New Nationalism

The Cycle Theory Of American History Again In Play

Ronald 5 Comments

The 2016 Presidential election magnified the significance of rural and working class whites, as they decided the election in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

The number of such people is constantly declining as a portion of the population, so the 2016 election is a last hurrah for these groups, as the growing number of people of Latino and Asian heritage will have a great effect on future Presidential elections, as more millennials become of age and are registered to vote.

This right wing tilt is going to have the ability to do great damage to the liberal-progressive tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama in the short term future, but in the middle of the next decade at the latest, the political scene is likely to transform dramatically.

In a way, it is part of the Cycle theory of American history, where a period of reform is followed by a period of reaction, with such reform periods lasting 4-6 years, as with Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom and New Nationalism, ended by World War I; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, ended by World War II; Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, ended by the Vietnam War; and Barack Obama and his reforms, ended by the War on Terrorism, which had a lot to do with Donald Trump’s victory. When we are engaged in concern about foreign policy and national security, it always dampens desire for reform among the people of the United States, who tend to react to fear.

Republican Implosion: 1912, 1964, 2016—Each 52 Years Apart After Lincoln And First Republican Victory In 1860!

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The Republican Party was born in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery, and also included abolitionists, those who wanted the end of slavery, in its membership.

Six years later, the Republicans won the majority of the Congress,and in a four way Presidential face, Abraham Lincoln won the Presidency with less than 40 percent of the total national vote.

Within  six weeks of the Presidential inauguration, the Civil War had begun.

For the next half century, the Republicans dominated national politics, winning control of the Presidency for 44 of 52 years (with only Democrat Grover Cleveland winning two nonconsecutive terms in 1884 and 1892), and usually held the Congressional majority with a few exceptions.

But then in 1912, 52 years after the Republicans became the national majority, the party had a “civil war” between President William Howard Taft and his predecessor in the White House, Theodore Roosevelt, leading to the formation of the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party, and TR ending up second and Taft third in popular and electoral votes.  Democrat Woodrow Wilson became President, and promoted a great era of reform, known as the New Freedom, and also adopted TR’s reform platform, known as the New Nationalism.

Despite many shortcomings of Wilson, the domestic reform programs was the greatest in substance in American history.

The Republicans returned to national power in the Presidential Election of 1920 and kept it until Herbert Hoover and the coming of the Great Depression, and Franklin D. Roosevelt then brought Democratic dominance in 1932 and after, with his New Deal, a much greater reform period than that under Wilson.

The Republican Party was only able to win back Congressional majorities in the midterm election of 1946 and again in the Presidential Election of 1952, when Dwight D. Eisenhower won the Presidency, but two years later, the Democrats regained the majority in both houses for the next quarter century.

The more conservative wing of the GOP lost their chance to gain a Presidential nomination when Wendell Willkie, Thomas E. Dewey, Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon won the nominations for President from 1940-1960, but the conservatives overcame the Eastern Establishment, as it was known, and soared to the Presidential nomination with right wing Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964, 52 years after 1912.

But now we had “civil war” again, as Eastern Establishment Republicans who had competed against Goldwater, including most notably Nelson Rockfeeller, refused to support Goldwater in 1964, and some just sat on their hands, while others backed Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson.  This led to a massive defeat for the GOP in 1964, and LBJ went on to a landslide victory and the promotion of the Democratic Party’s Great Society.

The battle for the future began when Ronald Reagan sought the Presidency against incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976, but going on to triumph in 1980, creating what conservatives considered a “Golden Age”.  However, after Reagan, the Establishment returned with President George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, President George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney from 1988 to 2012.

As the GOP became ever more conservative and right wing extremist, and was hijacked by the Tea Party Movement after 2009, the party has reached a point where the Establishment, including some of the 2016 Presidential candidates, but also much of Republicans Congressional leadership, was seen as unacceptable, and we have now witnessed a rebellion against “office holders”, and the rise of Donald Trump, Dr. Benjamin Cason, and Carly Fiorina.

It seems as if the GOP is on the way to another “civil war” 52 years after 1964, wh8ich could be the final implosion of the Republican Party as we know it, and lead to a massive Democratic victory, including the possibility yet again of a third age of reform, spurred on in the past by Wilson and LBJ, and maybe now, either Hillary Clinton, or who can say, maybe even Bernie Sanders!

Barack Obama Now Insured Of Stature As Historic Domestic Reform Leader With Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, And Lyndon B. Johnson!

Ronald 19 Comments

The victory yesterday of ObamaCare at the Supreme Court, by a margin of 6-3, insures that Barack Obama will be listed historically in the company of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson in their massive accomplishments in domestic reforms!

Woodrow Wilson accomplished the passage of the Federal Reserve Act; the Federal Trade Commission Act; the Clayton Anti Trust Act; and the enactment of the first federal labor laws and assistance to farmers. His programs were both the “New Freedom” and elements of Theodore Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt accomplished the massive list of reforms known as the “New Deal”, in the areas of banking, the stock market, government intervention in business, labor, agriculture, housing, and most significantly, in Social Security and other aid to the poor, as well as major public works programs. He also took us out of the worst of the Great Depression.

Lyndon B. Johnson accomplished the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, along with immigration reform, civil rights legislation, greatly expanded aid to education, and the “war on poverty”, all part of the “Great Society.” Johnson also enacted consumer and environmental legislation and two new Cabinet agencies. He brought about the greatest amount of domestic reform since FDR, who he idolized.

Barack Obama has now accomplished health care reform to cover all Americans, a massive step first proposed by Theodore Roosevelt in his “New Nationalism” campaign as a third party campaign for President in 1912. Additionally, he has promoted environmental legislation by executive order; advancements in civil rights enforcement; a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Wall Street reform; immigration reform through executive order; and many lesser reforms that all add up to the best domestic record of achievement since the 1960s! He also took us out of the Great Recession, the greatest economic downturn since FDR and the Great Depression! He is the greatest reform President since Lyndon B. Johnson!

Key Dates In Republican Party History 52 Years Apart-1860, 1912, 1964, 2016!

Ronald 10 Comments

The Republican Party has had its key elections which transform the party on a regular basis 52 years apart, and we are on the way to that occurring yet again!

In 1860, just six short years after the founding of the party in the upper Midwest, the Republican Party won its first national victory, gaining control of both houses of Congress, and electing Abraham Lincoln, even though he won slightly less than 40 percent of the total national popular vote. The party went on to dominate American politics for the next 52 years, only losing the Presidency twice to Grover Cleveland, in 1884 and 1892.

Then in 1912, the split between former President Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent President William Howard Taft, a conflict between conservatives and progressives, led to a disastrous defeat for Taft, the worst defeated President running for reelection ever in American history before and after 1912. This put the opposition Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, and gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson two terms in the White House, although coming close to losing in 1916. He proceeded to promote programs known as the New Freedom and the New Nationalism, stealing the second slogan from TR.

The Republican Party went on to revive itself from 1920-1932, but was then made the minority party in voter registration after 1932, due to the Great Depression, and only won two terms in the White House under Dwight D. Eisenhower, and two separate two year terms in Congress over the next 32 years.

After years of establishment Republicans losing, except for Eisenhower, the conservatives took over the party in 1964, again 52 years after the 1912 split, and nominated Senator Barry Goldwater, and suffered a massive defeat, insuring the biggest landslide victory in history for Lyndon B. Johnson, and the promotion of the Great Society.

While the Goldwater mentality in broad outline became the government under Ronald Reagan in 1980, the split between conservatives and progressives revived under the two Bush Presidents, as well as criticism of the Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney Presidential runs.

And here we are again with the right wing striving to take over the party, with Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, along with some others, trying to move the party to an extreme, more so than Barry Goldwater represented.

And one can be sure that 2016, 52 years after 1964, we will see another massive defeat, for the GOP, probably to Hillary Clinton, but with no certainty that the party, 160 years old in 2014, can survive as a viable political party opposition!

The Centennial Of Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency: A Time For Debate Over His Legacy

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A century ago day, Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated as the 28th President of the United States,and helped to transform the Presidency in massive ways, some good and some bad.

Wilson has been under attack in the present climate of conservative attacks on reform oriented Presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama.

The facts are that Wilson, FDR, and LBJ were the three most accomplished Presidents in domestic affairs, but with plenty of criticism about their handling of wars and the domestic relationship to those wars.

Wilson accomplished the most domestic reform of any President before him, taking on parts of Theodore Roosevelt’s New Nationalism agenda on the Progressive Party line in 1912, adding it to his own New Freedom legislative ideas.

So Wilson’s time saw the following:

Underwood Simmons Tariff

Federal Reserve Act

Clayton Anti Trust Act

Federal Trade Commission

Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

La Follette Seamen’s Act

Adamson Act (eight hour work day in interstate transportation)

Federal Farm Loan Act

Some of this did not work out well long term, and additionally, Wilson had major negative policies dealing with:

Woman Suffrage—opposing an amendment (although it came about despite him in 1920, via the 19th Amendment).

Race Relations—clearly racist policy of imposing Jim Crow segregation in Washington, DC; unfair treatment and recognition of African American sacrifices in the World War I effort; and endorsement of an openly racist film, D W Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION, which portrayed the Southern view of Reconstruction, a myth of long standing, which finally was proved inaccurate in the past half century of historical research and writing.

Civil Liberties Violations— including arrest and imprisonment of Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs for opposition to the draft and American involvement in World War I; the Espionage and Sedition Acts; and the Palmer Raids after the war.

In foreign policy, Wilson engaged in “Missionary Diplomacy” including interventions in Haiti, and more significantly in Mexico, attempting to pursue Pancho Villa for a raid across the border into Columbus, New Mexico, the worst incursion in American territory since the War of 1812. And of course, the controversy over Wilson and our entrance into World War I continues even today, and the whole debate and divisiveness over the Versailles Treaty and League of Nations in 1919-1920.

Additionally, being incapacitated by a stroke, but being unwilling to hand over temporary power to Vice President Thomas Marshall, and allowing his wife to run cabinet meetings, is another major issue in assessing Wilson’s Presidency.

So Wilson is a “very mixed bag” as a President, but usually is ranked in the bottom of the top ten of our Presidents, specifically because of his long range influence on America, rare among Presidents, for good or for bad, and there is clearly plenty of both!

Obama Inauguration Speech Evokes New Nationalism Of TR, New Deal Of FDR, New Frontier Of JFK, And Great Society Of LBJ!

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Four 20th century Presidents are looking down kindly and proudly on President Barack Obama, as a result of his Second Inaugural Address yesterday.

Theodore Roosevelt would be proud of Obama bringing up his progressive goals and ideals, following the traditions of the New Nationalism.

Franklin D. Roosevelt would be proud of Obama for having followed the trend of his own Second Inaugural Address in 1937, and the visions of his New Deal.

John F. Kennedy would be proud of Obama for following his lead on idealism, and commitment to a future advancement of those left behind., part of his New Frontier.

Lyndon B. Johnson would be proud that Obama is picking up the mantle of reform of his Great Society in many areas, which has not been addressed by anyone since LBJ, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both of whom backed away from major commitments in the line of the four earlier Presidents.

Obama is a continuation of modern day liberalism, and a successor to the progressive traditions of these four earlier Presidents, all of whom are rated in the top quarter of our Presidents, even with each having his shortcoming and faults. In the C Span poll of 2009, FDR is rated third, TR fourth, JFK sixth, and LBJ eleventh out of our 42 Presidents before Barack Obama.

It has been a long time coming since LBJ left office, and today, the 40th anniversary of his death, Obama’s speech is a salute to his exceptional leadership in so many areas of domestic reform.

Barack Obama’s speech will go down as one of the outstanding Inaugural Addresses of our history!

A Century Of Struggle For Health Care: Theodore Roosevelt 1912 to Barack Obama 2012!

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Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, out of office and running on the third party movement, the Progressive Party, in 1912, first proposed some form of national health exactly a century ago as part of his New Nationalism platform!

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered it as part of his New Deal in the 1930s, but it was controversial enough to promote Social Security, which was called “Socialism”, and bitterly opposed by most Republicans, and used as a campaign issue by Republican Governor Alf Landon in the 1936 Presidential campaign.

Harry Truman actually was the first to promote a program as part of his Fair Deal programs in the 1940s, but the Southern Democrats and the American Medical Association bitterly opposed it as “Socialism”, and it died in committees in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.

John F. Kennedy proposed what became Medicare for the elderly as part of his New Frontier, but it was blocked again by the AMA and the Southern Democrats who headed Congressional committees in both houses of Congress in the early 1960s.

Lyndon B. Johnson overcame the AMA and Southern Democrats, and accomplished Medicare in 1965, and the Republicans campaigned against it, but failed to gain enough support to repeal it

Richard Nixon had devised plans for more health care legislation, but Watergate killed any movement in that direction in the 1970s.

Jimmy Carter also had developed a plan for expansion, but faced too much conservative opposition and other issues and crises, which drew attention away from the idea.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton proposed a major government program, but it went down to defeat in 1994, with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the conservative Heritage Foundation proposing a “mandate” instead, which would allow private health insurance companies to profit from health care reform, but nothing was done.

And Senator Ted Kennedy fought the good fight for decades, and was at least able to see progress before his death in 2009.

And when Hillary Clinton, and then Barack Obama, adopted the Heritage Foundation plan in 2008, far less than the original Clinton plan of the 1990s, suddenly the Republican Party and conservative ideologists bitterly opposed it, as they still do, and their hope is to repeal the program declared constitutional by the Supreme Court this past Thursday.

So it has taken a century, and we are the ONLY major nation in the world which allows millions of people to be uncovered for health care, and we have the opposition bitterly trying to destroy it, including Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who actually promoted the SAME idea successfully in Massachusetts in 2006, but now is out to destroy “ObamaCare”!

What a history, and hard to believe that it would take a century, and still be a controversy in 2012!.

Four Path Breaking Domestic Policy Presidents In American History: All Democrats (Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barack Obama)!

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Looking back at American history, it can now be said we have had four path breaking Domestic Policy Presidents, all Democrats, who have transformed America in so many ways!

Leaving out foreign policy as a factor, and realizing that the prosperity and security of the American people internally is very important, there is no question anymore that our greatest Presidents in domestic affairs, in chronological terms are :

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)
Barack Obama (2009-?)

Wilson’s Presidency gave us the Federal Reserve banking system, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Anti Trust Act, Agricultural subsidy laws, and the first national labor laws, under the terms of the New Freedom and the New Nationalism.

FDR’s New Deal gave us Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, Public Works Agencies, Unemployment Compensation, Aid to the Disabled and Handicapped, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Public Housing, Banking and Stock Market Regulation, and numerous other laws.

Johnson”s Great Society gave us the modern Civil Rights Acts, Medicare, the War on Poverty, Federal Aid to Education, Consumer Protection Laws, Environmental Protection laws, and numerous other initiatives.

Obama has given us the Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”), consumer protection laws, equal pay for women, immigration reform for children of immigrants, promotion of gay rights and equality, the saving of the auto industry, and numerous other reforms.

Most experts and rational people would put Wilson, FDR, and LBJ in the top ten of our Presidents, even with controversial foreign policy records.

Now, it would be fair to put Barack Obama in that elite group when scholars and experts reassess the Presidency at the end of the Obama Presidency!

The New Conservative Attack On Abraham Lincoln And Theodore Roosevelt

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If one looks at American history, it is clear to anyone who is knowledgeable and objective that the two greatest Republican Presidents are Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

Lincoln usually ranks as our greatest President, and TR is often ranked as high as 4th on the list, depending on the specific poll of experts and scholars.

Both Presidents, of course, have faults and shortcomings, as all Presidents and all people do, but to deny their greatness is promoting ignorance and falsehoods.

Both have been analyzed and interpreted by massive numbers of scholars and writers of non fiction, and they have been depicted in all kinds of ways.

But recently, it has become fashionable for right wing propagandists to push a view not generally promoted in the past–that Lincoln and TR are in many ways “Marxists”.

It is pointed out that there is some correspondence and contact between Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx, the author of “The Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital”, and the argument is made that Lincoln was a “Marxist” who promoted his ideals, a way to criticize Lincoln’s promotion of racial advancements and labor progress.

Theodore Roosevelt is said to have “Marxist” tendencies in his promotion of the “New Nationalism” platform in his third party movement, the Progressive Party, in the Presidential Election of 1912, including government intervention in the economy for workers and farmers, and the regulation of capitalism through government lawsuits against monopolies, plus the acceptance of the basic concept of “social justice”!

IF what Lincoln and TR advocated is “Marxist”, then we need to be “Marxist”, as just because Karl Marx advocated for workers and the overthrow of capitalism, does not mean that everything he believed in and promoted is automatically evil and vile.

It is evil and vile to be against racial equality, labor rights, social justice, and regulation of capitalism in the public interest.

These views of Lincoln and TR are what make them great Americans, as well as great Presidents of the United States!

Conservative and right wing attacks on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama, among other Presidents, is par for the course, because they are Democrats, but attacking the best Republican Presidents is a new tack that must be fought with vigor!

Mitt Romney’s Attack On The “Entitlement” Society Speech Of Barack Obama

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in trouble in the public opinion polls in the Republican Presidential race in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida, states in which former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich leads by growing margins, is obviously very desperate!

So he lashed into President Obama today for his Osawatomie, Kansas speech, in which Obama invoked the New Nationalism and Square Deal concepts of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who made progressivism fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century.

Romney, who was born to wealth, and is estimated to be worth at least $250 million dollars, certainly feels “entitled” to use his wealth and privilege to run for President, even though he has never had to struggle for anything in his life!

Not everyone is so fortunate to be born into such good circumstances, and one would think that Romney would feel like many other wealthy people, that he needs to “give back” to those less fortunate, rather than take a hard hearted attitude toward those who don’t have the advantages that he and his wife and five sons have!

For a man of religion, who is proud of his Mormon faith, he seems unconcerned about the struggles of those on the lower end of the social scale, which is ironic, because Christianity broadly teaches that we must come to the aid of others, and Romney says he is a “good Christian”, even though many consider the Mormons to be a religious cult.

The point is that with his good fortune since birth, and his supposedly strong religious convictions, Romney should wish to help others get some of the “entitlement” that he was born to, but NO, instead, he appeals to the selfish, self centered nature of someone who is arrogant and looks down on the poor, all for political advantage in a party which has sold out completely to religious hypocrites and wealthy people and corporations!

What are all Americans entitled to?

1. A decent educational opportunity to achieve all that one can in pursuit of a better life and job career.
2. A decent health care system which allows everyone to get appropriate, quality attention from doctors, nurses, and hospitals.
3. A decent housing situation, which promotes a sense of security and safety from harm.
4. A government which treats everyone on an equal basis, not victimizing those who are different in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation.
5. Respect for the elderly, and proper treatment of them in their twilight years.
6. Protection of the childhood of the younger generation, and encouragement of the accomplishment of their goals to grow up happy, secure, and pursue their dreams.
7. Respect for and protection of the disabled among us, giving them maximum opportunity for as normal a life as possible.
8. Protection of the environment, and promotion of consumer rights to avoid harm to the population.
9. Enforcement of the civil liberties of all Americans, preventing an oppressive government over our private lives and our public activities.
10. Protection of our nation from the abuse of corporations who are more concerned about profit than people.

These points above are “entitlements” that should come with being an American, not just based on how much money one has or inherits! Equality and justice are essential to keep the “American Dream” alive!