Tag: Republican Party

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The Republican Party… as it formerly was

Heather Cox Richardson is an historian and a professor at Boston College.  She also puts out a news letter (more or less daily) that generally relates current events to historical trends – among other things. I will confess to not reading everyone of her newsletters, but I read many.

Today’s topic was the Republican Party.  It has not always been the Tea Party infused lackey of corporations and the excessively wealthy, for much of its history it cared about the common individuals and sought to use government to do social good.  Her April 6, 2021 newsletter starts out:

“I spent much of today thinking about the Republican Party. Its roots lie in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in spring 1854, when it became clear that elite southern slaveholders had taken control of the federal government and were using their power to spread their system of human enslavement across the continent.

At first, members of the new party knew only what they stood against: an economic system that concentrated wealth upward and made it impossible for ordinary men to prosper. But in 1859, their new spokesman, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, articulated a new vision of government…”

The whole article can be read here:  Letters from America – April 6, 2021 It is well worth the time it takes to read it. If you like that sort of thing, it is a good newsletter to subscribe to.

Keep well.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,901

yeah I know you did not ask!

It occurred to me that the Republican Party and Trump’s Cabinet are very similar to a group of friends partying at a bar.  One of their number is so drunk he can barely walk.  He decides to leave, stumbling to the door with his car keys in hand, and no one bothers to stop him.  No one offers to give him a ride home. No one offers to call him a taxi.  No one takes his keys away.

That head on collision was bound to happen since the people who could have taken action, did not.

Keep well.

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Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers

A famous Carl Sagan quote definitely applies to Paul Krugman’s editorial in today’s New York Times.Pioneer10-plaque_tilt

“In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”

Mr. Krugman’s editorial, Points of No Return, describes how if you are not a climate change denier it will get you excommunicated from the Republican Party.

From the editorial:

“Think of it this way: Once upon a time it was possible to take climate change seriously while remaining a Republican in good standing. Today, listening to climate scientists gets you excommunicated — Continue reading “Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers”

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Winner-Take-All Politics

Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker & Pierson available at Amazon.com

The book is subtitled: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

This book needs another review like a hole in the head.  Typing the full title into Google resulted in close to 30,000 hits.  But hey, why not!

First and foremost, while I found the book deeply troubling and depressing, it is an important book to read if you want to really understand what is happening in Washington currently.   This book really did not tell me anything that I did not intuitively already know from decades of watching the American political scene.  It did reaffirm and document my intuition. Continue reading “Winner-Take-All Politics”