Rambling: 2008 crucial to survival of Constitutional democracy
Summer's been pretty good to me this year and I couldn't be more hopeful for my own personal future. It does no good to seethe in depression or rage that can be such difficult emotions to contain. There's a lot happening in America these days that should trouble those of us who hope to see Constitutional government survive another 220 years (since 1787). I won't bother with that discussion today because it's my day off and I've had a really busy week. I have to hold on to the hopeful view that my ancestors had it much tougher and endured more difficult circumstances to continue in highly lucrative, stressful jobs. Well, actually, my ancestors were happy to have meager incomes, barely enough food for survival and a few stitches of clothing. My family are descended from Europeans and indigenous peoples as I suppose many Southerners can claim. They were not particularly well-to-do, except for the occasional exception in family history. I know too many Republicans these days who buy their hateful brand of populism spewed forth with seeming impugnity these days. I'm proud to say that my family were traditionally pro-Democratic since the Great Depression descended upon the globe and starving Americans felt first-hand the pain of strict laissez faire policies concerning the economy and the state of the American people.
Funny how Americans conveniently forget that the "American Century's" relatively flourishing post-WW II economy has been funded primarily by the positive influx of government dollars. I know personally many families in my home area of Arkansas who bought their first tracts of land that made fortunes for their families and others whose fathers and mothers joined the middle class, upper middle class, and some ascended to greater financial heights because of the influx of spending by our government on the training and success of scores of new American professionals along with the aid of government defense spending on the wider manufacturing economy throughout the "glorious" Cold War days. Government investment in America can't be all bad. Hillary Clinton's latest health care proposals are not receiving the same harsh attacks as in 1993 because opinions of the American people and American industry might be merging on the healthcare issue. Companies cannot sustain the enormous healthcare costs promised to millions of American retirees and current employees. Government is the only entity capable of providing for these enormous costs that could drive American industry completely outside our borders. Doug Thompson wrote in the Free Weekly that Hillary's recent healthcare remarks was a shrewd move in light of UAW-GM's relatively quick settlement of what could have been a damaging strike to the American econmoy on top of the bankrupting Bush administration 's reckless "policies"(if raping the economy willy-nilly can be described in such lofty terms). Let's hope the American people will wake up and wonder why the government is trustworthy in prosecuting wars, but completely inept in preserving and promoting prosperity as it did during the post-WW II boom of higher wage earning Americans. I can understand distrusting Republicans with such a responsibility because of their history of corrrupt, inept leadership in the late 19th century and the antebellum years 1920-1932 (and since 1994)when the global economy collapsed under their leadership following the fateful GOP attack on the Versailles Treaty and America's participation and membership in the League of Nations. Of course, there are no guarantees that America's membership in League of Nations would have led to real intervention against the Nazis, or the Fascists of Spain, Italy, and Japan, but membership would have put the possibility on the table. Now, American Republicans cheer an endless war with Islam which seems to rally more cynical, murderous minions to slay Americans and all westerners and those of different sects within the Islamic faith by our invasion of Iraq. We can't get a sensible middle-path philosophical bent among GOP faithful in any period of American history when they dominate government(Eisenhower and occasional exception , except for the meddling Dulles brothers and their disatrous actions while working for State and CIA). All-or-none cynical responses are common from so-called "conservatives" in America.
I am saddened by the venom spewed in the name of God by ALL the BIG 3 Faiths that arose from the Fertile Crescent. I am hoping Americans come together to stop the self-inflicted "blood-letting" occuring in America these days, as well as the international hot war variety of blood-leeting fomenting in war zones across the globe. Americans should stop trying to destroy this gift from God we call Constitutional Democracy that so many well-meaning, highly enlightened founders who likely wouldn't qualify as Christians among the devout Christian "Right" these days, despite revisionist efforts to portray Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Madison as like-minded believers in step with their small-minded, half-baked schematics. Let's hope we don't blow this opportunity in 2008 to remove the hateful dogma of the "conservative revolution" with a pragmatic thinker who wants government to promote the health and prosperity of America instead of stripping it bare, as the GOP have done since ascending to power in 1994.
My grandparents were diehard Democrats because under Democratic leadership, they were at least capable of sustaining themselves. Under Hoover, they remember losing everything and no relief was forthcoming until FDR swept the cynics from office. Hell, one of my grandfathers had to move back to his mom's home area in Chickasaw areas of Oklahoma, while hundreds of thousands of Okies streamed away from Oklahoma as the Depression raged. His mother moved back home from Arkansas to be near family. Needless to say, he had a bleak first-hand impression of Republican economic principles. Sure, some fancy economist call talk a lot of numbers gibberish no middle-of-the-road American can understand on how great Republican policies are for the economy. Americans understand the language of hardship, uncertainty, and misery, when self-deluded so-called American conservatives discovered the horror of those emotions after 1929 the hard way. Let's hope a calamity is not required at this point in history to turn it all around, until the next time rank-and-file Americans delude themselves into a "conservative" mindset concerning politics and cause another crisis of confidence in government.
Funny how Americans conveniently forget that the "American Century's" relatively flourishing post-WW II economy has been funded primarily by the positive influx of government dollars. I know personally many families in my home area of Arkansas who bought their first tracts of land that made fortunes for their families and others whose fathers and mothers joined the middle class, upper middle class, and some ascended to greater financial heights because of the influx of spending by our government on the training and success of scores of new American professionals along with the aid of government defense spending on the wider manufacturing economy throughout the "glorious" Cold War days. Government investment in America can't be all bad. Hillary Clinton's latest health care proposals are not receiving the same harsh attacks as in 1993 because opinions of the American people and American industry might be merging on the healthcare issue. Companies cannot sustain the enormous healthcare costs promised to millions of American retirees and current employees. Government is the only entity capable of providing for these enormous costs that could drive American industry completely outside our borders. Doug Thompson wrote in the Free Weekly that Hillary's recent healthcare remarks was a shrewd move in light of UAW-GM's relatively quick settlement of what could have been a damaging strike to the American econmoy on top of the bankrupting Bush administration 's reckless "policies"(if raping the economy willy-nilly can be described in such lofty terms). Let's hope the American people will wake up and wonder why the government is trustworthy in prosecuting wars, but completely inept in preserving and promoting prosperity as it did during the post-WW II boom of higher wage earning Americans. I can understand distrusting Republicans with such a responsibility because of their history of corrrupt, inept leadership in the late 19th century and the antebellum years 1920-1932 (and since 1994)when the global economy collapsed under their leadership following the fateful GOP attack on the Versailles Treaty and America's participation and membership in the League of Nations. Of course, there are no guarantees that America's membership in League of Nations would have led to real intervention against the Nazis, or the Fascists of Spain, Italy, and Japan, but membership would have put the possibility on the table. Now, American Republicans cheer an endless war with Islam which seems to rally more cynical, murderous minions to slay Americans and all westerners and those of different sects within the Islamic faith by our invasion of Iraq. We can't get a sensible middle-path philosophical bent among GOP faithful in any period of American history when they dominate government(Eisenhower and occasional exception , except for the meddling Dulles brothers and their disatrous actions while working for State and CIA). All-or-none cynical responses are common from so-called "conservatives" in America.
I am saddened by the venom spewed in the name of God by ALL the BIG 3 Faiths that arose from the Fertile Crescent. I am hoping Americans come together to stop the self-inflicted "blood-letting" occuring in America these days, as well as the international hot war variety of blood-leeting fomenting in war zones across the globe. Americans should stop trying to destroy this gift from God we call Constitutional Democracy that so many well-meaning, highly enlightened founders who likely wouldn't qualify as Christians among the devout Christian "Right" these days, despite revisionist efforts to portray Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Madison as like-minded believers in step with their small-minded, half-baked schematics. Let's hope we don't blow this opportunity in 2008 to remove the hateful dogma of the "conservative revolution" with a pragmatic thinker who wants government to promote the health and prosperity of America instead of stripping it bare, as the GOP have done since ascending to power in 1994.
My grandparents were diehard Democrats because under Democratic leadership, they were at least capable of sustaining themselves. Under Hoover, they remember losing everything and no relief was forthcoming until FDR swept the cynics from office. Hell, one of my grandfathers had to move back to his mom's home area in Chickasaw areas of Oklahoma, while hundreds of thousands of Okies streamed away from Oklahoma as the Depression raged. His mother moved back home from Arkansas to be near family. Needless to say, he had a bleak first-hand impression of Republican economic principles. Sure, some fancy economist call talk a lot of numbers gibberish no middle-of-the-road American can understand on how great Republican policies are for the economy. Americans understand the language of hardship, uncertainty, and misery, when self-deluded so-called American conservatives discovered the horror of those emotions after 1929 the hard way. Let's hope a calamity is not required at this point in history to turn it all around, until the next time rank-and-file Americans delude themselves into a "conservative" mindset concerning politics and cause another crisis of confidence in government.
posted by AR1836 at 10:55 AM
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