Topic: Political Parties
Why the GOP Has Become More Like the Democratic Party History says it was inevitable.by Jahfre Fire Eater
(Libertarian)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Democratic Party has been responsible for initiating all of the major wars this nation has fought in the last century and a half. A war by any other name is still a war, I'm not necessarily speaking only of the distant past when the Congress took responsibility for their choice to deploy our nation's defenses by issuing a declaration of war. Where did the false impression come from that the Democratic Party is the party of peace?
1. WWI - Woodrow Wilson, 2nd term Democratic party, was the first president to use "make the world safe for democracy" as a reason to attack a country that had not previously been considered to be a threat to the US in any way. (Theodore Roosevelt was a strong proponent of going into this war even though he didn't...he left it to the Democrats)
2. WWII - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 2nd term, Democratic party. Likely extended the great depression to double the length it could have been if his oppressive social programs that crippled the economy had not been instituted. Again, a democrat volunteered other people's children to die on foreign soil to "make the world safe for democracy", even though most of the countries involved at the time, were NOT democracies at all. Harry S. Truman ended WWII with nuclear weapons, another "first" for democracy.
3. The Korean War (police action) - Harry S. Truman, 2nd term, Democratic party. Truman truly flexed his might as a fledgling emperor when he sent troops to Korea without the consent, or even the knowledge of Congress. Naming this war a "police action" was a convenient way to circumvent the checks and balances in the US Constitution. Where ever there is communism, there is not democracy, so...Yep, to make the world safe for democracy, the US had to "contain" communism. Republican Dwight Eisenhower ended the Korean war but even "Ike" had come to believe that if people on the other side of the world embraced communism it was not safe for democracy.
4. The Cold War - Harry S. Truman, 2nd term, Democratic party. The cold war was "started" with the Truman Doctrine, designed to "contain communism". The Cold War ended when the USSR crumbled. Republicans like to credit Ronald Reagan with this but economics seems to indicate that the USSR would have crumbled no matter what the USA did. In fact, Reagan's cowboy attitude probably rallied the communists to hang on even a bit longer than they would have if left alone.
5. Vietnam - Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, 1st term Democratic party. (He assumed the presidency after JFK's assassination, otherwise, JFK would be the Democratic Party leader who got the credit for this, America's longest war.) This guy kept the war in Vietnam going even though after the 1st year his advisors told him they could never achieve their objectives. Richard M. Nixon, Republican, ended the Vietnam war.
6. Desert Storm - George H. W. Bush, 1st term Republican party. Very clear objectives, very precise execution and clean ending after the objectives were met. President Bush committed troops to foreign engagements 14 times, his predecessor, Reagan, 12 times
7. William Clinton never actually took the US to war but he committed our troops to foreign conflicts a record 51 times! Many of these conflicts still involve US troops today. America is apparently now in war continuously in multiple conflicts around the world.
8. George W. Bush - Following in the tradition of all great Democratic Party warmongers before him, Emperor Bush no longer needs to declare war on nations or people, he has declared war on a tactic, terrorism Yes, Bush is certainly a Democrat but with his "Republican Party" affiliation, democrats just can't seem to get behind this presidents quest to make the world safe for democracy. The only difference I can see is the party hat he wears. So, I guess only Democratic Party presidents can use the "make the world safe for democracy" slogan. Funny stuff.
Now that the US is an Empire involved in constant war to make the world safe for democracy, the political party of the Emperor is quite irrelevant.
The reason this view of history is seldom surfaced in polite company is because it clearly depicts how Democrats have relied on fear and power grabs to grow the power and reach of government...which looks remarkably similar to how the Republicans have been conducting themselves since the neocon faction joined the party. Growing government is the basis of the liberal democrat mind-set. Government good, individuals bad (and expendable). Since long before the Republican Party even existed, Democrats have been using the tactic of fear to pit citizen against citizen and citizens against foreigners. They use a ridiculous, utopian view of economics to "prove" that the foreigners, or conservatives are the "bad guys" and American's eat it up. This is why the notion of Austrian Economics is less common than the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools. Treating economics as some kind of black magic, reserved for the economic druids in academic robes at all the great centers of higher learning has been the normal approach to keeping the masses ignorant and fearful. I'm not talking about just our US public schools today but in every society throughout history, the fundamentals of economics have been used as a political tool by systemically thwarting its easy access and understanding. Today technology is used to make nearly everything imaginable easy to access and explained so a public school graduate can almost understand it...except economics. That we eagerly accept any excuse to believe economics is mysterious and difficult to grasp when economics is the most basic, innate human activity that underlies nearly every decision...and consequence, we experience in our lives is something I find fascinating about humans.
Since Ronald Reagan's conservative fiscal focus was co-opted by former democrats, liberals, who convinced poor Reagan that supply-side economics was powerful new trick made possible by technology and advanced work in economics and markets, liberals have been running the GOP. They have adopted the long-standing democrat party tactic of instilling fear and intolerance in the voting public. Conservatism and intolerance are incompatible as far as I'm concerned. Foreign policy based on fears fueled by intolerance are the result. The first two George Bushes were the first Republicans to execute on this newly adopted liberal tactic. History says their embracing of the liberal approach to growing government was inevitable.
Of course, now we know that Reaganomics was just another destructive implementation of the Socialist/Keynesian view of macroeconomics. Borrow and Spend turns out to be a far more harmful to our future than the Democrat's preference to Tax and Spend. At least the recessions caused by Tax and Spend programs provide some measure of feedback about how destructive they are. The Borrow and Spend version pushes the corrections over the horizon for 2, maybe 3 generations, and result in tremendous growth for the "first in"...like any bubble. So those who started the ball rolling will be long dead before the eventual usage of troops to prevent illegal crossing of the Mexican border by US citizens in search of hard labor and no social welfare system.
If we follow the long-established pattern of Empires in collapse, which so far we are doing at every step of the way, people seeking to flee the empire will be seen as traitors. Their wealth, their labor and their children will be required to meet our obligations. The liberals in the recent past have chained the future of Americans to an obligation that the government cannot afford to let go of, ever.
It turns out that "supply-side" or "trickle-down" economics was complete hog wash because we are facing the consequences, now, and for the rest of our lives. There is no escaping it or explaining it away now. There is only surviving it...and the desperate attempts of the central banks to monetize the problem into oblivion on the backs of dollar holders around the world.
This is why I don't get into debates over things like what caused the collapse of the Roman Empire. It doesn't matter one bit what I think, or what authors who write about the topic think was "the" main cause. All of those details are irrelevant to me. I look at the bigger picture. I relate economics, politics and society, including technology, to the history that is readily available. We are tracking the exact same steps as every great empire before us from the British all the way back to the earliest known empires. It doesn't matter how I feel about it or what I think "the" main cause might be. It just is.
Personally, I stand firmly with the Austrians and place the blame on inflation made necessary to support war. However, I also know that whether I'm right or wrong about Austrian Economics, it doesn't change the fact that we're on a path that mankind has trod many times before, always to great hardship and no Empire, once having started on this path has ever recovered even a fraction of its former glory...and all the citizens, the rich and poor alike had no idea what was happening or why things were so hard when they had been so good ... the same thing is happening right now today in the USA. It took Rome 800 years to collapse because of the state of communication, transportation and education. Our technology and relative educational levels can only serve to accelerate the collapse for our turn at the wheel.
My long-term motivation for being involved politically is to promote an agenda aimed at not forgetting (remembering) the lessons that are being offered to us today. When whatever corrections we face are over, I want to see us emerge with a sound currency and a focus on Austrian economic principles and individual liberty.
Man's advantage over the other critters is largely due to being self-aware and our ability to communicate across generations. This gave humans the ability to mature as a species rather than each generation maturing in isolation from others. Many animals have this ability to some extent but Man's vision extended the farthest of any...that we know of. Until Man created government. Governments exist for many human generations sometimes even thousands of human lifetimes. The reason inflation kills them is that the present generation can only support so much government no matter what plans and obligations the government may have previously made. Every government eventually eats its citizens, their children and their future children too through inflation. I think humans can learn to do better but not by ignoring the fact that we keep repeating the same mistakes at the insistence of the government, eventually the forceful insistence.
This is all there, written by historians throughout the ages. Anyone who can read can find this out with a few minutes effort...very few seem to bother. That is something else about the human race that I find absolutely fascinating...but that's a whole different topic. So far, the human pattern is to continue to repeat the same things on ever increasing scale and with ever increasing technologies. This one is the first to encompass nearly the entire world. It should be spectacular in its ability to destroy civilizations if the results follow the same pattern as the lead-in.
I'm not a pessimist, I figure fore-warned = fore-armed. Knowing how things have unfolded in the past gives me a reasonable idea of what is likely to be ahead. I consider everything else to be wishful thinking at best and malicious manipulation for power at worst...and everything in between.
Borrowing a notion from Bill Bonner, I see that people believe what they need to believe when they need to believe it but reality exists no matter what anyone believes about it. Consequences are part of reality no matter what tricks and techniques are used to divert attention from the connection between behavior and consequences...so I pay very close attention to what reality has been when civilizations have gone this way before us and don't care much what the people at that time, or this time, thought about anything.
I don't have any illusions about seeing things change as a result of my activities. Tangible results do not motivate my politics; that would be impractical. My objective is to ensure the lessons aren't lost...again. However, finding a way to do that is daunting and I don't have a good plan...or more than a few decades left to do it. I focus my energy on figuring out how to accomplish this primarily by trying not to do anything to undermine my objectives in the future...I pay attention to consequences.
The government isn't really the problem in the long run. Governments come and go. I think we could put that genie back in the bottle. The real problem is that one other man made entity has an even longer vision and more global presence than any government, that being religion. So far there is no match for the stagnating and divisive influence religions, and even less formal dogmas, have had on the human race.
Democrats want to grow government for many reasons but a lot of them see government as the only possible defense against religion, especially religions that are different from their own. There are also many Republicans who want to grow government to defend against an opposing religious faith. Between these two approaches to government the only difference I see is which ends they use to justify their dastardly means. Both factions are fighting a religious war that is far older than our nation. Both factions view the present population and future populations as expendable resources that they can leverage to meet their immediate goals in their particular religious war. This is the way it has always worked in the past; since our future has already been sold it looks like that's the way it will happen this time too. I'm just one of the few who are not at all surprised by what is happening in the financial markets nor will I be surprised by what happens next. I don't claim to know the precise order or the timing of any particular event but they follow a pretty predictable pattern aside from the timing.
Since our Empire is crumbling -- right on schedule ;-) -- my attention is recently more focused on what culture will embody the empire that replaces the USA? How much competition will our successor have and what damage to the USA will be incurred during the transition? I have my opinions on these things but I'm going to wait until I'm older before I try to defend them.
I know people of relatively infinite means are acting on their assessment of the situation. They are getting out while the getting is good...and not yet lethal. This isn't new, this trend has been going on since the end of WWII. Its just accelerating rapidly recently. But what about those who come to realize they are not living in the best place for their survival and do not have the means to relocate? Can the political and economic storm be weathered by staying here and working hard? I certainly hope so...just as I hope it cannot be weathered by staying here and NOT working hard.
Jahfre Fire Eater
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2008 Jahfre Fire Eater, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2008
Last modified: Sunday, July 20, 2008
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Posted By: Jake, the champion of the constitution
Date: 2008-07-20 18:47:17
Jahfre Fire Eater - thanks for the interesting read. look forward to your thoughts on the future. thought i would share this link - idea therein is that Russia will rise and be the 'midwife' for Asia.
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2008 Jahfre Fire Eater, all rights reserved.