Was Dwight D. Eisenhower a liberal

Blue Works Better ^ | By MannyGoldstein at Sun

[RightWhale]

Eisenhower was nearly the Dem nominee in 1952 but finally decided to go for the Republican nomination. Even so, it took several ballots to secure the nomination.

[Eagle Eye]

How many successful combat missions did he fly?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Ike did not like MacArthur

The feeling was mutual: "The best clerk I've ever had" -- MacArthur, speaking about Ike.

[hinckley buzzard]

Ike was not very easily categorized by the usual right-left dichotomy, despite the best efforts of these leftwing jerk-offs. At the time he was excoriated by liberals as "a do-nothing president" who just played golf while the world burned. It later became clear that he had a strong grip on the government and, like Reagan, made it look so easy people thought he was asleep at the switch. They were wrong.

His domestic policies were not geared toward the kind of idiot litmus tests used by the writer here. He did what the world needed at a very dangerous time--managed the early unstable rounds of the Cold War when the risk of going to war with the USSR was far more than theoretical. As for the Interstate and integration, no one could say then that these were "liberal" policies, any more than they are today: providing basic infrastructure and equal protection under the law are both responsibilities of the government under the Constitution. The "Military-Industrial Complex" comment, a favorite fetish of adolescent 60's leftwingers, has always been taken way out of context, as it was a passing observation from the man who won the War thanks to "The Arsenal for Democracy."

Ike did the right thing as God gave him to see the right. He was no ideologue one way or the other.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The prudent and level-headed Paul

You have a sly sense of humour.

[hinckley buzzard]

In Ike's day, capital gains were not treated differently from earned income, so the rich paid 91% tax on capital gains. From 91% to 15% - another reason why it's good to be rich!

What this diseased bitch doesn't tell you is that there were so many deductions and shelters in the labyrinthine tax codes of the fifties that no one came anywhere near paying the tax rates they pay today. The average federal tax bill in the 50's was about 3-5% compared to maybe 17% today. This is good example of liberal lying by selecting the facts. All one has to do is to consider that in the 50's a family could be supported well by one wage earner, which is what most families had--back then.

[Richard Kimball]

All true. The fact that Kennedy even had to campaign in Texas when he had a Texan on the ticket and there was functionally no Republican party in the state speaks to his weakness in the south.

Part of Johnson's 64 victory was, I think, sympathy votes because of the assassination, but Goldwater also came across as a crank, making jokes about lobbing missiles into the bathroom at the Kremlin, etc.

Kennedy was still convinced he would defeat Goldwater handily, but would lose to Rockefeller. Part of Goldwater's problem was that he alienated the moderates, and I think this has been a continuing problem in the Republican party. There aren't enough conservatives OR moderates to swing a national election without the other. Yet conservatives keep trying to purge moderates and moderates keep trying to purge conservatives.

I'd also point out that even the term "conservative" is up for grabs, now. Pat Buchanan and Ronald Reagan are both considered conservative, but their positions on free trade, immigration, and national defense are so far apart as to be irreconcilable.

[Captain Kirk]

Thanks but I meant it seriously. Unlike McCain, but like Ike, Paul is not a social engineer or a Wilsonian in foreign policy. Paul also follows in the tradition of Ike in his belief in the need for diplomacy (unlike McCain). If that doesn’t qualify as a prudent and level-headed approach, what does?

[puroresu]

the culture was vastly different

And that's the primary difference between then and now. Our culture has collapsed radically to the left. In Ike's era, illegitimacy was in single digits. Abortion was illegal. Homosexuals weren't prancing down the street in g-strings or demanding the right to indoctrinate children. Schools taught kids to read & write. They taught math & science. History was about the greatness of our nation, not its sins. Everything wasn't dumbed down and reduced to its lowest common denominator. There was no feminism, multiculturalism, or open borders. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Our cultural collapse is not only bad in its own right, but it renders fiscal conservatism impossible, and threatens our ability to defend our nation. Look at what America was like in terms of culture, family life, demographics, and so forth in 1958 vs. today. If the cultural trendline to the left continues, what will America be like in 2058? Will Christianity be outlawed as a cult? Will we have forced abortions? Will children be taken from their parents at birth and raised communally? Will human-animal marriage be legal? It sounds far-fetched, but no more so than abortion-on-demand, same-sex "marriage", schools distributing condoms, or sanctuary cities would have in 1958.

[DMZFrank]

The only two places in the US where socialism works is in the military and the family. they work there because in both places, the subordinate members of those organizations yeild a significant portion of their liberty and rights in order for them to work. (Children must obey to their parent’s directives, can not leave the home except under very narrowly defined circumstances, soldiers lose the rights of free speech, freedom to withdraw their labor, protection against hazards to their safety, obedience to almost all orders, to decide where you will live, all your basic needs taken care of)

It is not suprising that many military men have some socialist leanings given that they see how well it works in the armed services. They just ignore the part about how you have to give certain inalienable rights to make it work.

[Biblebelter]

Who cares if Eisenhower was liberal? He had a campaign slogan that people bought into, I LIKE IKE. The best McCain can come up with is a bullyism, LIKE ME or ELSE.

[ohioman]

That was Willy.