For Swing Voters!!!
Get on board with Barack
Get on board with Barack
Today on “The Chris Mathews Show” expert panelists dicussed republican tactics and compared them to McCarthyism. Do you thing they read my last post?
There are many reasons to fear a McCain/Palin administration, let alone Palin as potential President, but one frightening aspect that has recently surfaced is a return of McCarthyism. In case you don’t remember, or don’t know, Senator Joseph McCarthy led a “witch hunt” in the 1950s to weed out communists in America. Often people were guilty simply by association, that is just knowing an alleged communist and you could easily be accused of being a communist as well.
Now Senator John McCain and Governor Palin are using the same tactics against Barack Obama because of a casual association with Bill Ayers, a 1960′s radical. Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002, more than 30 years after Bill Ayers participated in radical activism against the Vietnam war. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama’s re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles.
Based on this association, Senator John McCain and Governor Palin are trying to paint Barack Obama as a terrorist sympathizer. Rather than focusing on dire issues like the economy, jobs, healthcare, and education they have made this a leading issue . But this begs a bigger question about a potential McCain/Palin administration. If they can tie Barack Obama to terrorism because of this association then they could easily accuse every student and faculty member at the University of Illinois, where Bill Ayers is a professor in the College of Education, of being a terrorist too. And what if you attend his class, does that make you a terrorist in training? What about the the Board of Directors at the Woods Fund of Chicago, are they also in league with terrorists because of their association with Bil Ayers? Where does it end? Just six degrees of separation and you can be next. And that is exactly the danger that McCarthyism posed and a McCain/Palin administration as well. Yes this does sound absurd but if they move into the White House who is to stop them from continuing down that path? One thing is clear, McCain/Palin does mean four more years of Bush.
Gen. Colin Powell (Secretary of State 2000-2005) makes a compelling and sobering endorsement of Barack Obama for President.
“Welcome to the Era of Huge Government.
After Hurricane Katrina washed away the illusion that government didn’t matter, David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal‘s brilliant economics writer, also made a declaration: “The era of small government is over. Sept. 11 challenged it. Katrina killed it.”
Almost.
The fatal nail in the heart of the era of small government came only with the recent financial panic and the piercing dagger of greed. Ideology and free-market theology lasted for about five days of full market crash before it collapsed in its own true motives.
“When the interests of the very-monied class were threatened, it was damn the torpedoes of Reaganism, full bailout ahead! The more regulation the better! And why not go for just a little bit of nationalization while you’re at it?” Read more
The current financial disaster is a perfect example of what happens when we wait for a crisis to hit before moving to act. Many Congressional and corporate financial leaders saw the dangers years ago. Some even attempted to head off the crisis with regulatory legislation, but their bills couldn’t even make it to the House or Senate floor. Now, the crisis is upon us and is Congress scrambling and spending trillions to keep the economy from falling off the cliff. The Calvary may have arrived in the nick of time, we shall see. Regardless, millions of people will be hurt by this financial crisis. But let’s keep in mind that this crisis was created by a partnership of Main Street and Wall Street. Millions of people choosing to live life on credit and banks giving it to them, although both know they will never be able to repay. The bailout really just keeps this system going–for a while.
Once we get through this Congress will need to shore up Social Security and Medicare or face a new financial crisis in the future. They will need to make tough decisions about how to keep the promise to millions of hard working Americans who paid into this system and count on it for their declining years. My fear is that this economic disaster was another conservative plan to bankrupt the Treasury, thereby creating a future argument for making drastic cuts in Medicare and Social Security
Other crises such as climate change and energy are on the horizon. The warning bells have been sounding for years. And they grow louder. Their consequences will be devastating and long lasting. Once they are upon us they may be irreversible.
Many of us remember gas lines and gasoline rationing, when OPEC cut imports in the 1970s. We all witnessed skyrocketing oil prices and inflationary consequences. Though they all have temporarily subsided, they will be an unavoidable part of our future unless we act now. But Congress sits on its hands with some singing, “Drill baby drill.” But the meager 1% increase in domestic production produced by this policy will do little for solve the growing energy crisis and nothing to free us from the grips of OPEC. Just as a side note I don’t understand how in one breath they talk about the need to break our addiction to oil and in the next breath say “Drill baby drill.”
Climate change is even more frightening. Unlike the economy and energy, climate change may reach a “tipping point” from where there is not return. The wait and see approach is unacceptable.
Those who opposed legislation to head off the current financial crises are the same people who sing “Drill, Baby, Drill” and oppose action to head off climate change. They are quick to create an imaginary economic burden that moving to renewable energy will create (for them). They forget the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Not to mention the millions of jobs created by a renewable energy industry.
This is why real and significant change in leadership is needed. And the choices we have are clear.