Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Lost Art of Ruling Out

John Birch Society founder, Robert Welch, once had the audacity to accuse President Dwight Eisenhower of having Communist ties.....How, pray tell, did his fellow conservatives (William F. Buckley, in particular)/the Republican party respond to this ridiculous/outrageous accusation? Yeah, that's right. They largely cut their ties to the fellow.............................................................................................Sprint forward to the present day. We have similar elements in the present-day right-wing saying virtually the same things about President Obama. Only this time the Republican party is largely staying silent (Lindsey Graham, to his credit, excepted) on it. Yes, Obama is a Democrat and all but, still, in my opinion, there needs to be a much more consistent voice on the right condemning this stuff. I mean, at least I (emphasis on I) think so.

12 comments:

Commander Zaius said...

Everything goes back to how the extremes are driving the course of political discussion. On the left I would have to say PETA is in many ways a counterpart to the Birchers.

Vigilante said...

What's Lindsay sayin'?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Graham criticized the birthers/Glenn Beck and referred to the President as a good man. For a guy from the opposing party, that ain't exactly bad......Double b, as a vegetarian and animal lover, I actually kind of agree with PETA on certain things. I agree, though, their tactics are sometimes counter-productive/moronic.

Oso said...

McCain did a similar thing on the campaign trail.

IrOnY RaGeD said...

I'm sure after FDR Ike looked like a right winger.

But look where he stopped Patton and he did nothing as the dominoes fell in eastern Europe...

Still, at least he wasn't the one who threw them under the bus at Yalta. (Or call Stalin a "friend")

How many millions of people have to die before liberals realize that the "workers paradise" doesn't work.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Volt, Ike alone (in 1945) couldn't have declared war on Russia. And I'm not really sure that the will of the people was there in 1945 for hundreds of thousands of more casualties.....I do agree with you on Communism, though. It's a brutal system that people need to remember - the world walked away from it for a good reason 20 years ago.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Oso, I remember that. He (McCain) said it at a town meeting (taking the microphone out of the lady's hand). He also gave a very gracious acceptance speech, I thought. Yes, the good McCain does show up from time to time.

IrOnY RaGeD said...

I remember reading a story not too long ago, it was about the great depression and how communism looked attractive to many Americans.

A sizable number emigrated to Russia.

Very few survived to return.

If I can find it again, I'll link it.

Oso said...

Voltron,

What would cause you to infer liberals support a Soviet "workers paradise" ? The only Soviet style paradigm at work here is a socialization of loss on Wall St, albeit within a market economy.

We selected the more productive economies for satellites via the Marshall Plan, leaving Eastern Europe to the Soviets. We threw them under the bus only insofar as we couldn't afford to rebuild their capital assets. The sole reason for the Marshall Plan was to enable Western Europe to earn dollars with which to purchase our goods, it was for our own benefit.

I'll make my own inference-you think there was an actual Soviet threat to our way of living, right? And now you think Islam is a threat?

IrOnY RaGeD said...

"I'll make my own inference-you think there was an actual Soviet threat to our way of living, right? And now you think Islam is a threat?"

Wow. Just wow...

And I'll make my inference - you don't.

In order to debate this we'd have to be living on the same planet.

Oso said...

Voltron,
No, in order to debate this you'd have to know a little about history and the political economy.
It's apparent you haven't ventured much farther than Fox News.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Oso, I have nothing personally against Islam (the Islamic poulation in America, for example, is overwhelmingly peaceful). I see it simply as a religion - not any more or less absurd as the others. There is, however, an element within Islam that apparently wants to spread Sharia law throughout the world. And, yes, it is this element that we definitely have to keep an eye on. Not constantly be at war with, mind you (you and I have similar opinions on the Iraq and Afghan wars, to be sure), but certainly be vigilant about.