The Republican Party has lurched so far to the right that Dwight Eisenhower would not be elected!
After being exposed as a Nazi enthusiast, Ohio GOP Congressional hopeful Rich Iott quickly became a national pariah, although the only member of his own party willing to publicly disown him was Eric Cantor, and he only did it when repeatedly pressed by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on national TV. Now it appears Cantor may have been the one out of line when he denounced “SS Soldier Iott”: the congressional wannabee has gotten thousands of dollars in campaign funds this year from none other than the top Republican himself, House Minority Leader John Boehner. “Freedom Project” -- John Boehner’s Poltical Action Committee has confirmed that they are, in fact, helping fund Iott in his effort to knock off Democratic Incumbent Marcy Kaptur and they have no plans whatsoever of trying to recoup the money now that Iott’s fascist hobby has been revealed. Day after day we are seeing just how wacky these 2010 Republican hopefuls are. “The Young Guns” are more like the “Loose Cannons.” The more striking fact is: with huge pushes from the billionaire-funded Tea Parties and Fox News, these guy are not on the fringe! As we see in this case with Boehner’s contributions, old-line mainstream Republicans are having to embrace these crazies - the Republican Party has lurched so far to the right that Dwight Eisenhower, Jerry Ford, and even Richard Nixon would find themselves ineligible for election.
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Sharron Angle grew up in Reno, and still lives there today -- you would think that her hometown would rally around her Senate candidacy, right?
Turns out, not so much. Yesterday the Reno-Gazette Journal, endorsed Senator Reid. Here's their headline and a snippet:
Replacing Sen. Reid with Angle would be a disaster for Nevada
"Angle has few accomplishments to claim for her eight years in the Nevada Legislature. And her much touted commitment to principle is questionable. The Republican candidate says that the federal government can't create jobs, but a federal-government-created job provided her family with a comfortable life, the same health insurance plan as the one available to members of Congress and a nice retirement."
After recently re-reading some of Eisenhower's speeches I thought it would be fun to take excerpts and print them out without citing the author. Some of my ultra-conservative coworkers, after reading them thought they were written by "some leftist kook"... That "leftist kook" was a five star General AND a two term Republican President! How far we've slidden... Even though I consider myself fairly conservative by 1960's standards, most people think that I'm a leftist. Far from it, but thanks to Fox News and such I sometimes wonder. Thanks to Thom for all the enlightening knowledge we recieve daily.
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Dirt Harry and the Draft. As we stand by in shock watching how far the country has drifted to the right, we can only wonder. What could have made a seemingly rational populous be turned so strongly from common sense thinking to being so easily swayed by no- factual reasoning? - Where the main advocates for this faith based reasoning will not even allow themselves to be questioned by anything close to an objective media. Where the followers of these advocates so militantly reject any criticism of their leaders or any attempts to make them show any accountability for their statements or stands on the issues.
Ironically, much of this phenomenon may be blow-back from ending the military draft. Although, like many liberals of that time, I too was opposed to the draft and felt that it was a major step forward for this country when it was ended in the 1970's. However, in retrospect, I've come to believe there were intangible factors that we could not have predicted that would support keeping the draft.
The draft may have been the single issue that united all Americans and kept them connected to the government. The one thing that directly affected the thinking of every American and held them accountable to each other. Whereas, other policies and government actions may seem arbitrary and obscure, the responsibility of causing your loved ones to be sent off to war is one thing that every American could easily relate to and therefore cause them to consider the true character of those that they elect to government office.
After the draft ended, the thinking seemed to be, let the party begin, ushering in the beginning of the "Me" generation and the age of excess consumerism. The Dirty Harry era of, "the ends, justify the means". No longer did loyalty to each other or the country have to be proven with sacrificing ones life. Now, all you had to do was buy a bumper sticker and let those from less fortunate circumstances take up the bulk of the military duty. The era where fantasies became preferred to the truth.