MORE PROOF THAT THE GOP & THE DEMOCRATS ARE BACK TO THE 1930´s
Gary Ater
February 05, 2010
…Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) hosted the recent "Republican Retreat"
When President Obama´s visited the recent Republican Retreat in Baltimore, it was an historic event as it was the first ever televised. But I think it didn´t quite go the way the Republicans had planned. (FYI: These "Republican Retreats" are fully paid for by Washington Lobbyists.)
First, the Republicans have continued to claim that Obama only communicates well when he has a teleprompter with a canned speech. But the president proved them wrong, as he spent well over an hour responding in detail to pre-scripted Republican questions (that mostly sounded like GOP talking points). The president responded without any notes or a script. In many case he demonstrated that their question assumptions were totally untrue, and that they already knew that their assumptions were wrong.
I personally felt the president was somewhat soft on the group. That was because he did not even mention that with his recent announcement of the new Federal Budget, he failed to state at the Retreat that his single largest budget item was the interest payment on the federal debt from the Bush Administration´s past 8 years of spending.
What really came out of the Retreat event for me however was just how close, with the current economic situation, the Republican party has "de-volved" back to how the GOP had become approximately 80 years ago. The Republicans today have the same views of the Democratic party as they did back then. Back then, the GOP even called the opposition party similar abusive and incorrect names as they do today, such as Socialists, Communists, Fascists and Marxists. The earlier Republicans even had the same position for being America´s "economic royalists". And even then, they were strongly against having a large and successful American middle class.
In order to make my point, below are some excerpts from a couple of speeches by a very famous American Democrat of that time. I would like you to notice how similar the speakers comments back then were when referencing the Republican party. And please note the actual words that were used to describe how the speaker refers to the opposition party and the then attitude of a true Democratic progressive.
In these excerpts, I have only changed or omitted some names or dates to keep from giving away the actual date and the speaker´s obvious identity. But I´m sure that some history or political junkies will catch on to the identity of the speaker rather quickly. However, the reality is that most of what is stated below could easily be a modern Democrat giving the same speeches today.
Excerpts from a speech made years ago in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
"Out of this modern civilization economic royalists have carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capita, all undreamed of by the forefathers—the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service."
"Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became the privileged enterprise, not free enterprise."
"Liberty requires opportunity to make a living….a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.
For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor, other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness."
"The market collapse showed up the despotism for what it was. This election is the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.
The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the Government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the Government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live."
"Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.
These American economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike."
"But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them."
"The defeats and victories of these years have given to us as a people a new understanding of our Government and of ourselves. Never since the early days of the New England town meeting have the affairs of Government been so widely discussed and so clearly appreciated. It has been brought home to us that the only effective guide for the safety of this most worldly of worlds, the greatest guide of all, is moral principle.
We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a Nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization."
"We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dreaded fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.
In the place of the palace of privilege, we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity."
"Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales."
"Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
"I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world."
And here is another short excerpt from this same individual that had given another speech at New York´s, Madison Square Garden:
"We have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle.
For years now this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Many mocking years with the golden calf and long years of the scourge! Crazy years at the [stock] ticker and long years in the breadlines! Mad years of mirage and long years of despair! Powerful influences still strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent to its citizens.
We have had to struggle with the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mobs.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred."
I´m sure that many of you have correctly guessed that the aforementioned speeches were made by Franklin Delano Roosevelt just before he was to become the 32nd President of the United States.
As previously stated, the situation between our past two political parties is very similar to the current situation today. The statements from FDR have already been stated in many recent speeches of the last two years and they are still applicable today.
As was stated then, it is today:
"We have had to struggle with the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering."
"They [the GOP] had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mobs."
It´s interesting that what goes around, comes around…..time and again.
Copyright G.Ater 2010
Follow me on Twitter: gater01
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