I WAS A DEMOCRAT.. HOW AND WHY I CHANGED.. I was born a tweener, born in the sleeve between the Great Depression, just before WWII, and too early and poor, to be a comfortable post war Boomer.. My folks, as most in my surroundings, were FDR Democrats, meaning that before the bloom was wearing off the rose of the true, nonrecovery of the FDR New Deal, socialist programs, was internalized, the War started.. That is a fact, as many things are, that is missing from the accepted history of our mid century life.. My experiences are just that, living the truth, not the scrubbed, refurbished, sanitized rewritten published accounts that became the learned truths.. What FDR did was plant the seeds of the slippery sloop of the liberal utopia, a real central controlled government.. He and his administration, with the aid of the major news organs of what became the Mainstream Media, allowed the cause of the Stock Market Crash, and the start of the Great Depression on the successive Capitalistic, Republican Administrations.. Not entirely unwarranted, but a much bigger story that we will save for another day.. The single most important dynamic that ended the pain of the depression was WWII.. What did FDR do, if truth be known, is not all bad or wrong, he grew the Federal Government, first and foremost, he put the nation back to work.. Many of the early programs were well meaning, and accepted.. The Federal Government became a permanent answer to a temporary problem.. The emphasis during the first two years of President Franklin Roosevelts New Deal was to provide work relief for the millions of unemployed Americans. Federal money flowed to the states to pay for public works projects, which employed the jobless.. Some federal aid also directly assisted needy victims of the Depression.. It wasnt just the job, it was the dignity of earning a wage, and supporting your own family, without the indignity of a public hand out.. The age old, can-do, American Spirit.. The states, however, remained mainly responsible for taking care of the so-called unemployables (widows, poor children, the elderly poor, and the disabled). But states and private charities, too, were unable to keep up the support of these people at a time when tax collections and personal giving were declining steeply.. In his State of the Union Address before Congress on January 4, 1935, President Roosevelt declared, the time has come for action by the national government to provide security against the major hazards and vicissitudes [uncertainties] of life. He went on to propose the creation of federal unemployment and old-age insurance programs. He also called for guaranteed benefits for poor single mothers and their children along with other dependent persons.. By permanently expanding federal responsibility for the security of all Americans, Roosevelt believed that the necessity for government make-work employment and other forms of Depression relief would disappear.. In his address before Congress, Roosevelt argued that the continuation of government relief programs was a bad thing for the country: “The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. . . . “ A few months later, on August 18, 1935, Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act.. It set up a federal retirement program for persons over 65, which was financed by a payroll tax paid jointly by employers and their workers.. He outright lied, or didnt tell the whole truth that was obvious, or obvious to those that were pointing it out, that the Government couldnt administer a program for everyone that was fair to all segments of such a large and diverse society.. (Sound familiar?) Was it wrong? Hindsight might change minds, but in the time, with poverty, REAL POVERTY, it was an extension of the true American spirit, there are times when you need to be your brothers keeper, if only with a helping hand.. Early thinkers saw the problem, and sounded the alarm, but the emotions took control of the argument, and it gave birth to the next assault on our Nation.. The LBJ, Great Society, and the seeds of a downfall of the future of this great Nation, and a disastrous outcome, for many segments of our society.. The 60s, and the upheaval and the growing influence, aided by the dominant media, of the Baby Boomers, was my wake-up call.. Assassinations, Marches, Burning Cities, Burning Bras, total lawlessness at the hands of long-haired, freaky looking, unbathed, dope-smoking punks.. Hippie’s, Beatniks, Counterculture, or whatever they identified with, I had no connection with, or sympathy for, their message.. Well, maybe with the exception of the free-love thingy, but I digress.. The birth of the free-for-all, at all cost, Feel Good Generation, was too much for me, and the greater majority of the older generation.. Many Democrats included, were doing more than questioning our political faith, including the Mayor of Chicago, Richard J Daley.. He turned his cops on the out-of-control mob at the 1968, Democrat National Convention.. The anti-war movement was, to us, an anti American movement, and history has proven us right.. Stopping the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, seemed like a good cause to we who watched, or heeded the history of the spread of Nazism in its early stages were on board, and two prominent Democrat Presidents assured us was a necessity.. But it wasnt until Jimmy Carter, and the birth of the take over of many local programs, into Federal control, and the insertion of the Organized Labor Movement in the public sector jobs, (A leadership riddled with proven crooks and Hoodlums) and its virus like tendencies that I severed all ties with what was a shell of the mid century Democrats.. Governor Ronald Reagan, was another convert, and proof to me that I wasnt wrong, that what I believed was closer to a Republican, than what had become of the old Democrat Party.. Do I believe in everything in the current Republican Platform of issues, Hell No, but I can accept the greater majority of the social positions, and all of the fiscal ones.. Isnt it strange, that in order for a Democrat can be elected in most of this country, he or she must lie about who, and what they believe, or can voice any position that they will be voting for once they are governing.. It isnt Democrat or Republican, its RIGHT OR WRONG.. Who agrees with everything in another person or organization, no one, certainly no one I know, especially my ex wives, but thats another story.. How do you approach your own problems, planning your budget, raising kids, handling criminals..etc, more like a Republican, or a Liberal? This is an important election, and maybe the last that can truly change the direction of this once, and still GREAT COUNTRY.. GOD BLESS AMERICA.. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:30:38 +0000
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