rights, environmentalism, and the promotion of political reforms to bring direct democracy.

But after he left office, the party lost its bearings again and went into the darkness of the conservative 1920s, as Woodrow Wilson took on much of the progressive reform program, and set the Democratic Party on the road to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and a whole slew of domestic progressive and liberal reforms.

The Republican Party, by following the Gilded Age mentality again in the 1920s, helped to cause the greatest economic downturn in American history, and the Great Depression under Herbert Hoover put them in the wilderness, although revived by the moderate progressivism of war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.

But then, they were again in the minority, and although Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford promoted some substantial reforms in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the midst of the New Frontier-Great Society mentality. scandal emerged under Nixon, and the Vietnam War sapped the party, and they turned once again to conservatism and Ronald Reagan, who had a better persona than conservative Barry Goldwater, who had been soundly defeated by LBJ in 1964. Reagan appealed to the top one percent, and promoted fear of the white working class toward minorities, and the GOP dominated the next generation and more, with the Jimmy Carter respite very brief, and Bill Clinton being mildly progressive, not really the tradition of FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ. But that meant that the Republican Party was backing away from the traditions of Lincoln, TR, and even Ike! The middle class and the working were victims, without realizing it until very recently.

Here they are today in the era of the most progressive Democratic President since LBJ, and the Republican Party is what it was in the Gilded Age and 1920s and since the 1980s, a party that backs away from domestic reform, from compassion, from concern about the environment, from concern about working people, from concern about women and ethnic minorities and the vast majority of Americans. Instead, they are the party of the one percent, as they were in the Gilded Age and 1920s, and the attempt to move the party to the center, and return to the Lincoln–TR–Ike tradition is engaged in what seems clearly a losing battle!

That means that the Republican Party, 160 years old this year, is likely in its death throes, a party which has gone awry, a really tragic set of circumstances!

“Moderate” Conservatives And The Future Of The Republican Party

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Some observers have argued that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie performed “well” at his nearly two hour press conference, on Thursday, answering question after question from journalists about the Fort Lee I-95 scandal, blocking traffic for four days in September, and threatening the health, safety and security of tens of thousands of people all over the lack of an endorsement of the Fort Lee Democratic Mayor for the Republican Governor in the state election campaign.

The fact that Christie held the longest press conference of any politician in history, and spoke longer than the doomed President William Henry Harrison, who spoke an hour and a half when inaugurated in 1841, dying from pneumonia he gained from the rainy, cold weather, dying exactly a month later, is looked upon as a sign of stamina and accomplishment.

But there are many unanswered questions, and Christie is known to have a vicious reaction to critics in the state government, having fired some, and having taken from the State Senate President, Richard Codey, who has been Acting Governor several times, his security protection over a dispute. How petty and nasty this man is, and we already know how he has been disrespectful to teachers and parents and journalists, and revels in being a bully, which he denied, much like Richard Nixon said he was not a crook, revealing himself similarly as exactly that!

Christie could face impeachment or recall, and could be facing criminal prosecution, ironic for a man who was US Attorney, prosecuting and imprisoning others, sometimes unjustly, but making “corpses” on the way to power, with his arrogance and his swagger. It would be only “just desserts!”

But meanwhile, the right wing in the GOP is reveling in the realization that this comparatively “moderate” conservative, who was the frontrunner in many polls for the Presidency, and even led Hillary Clinton in some polls, looks now as if he has fallen on his own sword, as far as the Presidential race of 2016 is concerned.

So who can so called “moderate” conservatives turn to in stead of Christie?

Is there any Republican Governor who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

Is there any Republican Congressman who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

Is there any Republican Senator who could be seen as a “moderate” conservative?

The silence is deafening as every Republican officeholder today in Congress and the Governorships is far from a “moderate” conservative, other than Christie himself!

They are all “hook, line and sinker” tied to the Tea Party Movement directly, or afraid to challenge that right wing, anarchistic, libertarian movement that hates government, while they all make big salaries and take lobbying money in large amounts, while demonizing poor people, single mothers, children, elderly, veterans, and minorities, and pontificate how the world is coming to an end because of gay marriage! And of course, they are still promoting the “Birther” myth about Barack Obama, while hailing Canadian born Ted Cruz as legitimate to run for President, and loving that he resembles so closely the appearance and tactics of the late Wisconsin “witch hunter of Communism,” Senator Joseph McCarthy!

So who can moderate conservatives turn to?

There are only two realistic possibilities, with neither likely to get very far in the search for a Republican Presidential nominee, and therefore, the GOP is on the road to electoral destruction as a result.

Those two possibilities are former GOP Governors, who have a brain and credentials, but are hated by the extremists on the right:

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (also Ambassador to China)

Bush has the problem that he is a “Bush”, and has been out of office since the end of 2006, and his brother, George W. Bush, ruined the family brand.

Huntsman has the problem that he is too damned intelligent and knowledgeable, is an independent minded Mormon with an open mind, and had the nerve to work for Barack Obama in China for two years! Imagine that!

Huntsman is, by far, the better of the two, but neither is likely to be a serious contender, and in fact, it could be that neither will announce. But if they do, the right wing talk show hosts, the Koch Brothers and their manufactured Tea Party Movement, and the think tanks will obliterate them, even as now they are celebrating the “political death” of Chris Christie, much too arrogant and abusive as he is!

But really, except for being somewhat more “moderate”, how is Christie really different from those to his right? Their personality traits and character are not really all that different to begin with!

So the GOP is worse off because of the Christie Scandal!

The War On Poverty DId Not Fail! It Was Destroyed By Republicans, Led By Nixon And Reagan!

Ronald 2 Comments

50 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced a War On Poverty In America, and poverty levels dropped about 40 percent over the next five years.

But then the conservative counterrevolution began under Richard Nixon, and was accelerated under Ronald Reagan, and today, poverty is spreading in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

And what is the Republican Party doing about this reality? It is declaring the War on Poverty failed, and doing everything to kick poor people and middle class people down into the gutter, fighting against extension of unemployment compensation to desperate people, having no problem in cutting food stamps to people who have inadequate nutrition, and fighting to avoid raising the minimum wage, which, if it was keyed to inflation, would be over $20 an hour right now!

The War On Poverty never got a full chance to succeed, as Democrats Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, and Walter Mondale never had the opportunity to continue the mission of LBJ, and instead, selfishness, greed, and lack of compassion for those less fortunate, set in!

On this 50th anniversary, it is essential to recommit ourselves to dealing with poverty in America, realizing the majority of people in poverty are children, and also a majority are white, not minorities, which are used as an excuse to promote racial prejudice!

Ronald Reagan Myth Of “Welfare Queen” Being Revived By Republicans And Conservatives: Still A Massive Lie!

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Before he became President, Ronald Reagan kept perpetuating a massive lie, far more than Barack Obama and ObamaCare, despite claims that Obama is the most massive liar of any President!

NO, it is a tie between Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with Reagan simply more charming and charismatic, so Nixon tends to be regarded as the greater liar because of Watergate!

But Reagan lied about Iran-Contra in 1986, claiming he had “no recollection”, and able to get away with it due to his charm, and the thought that, as an aging President, he would be given a pass, although some thought he should be impeached for that scandal, as well as others, making his administration one of the most scandal ridden Presidencies, right behind Nixon, Warren G. Harding, and Ulysses S. Grant.

But even before the scandals of his Presidency, Reagan developed in his mind, and came to believe, that there was a “Welfare Queen”, of course an African American in Chicago, who was collecting dozens of checks monthly, and scamming the “welfare” system.

This was a lie from day one, but it resonated, and was used by conservatives to condemn the poor, implying that they were all too lazy to work, and were just drinking and taking drugs and living off hard working whites.

The fact that most people on “welfare”, meaning food stamps and Medicaid and unemployment compensation are white, are single mothers with children, and many work, but make inadequate income working for minimum wage (such as at Walmart and McDonalds and such places like them), is ignored, and it has become an attack on the poor, as if they wish to be poor, and also provoke working class whites against minorities.

Meanwhile, as the move is on to cut food stamps and unemployment compensation, and in red states deny expansion of Medicaid, and also deny an increase in the minimum wage, the vast majority who are being harmed are white working class people who continue to vote Republican, not understanding that it is them who are being condemned by the term “Welfare Queen”.

The term “Welfare Queen” is a massive lie, and was a massive lie when Ronald Reagan used it to attain the Presidency! Reagan either knew it was a lie, or was too incompetent mentally to know that he was telling a lie that he had convinced himself was the truth. And this is a President to admire and emulate, as a great President, when he set out to harm those who were down and out for his own advancement? Give me a break!

Virginia Gubernatorial Race Going Democratic: Great Sign For 2014 And Beyond!

Ronald 5 Comments

The lead of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe, a close friend and fund raiser for the Clintons, over Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia, is a great sign for the future of the Democratic Party.

Cuccinelli is a truly nightmare nominee, with his extremist right wing views, and his decision to invite Ted Cruz and Rand Paul into the state to campaign for him, signs of true desperation on his part, and a sign of why the GOP is losing its hold in Virginia.

Cuccinelli’s Lieutenant Governor nominee, preacher E W Jackson, is even more of a right wing lunatic than Cuccinelli, and it is clear that young people, minorities, college educated people, women, and those who believe in socially moderate views are not willing to tolerate such narrow minded and bigoted nominees as Cuccinelli and Jackson.

It has often been said that how Virginia goes in the odd year elections affects Congressional elections the next year, and that has often rang true.

So the Virginia election results, now seen as a massive victory for the Democrats, is a good sign that the state is turning more blue, particularly because of northern Virginia federal government workers, but also because the Republican Party has been unduly influenced by its Tea Party lunatics in that state, as well as nationally, and has led to the highest rate of disapproval for the GOP nationally in its entire history, 63 percent!

A Third Party In The Offing: Not Likely!

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With the disgust over the disaster of the 113th Congress, and the GOP inspired government shutdown, the public opinion support for a third party has risen to its highest point in a decade, with 60 percent stating such a belief, in a Gallup Poll.

The frustration is understandable, but the American system of government has never moved toward a three party system, which would create the need for coalitions, and prevent passage of legislation, making it more difficult than the split Congress has demonstrated.

Third party history has been one of protest, and having an effect on who wins the Presidency, and promoting new ideas that often are later accepted by one or the other major political parties.

What is much more likely than a third party competing with the two major parties is a political realignment, with the Democrats likely to benefit by the civil war in the Republican Party.

And the Tea Party Movement is doomed, as the American people are catching on as to how destructive and negative that movement has been in the past four years.

The Republican Party has had a history of some great leaders and accomplishments, but their ability to compete is doomed, until and when they recognize that moving to the Far Right is a disaster, and that they must appeal to the voting groups that they have antagonized, including minorities, the young, woman, labor, and the struggling middle class.

And they must repudiate the hold of religion over their party, and emphasize tolerance, open mindedness, and a belief in the power of science, or else they will never be competing, and might be replaced by a new party!