Saturday, August 05, 2006
Philosophy versus Ideology
Thanks to John Dean’s latest book, Conservatives without Conscious I am beginning to understand what is pulling this country apart. Dean was former White House counsel to President Nixon.
In the early ‘50’s Barry Goldwater helped define the Republican Party. He was seen as a radical reactionary saying “We must assure a society which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunity for the creative and the productive”, and “this is a party, this Republican Party, a Party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists”.
He philosophy energized the conservative grass roots movement which helped nominate Ronald Reagan. He ended up criticizing the influence of the Christian Right. We seem to have lost track of Goldwater’s party and Dean says that Goldwater would now be seen as center left.
It feels like we are being asked to focus on only divisive issues in black and white, like the war, abortion, birth control, stem cell research, Terri Schiavo and gays, when there are so many issues we as a nation are likely to agree on.
How about following the true teachings of Jesus to help our fellow man by, as an example, raising the minimum wage across the country from $5.15 an hour, (it’s over $7.50 in WA) instead of only supporting the top 7500 families in this country by cutting the Estate/Death Tax.
Let’s discuss Health Care for all, as seen in every other industrialized nation, and what about cheaper Medications?
How about substantial federal support of Renewable Energy instead of even more incentives for dirty technologies?
Should we have federal money spent on Port Security, on well outfitted Military and well looked after Vets?
Shouldn’t small business rebuild New Orleans rather than Halliburton & friends? We could have had Iraq rebuild itself. Let’s not allow war profiteering.
Let’s have non-partisan Government accountability, honest lobbying and less corporate money in our elections which would mean our congress people could spend more than 80 days working on the people’s business and less days scouring the country for contributions.
Let’s give real incentives to small family farms and not to hugely profitable farm conglomerates. Having privatized everything and let monopolies reign, we watch prices get higher with no competition. Let’s have more real free market capitalism with less corporate monopolies.
How about a non-partisan well funded FEMA, EPA, FDA, funding of PBS & NPR, federal help for more rounded and interesting education for our children, not promising funds and then leaving states to foot the bill.
Let’s not give tax breaks to already hugely profitable corporations when we all pay our full share. Let’s have some oversight on the $8.4 trillion deficit and let’s have an economy that really works for all hard working families not just the wealthiest amongst us.
How about Freedom from being spied on by our government, and most importantly, a free press rather than biased corporate owned press & media?
This Republican congress has been in power for 12 years and the administration for 6 years. They have moved from Barry Goldwater’s philosophy of “It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people” to an Ideology that this country should be governed by a small group of wealthy people and corporations so that the decision making of this county is concentrated in wealth and power, not in We The People.
In the early ‘50’s Barry Goldwater helped define the Republican Party. He was seen as a radical reactionary saying “We must assure a society which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunity for the creative and the productive”, and “this is a party, this Republican Party, a Party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists”.
He philosophy energized the conservative grass roots movement which helped nominate Ronald Reagan. He ended up criticizing the influence of the Christian Right. We seem to have lost track of Goldwater’s party and Dean says that Goldwater would now be seen as center left.
It feels like we are being asked to focus on only divisive issues in black and white, like the war, abortion, birth control, stem cell research, Terri Schiavo and gays, when there are so many issues we as a nation are likely to agree on.
How about following the true teachings of Jesus to help our fellow man by, as an example, raising the minimum wage across the country from $5.15 an hour, (it’s over $7.50 in WA) instead of only supporting the top 7500 families in this country by cutting the Estate/Death Tax.
Let’s discuss Health Care for all, as seen in every other industrialized nation, and what about cheaper Medications?
How about substantial federal support of Renewable Energy instead of even more incentives for dirty technologies?
Should we have federal money spent on Port Security, on well outfitted Military and well looked after Vets?
Shouldn’t small business rebuild New Orleans rather than Halliburton & friends? We could have had Iraq rebuild itself. Let’s not allow war profiteering.
Let’s have non-partisan Government accountability, honest lobbying and less corporate money in our elections which would mean our congress people could spend more than 80 days working on the people’s business and less days scouring the country for contributions.
Let’s give real incentives to small family farms and not to hugely profitable farm conglomerates. Having privatized everything and let monopolies reign, we watch prices get higher with no competition. Let’s have more real free market capitalism with less corporate monopolies.
How about a non-partisan well funded FEMA, EPA, FDA, funding of PBS & NPR, federal help for more rounded and interesting education for our children, not promising funds and then leaving states to foot the bill.
Let’s not give tax breaks to already hugely profitable corporations when we all pay our full share. Let’s have some oversight on the $8.4 trillion deficit and let’s have an economy that really works for all hard working families not just the wealthiest amongst us.
How about Freedom from being spied on by our government, and most importantly, a free press rather than biased corporate owned press & media?
This Republican congress has been in power for 12 years and the administration for 6 years. They have moved from Barry Goldwater’s philosophy of “It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people” to an Ideology that this country should be governed by a small group of wealthy people and corporations so that the decision making of this county is concentrated in wealth and power, not in We The People.
# posted by Florence Vincent @ 9:41 PM 
