Nativism

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!

Donald Trump And “Religious” Supporters: Pure Hypocrisy!

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Donald Trump is a vile human being, totally racist, nativist, misogynist, a twice impeached, four times indicted, and convicted felon on 24 counts.

He has done tremendous harm in so many ways, and is the most massive liar ever in public office!

And yet, evangelical Christians invite him to their gathering, and laugh and applaud his horrendous, hate filled rhetoric!

And sadly, many so called “devout” Catholics, and Orthodox Jews, also seem to have no issue in backing such a despicable person, who disgraced the Presidency for four years, and pledges a dictatorship, and makes clear there is no need to vote in four years!

What is wrong with these supposedly devout hypocrites? 🙁

This is why organized religion is declining rapidly in America, and legitimizes the statement of Karl Marx two centuries ago, that “religion is the opium of the people”, a factor that has caused more hate, bloodshed, and death than any other human institution! One does not need to endorse Karl Marx to say he was correct in this regard!

Martin Luther King Jr Anniversary Of Assassination, And Race Relations In America

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It has been 56 years since the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in Memphis, Tennessee.

The nation has observed his January birthday as a national holiday since 1986, but sadly, racism, and white supremacy have not declined.

In fact, due to Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican followers, the Republican Party exudes racism, as well as nativism, misgoyny, and many strains of antisemitism.

The struggle of Republicans against DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) has harmed the nation, and the Supreme Court backtracking since 2013 on voting rights protection, presents a major challenge for the short and long term future of the struggle against the advancements of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and beyond.

The Democratic Party, as imperfect as it is, is still the best hope for the future in that regard.

Donald Trump, White Christian Nationalism, And The Threat To America

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Donald Trump spent Easter posting 77 times on Truth Social, in the most violent, vile, and obscene manner, including threatening President Joe Biden’s life.

A person who is totally the antithesis of “religious” is selling Trump “Bibles” to the gullible and clueless masses who consider themselves white Christian nationalists.

The fact that Trump and his white Christian Nationalist following have connections to antisemitism, racism, nativism, and misogyny, all of which defy the teachings of Jesus Christ, seems not to matter to them.

The promotion of violence and bloodshed portends trouble ahead as the nation lurches toward the Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024, now just seven months away.

And then the two months until the formal counting of the Electoral College votes in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2025, is likely to be very contentious, as it was in 2021!

Donald Trump Says Bloodbath Will Follow If He Is Not Elected President!

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Donald Trump, in an Ohio rally, has said that a “bloodbath” will follow if he is not elected President in November!

Think about that! Trump is calling for violence, which should disqualify him from running for the leadership of American democracy!

And yet, Republican officeholders will sit by and say nothing, and go along with Trump’s insane rants and threats!

And Trump also said immigrants are “not people”, totally dehumanizing people who just want the opportunity for a better life, and defying the history of America being a land of immigrants!

Trump also speaks about “freeing” the terrorists who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, calling them “hostages” and “prisoners” who should be seen as “heroes”!

This nativism and promotion of open bloodshed and violence should disqualify Trump from being able to be on the ballot, but it will be up to the American people in their voting eight months from now to face the threat, and be strong, and repudiate Trump, and move forward on sending him to federal prison!

Mark Robinson, NC Republican Gubernatorial Nominee: A Major Right Wing Extremist!

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The Republican Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, who is African American, is the party nominee for Governor in November 2024, running against North Carolina State Attorney General and Democrat Josh Stein.

This upcoming election is a crisis for the state of North Carolina and the nation, as Mark Robinson is an out of control right wing extremist.

His past record and utterances demonstrate the following:

He is a strong supporter of the National Rifle Association, and spoke out against gun control legislation after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Massacre in Parkland, Florida in February 2018.

He is vehemently anti abortion; denies climate change as reality; wants to promote charter schools and school voucher programs at the expense of public schools; and wants to remove science and social studies from the curriculum for first graders through fifth graders.

He has promoted Holocaust denial, and has made strongly antisemitic statements, alarming the Jewish community in North Carolina and nationally.

He has been harshly critical of African Americans who are Democrats, and bitterly denounces Barack Obama and has called Michelle Obama a man, and called Martin Luther King Jr a Communist, along with the Civil Rights Movement.

He has been strongly anti gay and anti transgender, and is also strongly anti Muslim, and a nativist against various immigrant groups.

He has strongly denounced the COVID 19 Pandemic as a threat, and has praised past dictators, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro, while at the same time calling his critics “Communists”!

He also has a record of bankruptcies, owing back taxes, and having misused campaign funds for his 2020 campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

This character is a clear and present danger, and it is essential that Democrat Josh Stein be elected Governor, to succeed Democrat Roy Cooper, who has had to deal with the nightmare of his Lieutenant Governor being totally uncooperative and confrontational in the past four years!

2024 Presidential Election Crucial As Were 1864 And 1964 Elections, And They Were Election Landslides!

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One could argue that every Presidential Election is significant in some shape or form, but certain elections stand out as turning points in the promotion of American democracy.

Such are the Presidential Elections of 1864 and 1964, and now moving forward, 2024!

In all three, the sustaining of American democracy was crucial, and in the first two cases, the results, after much concern, were massive landslides, hopefully setting the scene for 2024!

In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection in the midst of the American Civil War, with his opponent being General George McClellan, who was resentful of his firing for poor performance from Union Army leadership, and represented to many the Confederate hope of pulling out victory late in the Civil War.

Lincoln was so concerned that victory was unattainable, that he decided to replace Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with a Southern Loyalist Democrat Andrew Johnson, and the Republicans invited War Democrats into the party by changing their name to the National Union Party.

The end result was a landslide with Lincoln winning all but three states, winning 55 percent of the vote, and an Electoral College majority of 212-21!

A century later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, having succeeded to the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy less than a year earlier, faced the most right wing Republican contender for the Presidency in modern times, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who advocated ending the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, including Social Security, and also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson went on to a landslide victory, winning 61.1 percent of the popular vote, the all time high, and 44 of 50 states and 486-52 in the Electoral College, but with five Southern states going to Goldwater, the beginning of the political realignment that has made the South solidly Republican ever since, with only a few exceptions when Democrats nominated Southerners for the Presidency, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Johnson went on to promote the Great Society, a massive increase in government programs, way beyond the New Deal of FDR.

Now in 2024, with the Republican Party being the most extreme right wing since Goldwater, and arguably more so, Joe Biden faces a challenge not only on a personal level, but also on overcoming the menace of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, who have repudiated the original basis of the Republican Party’s founding, opposing slavery and its expansion, and instead promoting racism and nativism 170 years after the origins of the party in Michigan and Wisconsin in 1854!

161st Anniversary Of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation!

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Today, New Year’s Day 2024, marks the 161st Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, a bold move that his own Presidential Cabinet thought was inadvisable.

While it only ended slavery at the time in areas under Union Army occupation during the Civil War, it was a pledge that the eventual victory of the United States over the Confederate States of America, when and if it occurred, another 27.5 months into the future, would see the concept of the ownership of human beings by other human beings would come to an end.

It must be pointed out, however, that the Emancipation Proclamation alone could not end slavery, as it was written into the US Constitution by the Founding Fathers at the Philadelphia convention of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Only the battle to add the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 could end slavery long term, and set America up as a promoter of democracy.

Now, sadly, we see the party of Lincoln moving backward on the principle of promoting racial equality, and appealing to the ugliness of racism and nativism, as it enters an election year seemingly captive to the most dangerous man ever to hold the Presidency, Donald Trump!

2024 must see the end of the menace of Donald Trump by a total commitment to defeat his attempt at a comeback, and move away from the dangers of MAGA Republicans!

The Republican Party And Race, Repudiation Of Founding Of The Party 170 Years Ago!

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With the new year 2024 coming tomorrow, it will mark 170 years since the Founding of the Republican Party in 1854, dedicated to opposition to the expansion of slavery, and including abolitionists in its midst, who committed themselves to the total end of slavery.

For many decades after the end of slavery, Southern Democrats promoted discrimination against African Americans, including lynchings, Jim Crow segregation, and denial of voting rights, and also a nativist attitude toward Catholic and Jewish immigration.

Sixty years ago, the Democratic Party under Lyndon B. Johnson finally liberated the party from this racism and nativism, only to have these Southern Democrats rush en masse to the Republican Party.

There was still a great deal of resistance by many Republicans, until the rise of Donald Trump, but now, the Republican Party has become an openly racist and nativist party without shame, and has also worked against women’s rights and voting rights.

The Republicans of the founding era would be shocked at how the Republican Party has repudiated its basic principles.

The Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024 give decent Americans the opportunity to repudiate the disgraceful Republican Party, which puts Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and decent Congressional Republicans who contributed to American history on a totally different level than the modern disaster the party has become!

Top Five Political Villains Of The Year 2023

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As we look back at the year 2023, it was a very tumultuous year in so many ways.

The five most negative political factors in 2023 would include the following:

The disgraceful Republican controlled House of Representatives under Kevin McCarthy, and then, Mike Johnson, and including former Congressman George Santos, who represents the true nature of the Republican Party in the lower chamber.

The weak, spineless Republican contenders for the Presidency, including Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, unwilling to condemn Donald Trump and take him on in a full throated campaign to remove this cancer on the party and the nation.

The corrupt, evil Fox News Channel, which lost a major defamation suit, but continues to spew forth poison, venom, and lies incessantly.

Billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of what used to be called Twitter, who showed how hateful, unstable, and dangerous unchecked wealth accumulation can be for society at large.

And finally, the continuing cancer and destruction of the Republican Party at large, provoked by Donald Trump, but with willing suicide victims who are willing to promote racism, nativism, and misogyny as a new norm for American politics.