“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Had President Barack Obama made this statement, instead of President Dwight Eisenhower (50 years ago today), he would no doubt be attacked by conservative Republicans and their media surrogates as a communist, a weakling and a friend of terrorists.
I’m just sayin’.
The John Birch Society (now in the guise of the National Tea Party) did in fact label President Eisenhower a communist, and excoriated him in the press. It was one of the defining factors in the decline of the JBS during the 1960’s.
Richard Nixon, being a 100% Ayn Rand/JBS supporter and having been supported by them in his initial run for Congress, kept his silence on the whole issue, while attending and speaking at JBS conventions. The modern “conservative” movement is almost word for word taken from the JBS playbook and Ayn Rands writings, with the definition of the word “enemy” being expanded to include anyone with education or credentials in soft sciences and humanistic philosophy.
Nixon set the stage for the current anti-government, anti-Constitutionalist movement we see now in the Teabaggers. It culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan who continued the dismantling of a citizen led constitutional government, and oversaw the replacement of the citizenry by multinational corporate interests.
They divided up the country the same way they did in Cuba right before the revolution. The only difference being, most of the citizens agreed to it and accepted the new paradigm.
Jimmy Carter said, “You’re going to be criticized in this job no matter what you do.” The righties just like to hear themselves talk, because they can’t believe their own bullshit unless they keep repeating it.
I grew up in So Oregon, a John Burch society stronghold. Anyone remember the “Alan Stang Report” radio segment? It alwasy ended in “…this is Alan Stang. Think about it!”
I think it’s not enough anymore to just define the problem. Let’s discuss what we should do about it? How do we reclaim our democracy? How do we lessen the power of the multinational corporate interests? How do we change the paradigm or get people to not accept it?
Deathfrogg where do you get the idea that Nixon was a fan of Ayn Rand, or her ideas? The idiot ran an illegal war, instituted wage and price controls and a moratorium on off shore drilling, created the EPA and the DEA. They guy was a friggin’ control freak out some soft core Nazi play book. Rand certainly is not the be all and end all on anything, but Nixon, a follower? I don’t think so.
I well remember Alan Stang, and his “Liberty Lobby” radio segments. I remember being struck at the time (as a teenager in Tennessee) that my local radio station would never consider having a regular feature by an avowed communist, but an unrepentant fascist and bigot? Sure!
Meanwhile, one of the simplest answers to @2 is in Eisenhower’s quote: an “alert and knowledgable citizenry.” In countries around the globe, people riot and overthrow governments when there’s chronic corruption and the deck is stacked against the ordinary person and in favor of those in power and their cronies. Here, we shrug and watch football, or “Dancing With the Stars.” And then we wonder why our democracy is broken.
Sorry, typo – I was responding to @3.
Nixon also reversed the Breton Woods Accord.
I’m confused. I thought Goldy told us bloggers are the new journalists. That newspapers are dead. Blogging is the future. Now Goldy is quitting his blog to go work at a newspaper.
Dude…you’re not confused…you’re a moron.
@8
I’m sure you’re not the first to make that observation. Indeed, Goldy regularly scolded the Seattle Times for their business model/practices, yet the writing was on the wall some time ago when he first pleaded for donations to keep HA running that his business was sucking air. It’s certain that the future of journalism is online, in which case Goldy merely demonstrated an amazing lack of business acumen.
In view of all of the advice Goldy handed out to others re: their business, what a laugh!
Here’s some of the back story on the speech.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/.....alk_newton
A really good business model is to blow a lot of right wing hot air and get funded by the Koch brothers, among others.
@5 What do you expect from a fascist radio station? I mean, how many radio station owners in this country are commies? Any? How many aren’t fascists? Damn few.
@7 Yeah, but give Nixon credit for taking us off the gold standard. Best thing he ever did.
@8 “I’m confused.”
Only thing you’ve ever gotten right.
@10 “It’s certain that the future of journalism is online, in which case Goldy merely demonstrated an amazing lack of business acumen.”
Really? If that’s so how come all the newspapers and magazines with online editions that are going under can’t make it?
@12 That’ll work until the Koch brothers’ money dries up. Then what?
Here, we shrug and watch football, or “Dancing With the Stars.” And then we wonder why our democracy is broken.
Smart. Keep us mollified with our bread and circuses.
You do realize that there will be a great backlash against the first person that keeps them from their distractions.
“We were fine till that dang progressive activist took away our “dancing with stars” and made us deal with our debt crisis. Let’s vote for the other guys to punish him. “
What The Fall Of Tunisia’s Dictator Really Means
“In the Lebanese opposition newspaper, al-Akhbar, John Aziz suggests some lessons to be learned from the uprising in Tunisia:
“All the blood, sweat and bullet-torn flesh have demonstrated how the neo-conservative model was wrong, how democracy can come about without foreign fleets, without the imposition of the star-spangled banner, without the smiling faces of Jay Garner and David Petraeus. Second, democracy can grow out of cultures of military repression without resorting to Islamic radicalism and without devolving into a situation of ‘one man, one vote…one time!’ Third, not only has America failed to promote democracy in this region, it has actually propped up regimes which stifled its flowering.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs.....arab_press
re 19: The 2000 and 2004 national elections prove that representative democracy no longer exists in the U.S.
@16 Really? If that’s so how come all the newspapers and magazines with online editions that are going under can’t make it
—-
It does not follow from the claim that the future of journalism is online, that everybody is going to make it online, rabbit brain.
Goldy ‘s apparent idea of success is playing second fiddle to Dan Thavages anal sex advice column.
I mean really, has anybody read the Stranger? It reads like nothing more than a bunch of whiny punks writing sophomoric columns who think they are “edgy” by throwing in swear words here and there.
what a fucking joke.
@22
It’s so sad that the name of such a great character has been adopted as the Nom d’Stoopid by such a malignant asshole.
@23: Word.
.
From the department of irony: Our latest installment of hypocrisy. Thanks for the laugh Winston!
yep that’s our tehchickenshit troll.
@25
@26
find any work yet putz?
oh wait, that would actually require getting off your pimply ass and looking first…
And I just saw the military-industrial complex in full bullshit mode a few hours ago, as a missile sub was escorted into Bangor by those psuedo-military ‘escort ships’ that serve no clear purpose whatsoever. They interrupted my drive home from a gig in Nevada, leaving me to sit on the Hood Canal Bridge for a good half-hour or so. As part of what is now Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor has been open since 1977 as a sub base, and the boats never needed this kind of ‘escort’ before, so why now? There’s no legitimate military threat to them any longer (the only Soviet/Russian ‘threats’ were intelligence ‘trawlers’, and the Chinese navy, while expanding, is no match for us), and there’s nobody other than local residents and Twihards here on the Olympic Peninsula, and pretty much the same goes for Vancouver Island on the other side of the Strait. So, why bother? It’s a goddamned waste of money that could be spent better things.