Who IS the man behind the curtain?
Posted on 06/22/2008 5:12:39 AM PDT by shrinkermd
For the first time since 1964, Democrats have a good chance not just to win the White House and a majority in Congress but to enact a sweeping new liberal agenda. Conservative ideas are widely discredited, as is the Republican Party that the right has controlled since Ronald Reagan was elected. The war in Iraq has undermined the conservative case for unilateral military intervention and U.S. omnipotence. Economic insecurity has led Americans to question the rhetoric about "big" government, while President Bush's embrace of new federal programs has undermined GOP promises to cut spending.
... Obama speaks of strengthening families by putting "the rungs back on that ladder to the middle class," giving "every family the chance that so many of our parents and grandparents had." He calls for a tax credit to offset the Social Security tax and expanding the earned-income tax credit and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Obama also favors two big programs that no Democrat before him could realize: a national health plan that would cut costs and cover every citizen; and a sizable tuition grant to college students who sign up for national service.
The long Democratic primary battle masks the fact that the party faithful agree on the basic outlines of a new social contract. It fits a post-industrial society that was barely visible when Lyndon B. Johnson was ramming a series of landmark measures through Congress
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Up through March 2008 only 39% of Obama's donors were the much touted small donors. The PACS were important in his rise to power. Goldman Sachs was the biggest, followed by the University of California. About 6 or 7 was Harvard.
Our institutions of higher learning have been politicized and now operate as fervent supporters of every liberal program--including radical environmentalism.
What a sorry prospect for country.
There’s a reason they call this rag, “The Washington COMpost.” ;)
Who IS the man behind the curtain?
Oh, dear God, they are stupid!
It's precisely the increase in govt. intrusion that exactly correlates the time line they present.
Over the last three decades govt. has grown and so has societal apathy and fear.
How can these two "professors" be so damn ignorant?
Based on what? Consdervative ideas haven't had a thing to do with how the country has been run for the past 7 years. Bush is no conservative: the borders are still open, the ATF is as abusive as ever, the largest entitlement expansion in history (senior prescription drub benefit), a new cabinet-level position (dept. homeland security), hardly any vetos (e.g. of the pork-laden farm and transportation bills) ... the list goes on and on.
Our best answer is:
“The Democrats have defaulted on every social contract they’ve introduced: Great Society, Social Security, etc.”
Except that, in a country gaga for nebulous “change” and “hope” nobody wants to hear truth. They want to hear sweet nothings.
And the conservative movement, even with our best answer, has no game.
The last thing we will hear from the Left as that people should use their ingenuity and human spirit to succeed on their own.
Ha! Ha! If it weren't so scary and sad, it'd be really funny.
Based on the polls. Maybe you missed it, but Hunter and Fred got zero cred in the race---from OUR side.
Americans today want to open a bag of chips turn on a comfy president who will tell them what they want to hear.
Ronald Reagan would lose in a landslide to Obama with America's new 'Katrina Generation.'
thanks to FR and only FR, I now know BO's grandmom was VP of a bank. There's a rung or two up the ladder few are going to have, like tenure at these prestigious Universities. Why not skip the namby-pamby socialism, and go straight for a Maoist cultural revolution, where a chicken farmer takes their aademic chairs, that they've already held too long to be fair, anyway?
I know it's rhetorical, but we conservative have to let people know these socialist CHOOSE to be ignorant because they can't face the reality that their world view is a failure! It's no different than the Global Warming crowd, the facts are totally opposite their view so they have to smear their opponents to gain support.
The question should be why do so many not care what are the true facts?
The middle class has indeed shrunk. So has the percentage in poverty.
How is that possible?
Simple. A much larger percentage of the population is now classified as wealthy.
You will note that they never claim that more people are dropping below middle class level, they only (accurately) claim that the middle class is shrinking.
Exactly. The authors spend several paragraphs extolling the virtues of The New Deal, The War on Poverty and other huge government programs, then they write this:
It's precisely the increase in govt. intrusion that exactly correlates the time line they present. Younger Americans no longer expect to enjoy as good a life as their parents did.
Don't the authors get the connection? No wonder younger Americans are pessimistic. The government is taking all their money for huge social programs. High taxes, coupled with high energy and food prices (thanks for the obstructionist Democrats) are bringing everybody down.
If you sense but are not sure why a Democrat-run economy would be a very bad thing, read ‘The Forgotten Man’ by Amity Shlaes. It explains how government intervention caused the ‘Great [for Democrat politicians!] Depression’ and prolongeded it for ten years.
Of course the number is low. Even though most Americans have been lied to and think we are heading toward a more conservative society the exact opposite is true.
Even their skulls full of mush realize, intrinsically that, a move toward socialism is hurting our society not helping.
We, on this forum, study this all the time. But, the average American has been brainwashed by the MSM and our marxist-based education system.
I suspect neither you nor I is in the “going in the right direction” group.
Yet the media portays all those who think we are headed in the wrong direction as in favor of moving towards socialism, not away from it.
Half of the Democrats may have bought into this type of claptrap, but the general population will never buy it. They never have and they never will.
There are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the United States, but over the last 40 years the American people have only voted for a Democrat president three times, and only once with a majority of the electorate voting for that Democrat.
So what make these fools think that the American people will vote for an outwardly liberal candidate with an obvious leftwing agenda?
I can't imagine what, but liberals who are now very heady and calling for nationalizing oil companies and health care institutions and other liberal agenda items, should take a very deep breath.
Since the United States emerged as a world power after the second world war, the American people (despite having the most liberal loving mainstream press), have preferred to hire chief executives who project strength and power in a dangerous world. Obama projects neither and he will never be elected.
A lot of young people may not remember Jimmy Carter, but lot of old people do and unlike young people, old people vote.
Exactly. And for this reason, the sane and benevolent people must band together to prevent them from doing either!
The Democrats MUST be defeated at the polls in November!
This must be the overriding concern of all of us!
The SWEEPING NEW LIBERAL AGENDA is beyond the imagination of most sane and benevolent people.
Remember the observation of Robert Conquest. It is a warning!
We need not be able to imagine them to know that we must stop them!
VOTE REPUBLICAN!
Here's the problem, people trade being smart, over being wise. Wisdom always cares about truth. If you don't follow the basic tennents of truth, as the inventors of the "Idea Of America" understood, you will enventually fail society.
What we are witnessing is a totally reversal of what is right and good and trading it for selfishness. Socialist have won the day because people are selfish and are being taught that matters more than what is good for society.
This is the whole problem with America right now, and it will get MUCH worse!
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