In a world where little seems the same as yesterday and tomorrow is always uncertain, there are some constants. Even in politics, some things don't change.
A few lines from a fiery speech given by the president to a room full of fellow Democrats at a fund-raising dinner demonstrate this rather well. In trying to energize the party faithful, he laid into Republicans. He pointed to a Republican policy statement that claimed "the major domestic issue today is liberty against socialism" and that "basic American principles are threatened by the Administration's program." He dismissed such talk as nothing more than scare tactics that insult the intelligence of the American people.
The president also said Republican support for a tax cut was "political hypocrisy" and that the last tax reduction bill they passed was responsible for much of the government's financial difficulties. He asserted Republicans had no program of their own and that they just waited for the Democrats to make a proposal and then opposed it. He added that the charge of socialism was the same old moth-eaten scarecrow they used to oppose every progressive step the nation had taken since 1933.
Finally, he compared Republicans to a cuttlefish "that squirts out a cloud of black ink whenever its slumber is disturbed." Cuttlefish? That would be tough talk for President Obama.
The president who made these statements? Harry Truman. In 1950.
Sixty years later, they still hold true. The opposition party has no program except opposition. Today, Republicans are as ready to sell out the common good in the name of the wealthy -- and corporate interests -- as they were when they opposed the New Deal. And to ensure any progressive program is dismantled, Republicans, and their sock puppets on Fox News, are still dragging out that moth-eaten scarecrow and labeling anything they oppose as socialism.
In the 1950 congressional elections, the Democrats held on to their majorities in both houses of congress. Truman considered it a debacle nonetheless and was so depressed he got drunk the night the returns came in. He was right. Enough southern Democrats were elected along with the Republicans to make it impossible for him to do much in his remaining two years in office.
Southern Democrats were key to defeating Truman's agenda because they opposed progressive government programs more than moderate Republicans. Back then Republicans still belonged to the party of Lincoln and racists in the south preferred to be Democrats. When Adlai Stevenson, a liberal Democrat, ran against Dwight Eisenhower, a war hero and moderate Republican, in 1952 and again four years later, Stevenson took nearly all the south and won no states outside it. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act a few years later, he turned to his aide, Bill Moyers, and said the Democrats had just lost the south for a generation. Strom Thurmond crossed the aisle and joined the Republican Party a few weeks later.
Johnson was optimistic. The Republicans have been successfully exploiting the race issue ever since. Nixon's southern strategy tapped into the anxiety of whites who felt threatened by affirmative action, women's liberation and equal rights, and Ronald Reagan chose Philadelphia as the place to launch his campaign for president. Philadelphia, Mississippi that is -- a town of a couple thousand, where sixteen years before, three civil rights workers had been murdered. His speech focused on states' rights, thinly veiled code words for white supremacy.
And so it is today. The Republicans are the party of choice for the fearful. At least in Truman's time, as the Cold War heated up, Communism was a real threat. What is the current threat of socialism? That it would make fear less effective? In a recent survey, Newsweek rated the best countries in the world to live. The United States did not even make the top ten, and most of those that did fell into the dreaded socialist category.
Socialism is not the only scarecrow Republicans currently have in their closet. They play on other fears like homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria. And, like Reagan's speech, these appeals have a heavy hint of racism.
Republicans know that hope can motivate voters only until the disappointment over a lack of instant gratification sets in. Fear, on the other hand, is a political gift that keeps on giving and never goes out of style. When their grip on the tactic seems to be slipping, they invent and manipulate front groups like the Tea Party to keep the fear alive.
And so, as countless pundits and pollsters predict a Republican landslide in the coming election, the only real question is how far off Truman's observation proves to be. Will the intelligence of the American voter be insulted -- or, once again, greatly overestimated?
Bob Cesca: Despite America's Temper Tantrum, It's Still a Center-Left Nation
We believe that keeping "government-knows-best" programs away from the people, ensures the common good.
Yes, we Republicans are obstructionists. If we were smarter, that phrase would be our campaign tagline, because that's exactly what is needed to avoid bankruptcy in this country as well as improving the common good.
We are all about cutting spending. That really means cutting government, across the board. That's a hell of a program, Denis, and that is far more difficult than passing a bill and adding yet another generation of Americans income to the deficit.
We are about respecting life. That means respecting people. That means trusting people to do the right things. That's where we as a nation excel, and we intend to restore that.
To the opposing party, government has become something that only the academics can run and understand. Republicans find this idea is silly as well as smelling of elitism.
Here's a quote from Albert Einstein:
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
It is a difficult concept, but one that forms the foundation of conservatives. With respect to your question: "Will the intelligence of the American voter be insulted -- or, once again, greatly underestimated?" I think the latter effect will resound.
PS -I took the liberty of assuming that you intended the word "underestimated", no t "overestimated".
Getting mad at Republicans for distortion, hyperbole and lies is like getting mad at a bird for crapping on your windshield; it’s just what they do. You might as well shake your fist at the wind. But the Democrats are another story.
While the Republicans were sharing their “Pledge to [Rape] America,” Harry, the Cowering Wimp, Reid was announcing that there would be no vote on extending the Bush tax cuts to the middle class until after the election. Yep, the Democrats are once again rallying behind their track-proven strategy of tuck-and-cover. They’re rolling up in the fetal position and hoping for the best. Bravo!
In case you didn’t sense it, my anger is squarely directed at the cowardly Democrats who continue to allow the Republican bullies to rule the congressional schoolyard. I’m forced to believe that they never learned that the way you beat bullies is to stand up to them.
how else would QVC be able to sell crap people don't need?
Voter caging is a method of challenging the registration status of voters to potentially prevent them from voting in an election. It refers to the practice of sending direct mail to addressees on the voter rolls, compiling a list of addressees from which the mail is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters’ registrations on the grounds that the voters do not legally reside at registered addresses. This typically results in the voters' having their votes discarded or submitted through the use of provisional ballots requiring further registration confirmation.
http://coloradopols.com/diary/13822/americans-for-prosperity-gop-implicated-in-wisconsin-votecaging-plot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caging_(voter_suppression)
http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/swv2010/swvhome.html
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6403
Check your state to see if you're active on their voter roll, if not, register to vote:
http://www.rockthevote.com/election-center/
http://www.register-vote.com/
Provisional ballots - If you name is not found on the voter roll when you go to vote ask for a Provisional Ballot.
http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home§ion=2004&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=283
Worried about freedom and liberty, democracy and America? Republicans will lie, steal and cheat - they don't want you to vote America - Just like Florida, if they can discredit votes - they feel it works in their favor. Only the Republicans could ever make us question our Voting system after the Republican USSC anointed Bush in 2000 and Diebold was taking money from the GOP for non-paper-trail voting machines (easily hacked). They can control our bank statements with paper, but the GOP didn't want a trail obviously - fairness has a liberal bias - just like truth.
There should be a wholesale firing of staff and advisors ... the Rahm Emanuels the Larry Summers and the like.
Reid seems to think that offering up sacrificial lambs will entice Democrats to hate Republicans more. He just reminds us of how they wasted the largest Congressional majorities in nearly 40 years.
If Republicans win the Senate, the first thing they will do is end the filibuster, and Democrats can cry into their beer about all the legislation they gave up because of a rule change they were too timid to make, but that Republicans will not hesitate to do. Bush transformed the political landscape out of sheer chutzpah. His ideas were awful, but bad ideas that are implemented are far more powerful that good ideas that never are.
They are the party of Big Business and the plutocrats and have been for 140 years.