Tag: Liberal Republicans

1956: The Year That Was

My grandfather was a strong GOP supporter during the days of his life….and in 1956 he worked and voted for Ike…..if he were alive today he would be a strong Left progressive…..why would I say that?

First of all let’s look at the platform of Ike and the GOP in 1956……




1956 were the good old days for the GOP….the year they actually had ideas to make America a better nation…..those days are GONE!

Or if you prefer….I have written about this platform and the GOP in the past here on IST……https://lobotero.com/2018/11/06/where-has-the-gop-gone/

If you read the platform closely you will see just how “liberal” the party was in those days……(I miss those days)…….

Now you may ask….what happened to the GOP?

The year is 1971 and the Nixon nominee for the Supreme Court, Lewis Powell, wrote a memo to be forever known as the Powell Memo.

It was 1971 and Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, who had been president of the American Bar Association and a member of the board of the giant tobacco company Philip Morris, had come to believe that American capitalism was facing a dire threat. Americans were angry about corporate abuse and corporate pollution; President Richard M. Nixon had responded by signing the National Environmental Policy Act and creating the Environmental Protection Agency through executive order. Across the country, activists marched for Earth Day, and Congress passed the first air pollution standards. Ralph Nader and other consumer advocates had successfully fought for safer cars and other products.

Powell believed that corporate America needed a decisive response to this perceived threat to the free-enterprise system. In a lengthy memo, the soon-to-be Supreme Court justice laid out his concerns and proposed responses to the Chamber of Commerce, where he served as chairman of the education committee.

The document he penned, now known as the Powell Memo, has been described as the road map for conservative dominance of public policymaking. For any such plan to be successful, Powell understood, conservatives would have to fund a broad array of institutions that would exert control over the levers of power, including the courts, the legislature, and the media. Importantly, the tobacco lawyer insisted, it would require “careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.” What Powell grasped is that policy victories come after gaining control of the levers of power—and not before.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/17/getting-serious-about-power
 
I miss a party of ideas….the GOP lost its way in 1971 and continued its assault on the people of the country with Reagan and it has never stopped since those days….or even looked back at a brighter party.
 
For those interested……further reading on the Powell memo……
 
 
 
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Class Dismissed!
 

Where Has The GOP Gone?

Gone to tribalism and stupidity……..in the days of Trump….some ask “what happened”?……(not Trump supporters for most cannot spell “GOP”)…….

Cult leaders arise from decayed communities and societies in which people have been shorn of political, social and economic power. The disempowered, infantilized by a world they cannot control, gravitate to cult leaders who appear omnipotent and promise a return to a mythical golden age. The cult leaders vow to crush the forces, embodied in demonized groups and individuals, that are blamed for their misery. The more outrageous the cult leaders become, the more they flout law and social conventions, the more they gain in popularity. Cult leaders are immune to the norms of established society. This is their appeal. Cult leaders demand a God-like power. Those who follow them grant them this power in the hope that the cult leaders will save them.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-cult-of-trump-2/

I recall my grandfather was a Repub and I helped him work on the election of 1956……in those days the GOP stood for good stuff not the silly crap they have these days…..in 1956 the platform had seven planks worth a re-visit……

1. Provide federal assistance to low-income communities;

2. Protect Social Security;

3. Provide asylum for refugees;

4. Extend minimum wage;

5. Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people;

6. Strengthen labor laws so workers can more easily join a union;

7. Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.

Image result for 1956 GOP platform images

Moderate Republicans were the mainstay of the party and today they are all but lost to history….why?

To answer I found a couple of articles……first we begin with the days of Mitt Romney…..

Mitt Romney has been running for president as the Republican nominee, de facto or de jure, for eight months now, and the grand historical joke of it has not yet worn off. A party that has set itself to frantically, fanatically expunge its moderates, quasi-moderates, suspected moderates, and fellow travelers of moderates chose as its standard bearer the lineal heir, biographically and genealogically, to its moderate tradition. It entrusted its holy crusade to repeal Barack Obama’s hated health-care law to the man who had inspired it and run, four years before, promising to do the same for the rest of America. The man and his historical moment could not be more incongruous. It was as if the Mongol tribes of the thirteenth century, setting out to pillage their way across the Asian steppe, had somehow chosen Mahatma Gandhi as their supreme khan.

https://newrepublic.com/article/108150/the-revolution-eats-its-own

Take for instance McCain….since his death his loyal comrade has drank the poison kool-aid of Trump…..

John McCain’s political legacy is likely to be the subject of conversation and reflection for quite a while after his death on Saturday. But his Arizona Senate seat probably won’t stay vacant for long. Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona will appoint McCain’s replacement, and the Republican can select someone as soon as he wants. I expect him to land on a replacement within the next two weeks, maybe even sooner (it has been clear for months that McCain was close to death and might need to be replaced). Ducey’s choice is likely to be sworn into the Senate within a few days of being chosen — and then become a fairly reliable vote for initiatives backed by President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

So what kind of politician should we expect Ducey to land on for McCain’s replacement, and what will that choice mean for the future of the Senate, President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination and national politics in general?

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-john-mccains-death-means-for-the-senate/

Fast forward to today and the election in waiting…..the GOP has lost most if not all its centrist……

Ryan Costello came to Washington the old-fashioned way. Growing up in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in a family of educators, he imagined government service to be like the Norman Rockwell painting of a farmer standing up at a town-hall meeting: a noble calling. By the time Costello turned twenty-one, in 1997, he wanted to be a congressman. He was elected the township supervisor of West Chester, Pennsylvania, while he was at Villanova law school; then he became the Chester County recorder of deeds, then a county commissioner, and then a commission chairman. This was the kind of solid ladder that an ambitious young Republican, in the tidy suburbs west of Philadelphia, climbed in order to reach for bigger things. In 2014, after the Republican incumbent in Pennsylvania’s Sixth Congressional District announced his retirement, Costello—at thirty-seven, the heir apparent—ran for his seat, and coasted to victory.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/the-demise-of-the-moderate-republican

I miss the days of moderate GOPers…..at least with them we could debate instead of slinging insults as we do with the Trump-tards…..real GOPers need to reclaim their party for the sanity of the nation.

VOTE TODAY!

Where Have The Moderates Gone?

As I wrote the title I could hear the 60’s folk song playing in my head……I digress…..there has been a lot of talk about moderate Repubs and their ultra right brethren….but who are the moderates in the GOP?  (I will give you a time for thought)…..

Sorry…I can wait much longer…..Sen. Collins and Snowe…that is the story, but I doubt that they are that moderate….more like independent thinkers within the GOP….the Senate lost a great liberal Repub when Hagel bowed out….in the House about the only one I can think of right now is Mary Bono of California….there maybe some others but I am not aware of them…..

Okay, I know you are wondering why I am bringing up RINOs at this time?…..and a damn fine question it is……you do realize that taxes are the revenue of the government, right?  We cannot keep cutting taxes and think that revenue for programs will go up……

Since the days of yore and Reagan the term taxes has been a major no-no…for the GOP lives and dies on tax cuts, but even conservatives, not the extremists in conservative clothing,  see the need for the need of taxes at some point when handling the economy.  Unfortunately, it was the moderates or liberal repubs that actually saw the need at times.  But their voice of reason is usually drowned out by the clap trap from the far right, which is now the GOP.

Take health care …..please….in a piece written by Matt Miller for Fortune magazine:

suppose I told you there was a way to square this circle, courtesy of a $500 billion health-related tax hike that could save the economy? And suppose I added that conservative economists would actually be okay with the idea? Too good to be true, you say? Well, welcome to what I call the “opening of the capitalist mind.”

Start with the fact that business now spends a stunning $500 billion a year, or 4 percent of GDP, on health-care benefits. Let’s say we shifted that cost to government – that’s right, relieved business of it entirely – and, to make matters simple, combined it with other public funds to give citizens a voucher with which they could buy a private health plan.

To pay for this without boosting the deficit, we’d raise taxes by an identical amount – not on business, of course, but on taxpayers broadly, via various gas or carbon taxes that would have the salutary side effect of helping cure our energy and environmental woes.

And to seal the deal for skeptical capitalists, conservative economists declare that this brand of tax hike should have no impact on growth. “In one scenario we call health expenditures government, and in another we don’t. What does it matter?” says Kevin Hassett, head of economics at the American Enterprise Institute and an advisor to John McCain. “It’s hard to imagine that would have the negative growth effects” normally ascribed to tax increases in the economics literature.

If conservative economists do have objections to this health shift, Hassett explains, they will be based on ideological notions of what government should be doing, not on whether swapping a giant current business expense for a tax devoted to the same purpose has any economic consequence. When the dust cleared, though, taxes and spending as a share of GDP would officially rise in the U.S. by four or five percentage points.

The moral of the story? We have reached a moment in the history of American capitalism where business’s traditional Me-Tarzan-you- Jane-taxes-bad mindset is one of the biggest obstacles to pragmatically rethinking our health-care and pension systems.

And make no mistake: If business doesn’t help Washington fix these essentials before long, rising worker anxiety will produce a protectionist backlash that could wreck everything capitalists believe in. Instead of reflexively resisting the idea of government and taxes, therefore, business leaders must now do some constructive, nonideological thinking if they want to serve corporate America’s self-interest – and the country’s. As I said, welcome to the opening of the capitalist mind.

All in all, the article has a few good points and I think they are worth a look…

Now back to the original question…..where have the moderates gone?  The moderates in the GOP had good ideas and were a necessity to the two party system…but they were replaced with name calling, lying and ruthless individuals that wanted not what was best for the country, but rather what was best for them and their addiction to power.

The good thing about the way Repubs are acting now is that the moderates of the party will wake up and take back the Grand Old Party from the worthless ilk that now control it.  Well, I can only hope…….

The Problem With Conservatives

As I have stated many times, I have been playing the political game for 40+ years and have seen and heard much.  I have always tried to be respectfully of others opinions, but recently that becomes harder and harder as the political hatred goes deeper.  As long as a person truly believes their political position is important but nowadays it is not based on fact just simple hatred of the other side.  This is why there is very little civil debate going on in politics anymore.

I guess that one would say that I am a liberal or possibly a Progressive…I let others pick the title for they will anyway.  I think that conservatism has a very important place at the political table, but in recent decades that position becomes very clouded for me….why?….because it is racked with contradictions.

Let me explain my thoughts.

First, a strong national defense–this one I do not have a problem with….but when it takes money that is needed for American citizens …I will bitch.  And IMO fighting useless wars is not national defense but rather a form of expansionism.  But there are “good” wars, if any war can be good.

Second, a small limited national government….a grand idea but…….but they champion intrusions into personal liberties like abortion, same sex marriage, marijuana, etc.  In other words they try to legislate morality and that is a big intrusion.  Conservs want the individual to be responsible, but does not want them to have a choice in the own lives.

Third, conservs dislike deficit spending, always wanting a balanced budget buy continually push for increases in spending for the military and unnecessary wars.

Fourth, conservs detest people who they say are parasites on the society for taking welfare, yet champion those who scam and speculate….these people do not create anything but risk and crashes in the markets.

Fifth, conservs stand on the Constitution to the point of wanting everyone to take oaths to support it, yet they detest the strict adherence of the Bill of Rights, they say such a thing only weakens our national security.

These are only a few of the things that I find contradictory within the conservative movement….I have written that there needs to be a liberal wing of the GOP (read more in my page, “Liberal Republican”) the party would then be more balanced.  But since the early 90’s the party was hijacked by the extreme Right and in doing so they are destroying the party slowly but surely.

The GOP has no political philosophy other than tax cuts, a throw back from Laffer and Reagan….saying NO is not a philosophy and throwing vague concepts around is NOT a plan.  There seems to be NO discipline  and with none there is NO leadership.  Without leadership there will be NO party.

What Are The Chances For a New Party?

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  American History/Political Science

The GOP is floundering on the rocks of political destruction…..they have no direction other than to be in opposition to the Dems….they have NO energy plan other than drill baby drill, or NO health plan other than savings accounts and tort reform, or their answer to the economic crisis is tax cuts, which have been discredited as a stimulus to a economy in dire straits.  The members in Congress are using misinformation and lies try and halt the health care debate and they have signed on to such idiocy as socialism, nazism, fascism citizenship etc, etc…….they are not governing with intelligence and resolve, instead they use slogans, buzzwords and outright lies to try and motivate the people……yes, it is working somewhat, but those that are signing on to the Repub BS would hate without any help from the GOP.

With that said is there an answer?  Yes, there is but it will take guts and resolve….sad to say I do not see much guts in the Congress anymore.

Let us step into the “way back machine” with a special thanx to infoplease.com

Liberal Republican party, in U.S. history, organization formed in 1872 by Republicans discontented at the political corruption and the policies of President Grant’s first administration. Other disaffected elements were drawn into the party. Among its leaders were Carl Schurz and B. Gratz Brown, both of Missouri, who had defeated the regular Republicans in the state election of 1870, Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner, and Lyman Trumbull. The party convention, held at Cincinnati in May, passed over Charles Francis Adams (1807–86), David Davis, and others to nominate Greeley for President; Brown was named for Vice President. In their convention at Baltimore, the Democrats also accepted these candidates. The party program called for civil service reform and an end to the strong Reconstruction program of the radical Republicans; so as not to offend the party’s divergent segments, it avoided adopting a position on the tariff question. Greeley’s nomination was not popular with many of the party leaders, who supported him without enthusiasm, and Grant was easily reelected.

In the past I have writing about what it would take to be “liberal” Republican.  And yes, I think there is enough disatisfication within the GOP for a splinter party to break out and redefine Republicans for the 21st century.

Why not give it a try?  It could do no harm….the GOP, as it is now,  is doing all the harm to itself…….it is crushing itself under the weight of its own fecal matter.

Damn! I Love This Woman!

I have been working on a piece about what it is to be a liberal republican and so far Meghan McCain is my pick to be the lead voice for the liberal republicans.  (see below)

Recently in an interview my favorite blond said when asked about the symbol of the “everymen”, Joe the Plumber:

“Joe the Plumber — you can quote me — is a dumbass. He should stick to plumbing.”

Damn!  I love this woman!

I had complained that liberal republicans do not have a media spokesperson…we have NO Hannerity or Inghram or yada yada and then I saw another quote from Miss McCain:

McCain also said she’d “be flattered to be considered the anti-Ann Coulter, the anti-Rush Limbaugh.”

Damn! I love this woman!

I was leaning towards Joe Scarborough as a possible voice for the liberal Republicans, but I think that Miss McCain would be a better leader….she has style, brains and will appeal to the young, something the GOP has not done in a very long time.

If anyone is interested in Miss McCain then she can be found at http://mccainblogette.com.

Drop by and offer your support for her;  she is the future of the GOP.