A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION

I watch a lot of old TV shows from the 50's and 60's.  In shows like Leave It to Beaver the family is happy and middle class.  The mother is a stay at home mother, the dad wears a nice suit, they have a nice two story home and a late model car, and life goes pretty smoothly.

We know that Leave It to Beaver wasn't real life.  It didn't show racial segregation or poverty or the mind-numbing existence of working in an office or factory.  But what is sad is that the working life has gotten worse since the Leave It to Beaver days.

Treaties like NAFTA were supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It was an achievement for all those people who pound their chests and yodel in praise of the free market.  But the free market exacts an awful price on working people.  It is capital seeking the cheapest labor and the cheapest resources to make the maximum profit for corporations and the very rich.

It means salaries and wages have eroded.  It means worker rights have decreased.  It means security has become just a memory.  It means being a cog in the great free market machine, ready to be discarded in a moment.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION

Netflix is going to release a movie called "Mitt" next month about the ultimately futile presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

I have been fascinated for a long time by behind the scenes looks at politics.  The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H. White created a life-long interest in politics.  Even novels that are well done are fascinating.  You think of Allen Drury's Advise and Consent, for example.

You wish that all political coverage was about the real people behind the scenes, not the slick and contrived commercials that run incessantly every campaign season.  Most campaign ads are about attack, attack, and attack.  They also frequently distort the truth, or make issues out of non-issues.  The biggest and most successful non-issue campaign I remember was George H. W. Bush running against Michael Dukakis with ads about criminal Willie Horton.

I'm glad Mitt Romney didn't win.  I think things would be even worse for the majority of us had he won and put his policies in place.  But I would be interested in seeing Romney behind the scenes.

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION

It seems every day I read about another shooting.  Some person is aggrieved about something, they grab their gun, and they start shooting.  It doesn't even matter who they shoot.  Innocent bystanders are just a part of the fun.

I thought after the massacre at Sandy Hook there might be some thoughtful consideration about gun control.  But things haven't changed and I don't think they will in the foreseeable future.  We just reached the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, which should have brought the full focus of gun violence to our attention.  But nothing changes.  It reminds me of the scripture from Ecclesiastes that says everything is futile and a striving after wind.

But I guess if you look at history it seems there have always been insurmountable obstacles to progress.  It takes determination and unwavering commitment to achieve progress.  President Kennedy once said, "Let us begin."

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 45

I just saw a headline that right-wing loudmouth Rush Limbaugh pines for the old Robber Baron days.  It's not surprising, but still pretty appalling.

Rush has it pretty good.  He's a multi-millionaire.  He has been successful in making hate and bigotry highly profitable.  Rush is set for life.  If he believes in an afterlife, he might be worried about the fate of his immortal soul.

Would most of us really want to return to the Robber Baron days?  Right-wing extremists consider it a golden age because there was minimal government regulation, no federal income tax, new technologies were being developed, and there were lots of new resources to exploit for profit.

There was no social safety net.  If you lost your job, you were facing immediate poverty.  You probably worked sixty hour weeks in environments where you could use lose a hand, an arm, or your life because there were so safety regulations to protect you.  If you weren't lucky enough to accrue wealth in your working life--and you were lucky enough to live to old age--there was no Social Security.  The only security you had was private charities or the goodwill of friends or family.

If you had any money in the bank and the bank went bust, so did your money.  There was no insurance to protect you.

If you believe Social Darwinism is a wonderful system, then you probably agree with Limbaugh.  But if you have any degree or sanity or humanity, you don't agree.  It's as simple as that.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 44

One of the most annoying and most persistent claims by right-wingers  is that the United States is a "Christian country."  They don't just mean it in in the sense that lots of people affiliate themselves with Christianity.  They believe the government should be run based on their interpretation of the Bible.

I don't know how many times I've seen letters to the editor claiming that the Founding Fathers were Christians and the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.  It doesn't take much investigation to see the absurdity of that claim.  The Founding Fathers made occasional references to God or the Creator, but they were by no means Christians that would fit the definition of today's theocrats.

Thomas Jefferson was so skeptical of the miracles in the New Testament that Jefferson edited the Bible to create his own version of the New Testament.  In the Jefferson version Jesus Christ was a great teacher and leader, but certainly wasn't raising people from the dead.  If the Bible is such a sure and authoritative guide, why are there so many interpretations and so many religions?  It's like a version of the Tower of Babel.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 43

Unemployment and unemployment insurance has been much on my mind. Social safety net programs like unemployment insurance were a major progressive step.  It made working people a little less vulnerable to the boom and bust cycles of capitalism, or to the whims of employers.

It also has economic advantages for the country.  As I said before, people who get unemployment insurance are going to spend that money and circulate it throughout the economy.  They will pay mortgages or rent, pay bills, buy necessities like food, and use the money to look for another job.  Republicans act like unemployment is just a windfall for people who don't want to work.

Senator Rand Paul even made the inane statement that people will benefit from losing unemployment benefits because long-term unemployment is such a stigma now.  Stigma or not, people still have basic needs and to fulfill those needs they require money.  Maybe Senator Paul and others like him should consider measures to create jobs.  We have lots of crying needs in this society, but people like Paul are unwilling to spend any money to address those needs.  Unless you're part of their exclusive club of the very rich, you don't count.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 42

We're a little over two weeks from another Christmas and Republicans are demonstrating their affinity with Dickens' character Ebeneezer Scrooge or Mr. Potter in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life."  But they are good Christians all.

I will be among those people hurt severely if emergency unemployment benefits are not extended.  I have been working, but like lots of Americans I have a job that doesn't pay enough to survive if you have things like bills, rent, and need to buy food.  I would love to be in a situation where I could survive without unemployment, but I am not.

The Republican policy of socking it to the poor and working class is not only callous and cruel, it's idiotic from an economic standpoint.  I have already reduced my spending out of necessity.  Without the help of unemployment I will have even less money to spend.  Multiply that by a factor of millions and it's a major drag on the economy.

Republicans are never shy about tax breaks or subsidies for the very rich and for corporations, but it's anathema to them to do anything for working class people.  Ultimately, it is working class people who make this country work.

If karma is a reality, then Republicans are going to face a bleak future.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 41

I wonder sometimes if people who  buy into the idea of laissez-faire economics would really want to live in a world of dog-eat-dog predatory capitalism.

If we take the idea of laissez-faire to an entire societal level it means everyone for himself or herself.  You wouldn't have traffic laws.  It would be whoever was the most aggressive who got through the intersections.  You wouldn't have regulations governing food and drugs.  You would take your chances, a little like playing a lottery.  You wouldn't owe your employer anything and vice versa.  It would be a question of who could rip off whom.

Can you imagine a world where you had to pay a fee for every road you drove on?  Would you like having to pay the fire department a fee for putting out a fire that would burn down your house, or pay a police officer to investigate a crime?  In fact, in such a world would there be such a thing as crime?

It would be a world where the gangs ruled.  It would probably be your only chance of survival.  It would be a form of high tech barbarism.

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 40

One of the clips I most remember from Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 911" was of George W. Bush speaking to a crowd of plutocrats.  Bush smugly noted that he was speaking to the "haves" and "have mores."  It was a blatant admission of the people Bush and his administration represented.

Mitt Romney, during the 2012 presidential campaign, glibly claimed that 47% of the people in the United States were "takers."  According to people like Romney, it's your own fault if you're poor.  Never mind that Romney inherited most of his wealth.  That kind of sanctimony seems to be typical of the very rich in today's environment.

People who have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes have a proverbial hissy fit at the thought the minimum wage might increase to a level that could actually support someone.  They act like working for them is a privilege and any crumbs working people get are all they deserve.

Most historians would probably agree that the most prosperous period in United States history was from around 1945, when World War II ended, to about 1970.  The rising tide did lift all boats.  The rich did very well, despite all the gnashing of teeth about paying taxes or decent wages.  The very rich, who gripe constantly about "entitlements," believe they are entitled to benefit from the misery and hardship of their fellow citizens.

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 39

I just learned of a new book by Claire Conner called Wrapped in the Flag.  Ms. Conner is the daughter of two reactionary parents who were dyed in the wool John Birch Society members.  An excerpt is available on Google Books.  Even in the brief excerpt you get an idea of the almost religious fervor these people have and how they see enemies and conspiracies everywhere.

The Republican Party has always been the vehicle for the reactionary right to promote its ideology and, worse, to attempt to pass legislation based on that ideology.  At one point the John Birch Society was too extreme for the Republican Party and the party tried to distance itself.  But in recent years we have a reincarnation of the Birch Society in the form of the Tea Party.

Members of the Tea Party, like their John Birch forebears, see conspiracies everywhere.  Now, instead of Communism, the boogeyman is radical Islam.  They accuse President Obama of being a Muslim dedicated to the subversion and overthrow of Judeo-Christian principles.  They call Obama a Marxist, a reversion to the old zealotry of anti-Communism.  They deny the existence of global warming and want to impose their idea of Christianity on everyone else.  They speak of "freedom," but don't see the contradictions in their own ideology.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 38

George W. Bush's greatest skill was taking vacations.  Just weeks before the attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush was at his make believe ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he got intelligence information that Osama bin Laden was planning a major attack on the United States.  Bush acted annoyed and brushed off the information.

When the attacks occurred Bush was in Florida at an elementary school reading "My Pet Goat" to school children.  When he was told of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a plane that went down in Pennsylvania he looked like a deer in the headlights.  Instead of heading to Washington, D. C., or to New York he went West.

Later on,  he played the macho game by standing at Ground Zero with a megaphone.  But the real heroes on 9/11 were the first response teams and the passengers aboard the United flight that went down in Pennsylvania.  They prevented terrorists from crashing the plane into the Capitol.

It was an unbelievable dereliction of duty by Bush and his administration because there were sufficient warnings to prevent the attacks on 9/11.  Bush compounded the horror by launching an attack on Iraq, which had nothing to do with the attacks.  He also used the attacks as an excuse to pass tax cuts for his rich friends and to begin an assault on civil liberties in the United States.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 37

Until the 2000 presidential election I had never heard of a "hanging chad."  It turns out it's the part of a ballot that you punch out that doesn't totally detach.  Hanging chads and other questions in Florida held up the final decision on the 2000 presidential race for weeks.  Al Gore won the popular vote and Bush, thanks to Florida, won the electoral vote.

Republicans exerted tremendous effort to steal the election for Bush.  They "protested" outside offices where ballots were being recounted.  When you look at photos of the "protesters" you see readily identifiable Republican operatives in the crowd.  But the biggest ace they held was a friendly Supreme Court that ruled in favor of Bush and stopped the recounting of ballots in Florida.

George W. Bush was one of the least qualified people to enter the White House in the modern era.  He had been a cheerleader in college, got preferential treatment to get National Guard duty and avoid Vietnam, was known as a drunk and drug user, got a sweetheart deal to own part of the Texas Rangers baseball team, got elected Governor of Texas, where the governor is mostly a figurehead, signed lots of execution orders to give Texas the dubious distinction of executing more people than anyone else, and then sneaked his way into the White House.  This country paid a major price and so did the people of Iraq.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 36

In the 1990's AM talk radio was dominated by extremists like loudmouth Rush Limbaugh.  Limbaugh has little positive to say.  His whole approach is to attack, attack, attack.  He attacks liberals, gay people, minorities, women, and anyone else who doesn't support the oligarchy.  The amazing thing is that many working class people have bought into Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and other right wing blowhards.

Right wing media had a field day with the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration, which finally led to Clinton's impeachment and eventual acquittal in the Senate.  If they acknowledged the good economy at all,  right wingers claimed  it was  due to the benefits of Reaganomics that allegedly were just beginning to manifest themselves.

It would have seemed logical for Al Gore, Clinton's vice-president and the Democratic nominee in 2000, to win the presidency.  Gore was qualified, had no real personal scandals, and had worked for an administration that produced a good economy and avoided war.  But the right wing media was busy making scandals out of thin air again.

Gore supposedly claimed credit for inventing the Internet, for instance, while his opponent, former Texas governor George W. Bush,  was a good old boy you would want to have a beer with.

By any logical measurement, Al Gore won the election.  But we have this thing called the Electoral College.  Republicans were able to use the Electoral College and a few good buddies on the Supreme Court to steal the 2000 election.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 35

The economy turned sour just as it always does with Republican administrations.  It has been a pattern and you would think people would notice.  We had recessions under Eisenhower.  We had recessions under Nixon and Ford.  We had a horrific recession at the beginning of the Reagan administration.  We had another recession under George H. W. Bush.

Bill Clinton ran for the presidency using the mantra "It's the economy, stupid," and Bill Clinton won the election.  If you can't cheat your way into the White House, the Republican way is to create scandals out of thin air and dominate the discussion with the alleged scandals.

With Bill Clinton it was a land deal called Whitewater.  And Clinton, who already had a reputation as a womanizer, played into the hands of his enemies by having a fling with Monica Lewinsky.  Right-wingers went after him more for alleged perjury than for the actual affair.  The party of "family values" also enlisted Ken Starr and Starr published a sleazy account of Clinton and Monica that would make many people blush.

Republicans also didn't vote for Clinton's budget.  We know that the economy prospered under Clinton, who had raised taxes on the rich, and certainly not to an astronomical level.  Clinton also kept the country out of major military involvements.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 34

I suspect most Americans didn't understand the full complexities of the Contra scandal and how it represented major breaches of the law by the Reagan administration.  Reagan left office with high approval ratings and has since been deified by the right wing in the United States.

Reagan's successor was George H. W. Bush.  Bush had served as Reagan's vice-president and prior to being vice-president held a variety of posts, including Director of the CIA.

Bush is most remembered for his war against Iraq.  There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein was a despicable dictator, but he had been an ally of the United States not long before.  The justification for the  first Gulf War, like the one launched by George W. Bush in 2002, was highly questionable.  The first Bush was successful in assembling a coalition of allies.  After all was said and done, Saddam Hussein was still in power in Iraq when the first Gulf War ended.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 33

Lots of people tend to die under right wing administrations.  Lots of human rights abuses also occur.  On October 23, 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president 241 U. S. Marines were killed in a bombing at Beirut Airport  There is strong evidence that the bombing was in reprisal because Reagan had used the U.S. Navy to shell Lebanese villages for several months.

We know, of course, about the attacks in the United States in 2001 when George W. Bush was president.  We had the attack on the Oklahoma City Federal Building by right-wing nutcase Timothy McVeigh during Bill Clinton's administration.

The biggest scandal, among a myriad of scandals, during the Reagan years was the Iran-Contra scandal.  It was a classic case of money laundering to circumvent the law.  The United States sold arms to our avowed enemies in Iran and used the profits to divert money to the right-wing contras who were waging a guerrilla war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Representatives of Amnesty International determined that a variety of human rights abuses were committed by the contras.  The abuses included executions, mutilations, torture, and kidnappings.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 32

We now have the greatest level of inequality in the United States since the Gilded Age.  The Gilded Age was that halcyon time, according to right wingers, when the "achievers" could really do their stuff.  They didn't have to deal with troublesome things like taxes, unions, minimum wage laws, and a variety of regulations.  It was the age of J. D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie.  Most people were poor and had absolutely no social safety net except for private charities.

We can thank Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for a Gilded Age 2.0.  Reagan's administration was the first not to raise the minimum wage.  People living below the poverty line went from 11.7% in 1979 to 13% at the end of Reagan's administration.

Reagan's devotion to deregulation led to the savings and loan crisis.  Taxpayers shelled out $160 billion to bail out over 700 failed savings and loans.  That began a pattern that we saw repeated when the economy crashed in 2008 under George W. Bush.

Based on the number of indictments, Reagan also led the most corrupt administration in U. S. history.  One hundred thirty-eight Reagan administration officials were convicted, indicted, or subject to official investigations.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 31

In 1980 Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the presidential election and fulfilled the dreams of right-wingers throughout the country.  Some big businessmen even celebrated with a cake in the shape of the U. S. Capitol building.  They inscribed the word "Ours" on the Capitol dome on the cake.

Reagan quickly began the process of transferring wealth to the rich and big business.  He increased military spending dramatically and it wasn't long before the combination of tax cuts and military spending exploded the deficit.  Right-wingers typically try to defend Reagan by blaming Congress.  But it is the president who submits the budget and the president who signs bills into law.  Moreover, Congress was only carrying out the agenda of Mr. Reagan and his administration.

Right wingers tend to obsess about inflation and early in the Reagan administration the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to stratospheric levels.  High interest rates depress economic activity in the housing sector and all kinds of borrowing for such things as automobiles.  We had a whopping recession.  Recessions tend to hit working class people the hardest because they invariably lead to high unemployment. High unemployment doesn't tend to bother right-wingers because they are already financially secure and high unemployment creates a cheap labor market.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 30

I remember this day 50 years ago.  I was young and in grade school, but it made an indelible impression.  President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas while on a campaign trip.  I've seen all the horrific images and read lots of the theories about why that ghastly event occurred and wondered how things might have been different had JFK lived to serve a second term.

I'm not naive enough to think we would have enjoyed utopia.  We had problems in the New Frontier just as we've had problems since.  But there was an excitement and an idealism during the Kennedy years that have never existed since.  To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, JFK called on the better angels of our nature.  Our major purpose in life wasn't to be drones in some soul killing job or be consumers or feast on stories about the rich and famous.  It was about a higher commitment to our country and to our planet.

Stephen King wrote a very good time travel novel called 11/22/63 that I consider one of the best books I've read about the Kennedy years.  I didn't care for the ending, but the rest of the book is absorbing.  Lots of things were worse in the early 60's than they are now, but lots of things were better too.  I guess the strongest emotion I feel from that time was hope and hope has retired now to some other place.  Now it's just about muddling through day to day and wondering what the latest outrage will be.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 29

The Iranian hostage crisis, a failed rescue attempt, and high oil prices made Jimmy Carter's re-election problematic.  He also ran against a professional snake oil salesman in Ronald Reagan.

Reagan, who built his career as a "B" movie actor, took his acting skills, such as they were, and adapted them for politics.  Politics is frequently more fantasy than reality.  People want to believe in magic solutions to their problems and Ronald Reagan came along with promises of tax cuts and a strong military that would show the Soviet Union who was boss.  Many Americans felt  the Iranian militants had kicked the proverbial sand in our faces and they wanted a tough, no nonsense leader.

George H. W. Bush, who ran with Reagan as his running mate, called Reagan's economics "voodoo economics" during the campaign, but conveniently forgot his criticism when he ran for vice-president.

There is strong evidence that Reagan's campaign sabotaged the negotiations to free the American hostages in Iran.  It's difficult to say if an earlier release would have resulted in Carter's re-election, but the failure to gain their release certainly sped Reagan on the way to the White House.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 28

It has become fashionable in right-wing circles to demonize Jimmy Carter's presidency.  I guess you have to find some way to distract from all the corruption and misery caused by Republican administrations, so you demonize one of the most moral men to occupy the Oval Office.

Jimmy Carter was an idealist and right-wingers do not care for idealists.  Right-wingers consider themselves grounded in the "real world."  It's the world of dog-eat-dog and winner take all.  You can put aside all those silly notions about human rights and the Golden Rule.  The Golden Rule is something you claim to support on Sundays and shove aside as impractical the rest of the time.

President Carter had the misfortune of being in office when the oil-producing nations in the Arab world started to assert themselves.  The oil-producing countries suddenly realized they had an energy addict in the United States.  OPEC could jack up the prices and the United States had very few options but to pay.

President Carter also inherited a rotten economy from the Nixon and Ford years.  We had a situation called "stagflation."  It was a combination of high inflation and high unemployment.  According to classic economics, those situations were never supposed to occur simultaneously

The worst blow to the Carter presidency was the Iranian hostage crisis.  The nightly news reminded us every day of the length of their imprisonment by Iranian militants and the Carter administration wasn't militant enough for some.  You have the feeling that some right-wingers would have preferred we attack Iran even if it meant killing all the hostages.  It would make the United States look "tough."

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 27

Now we come to the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, as white bread as any president we've had.  At first, Ford seemed a refreshing change from the paranoid and criminally-inclined Richard Nixon.  But mostly what we got during the brief Ford administration was an ineffectual government.

We had WIN buttons to combat inflation.  We had a swine flu vaccine that appears to have caused more harm than good.  We had Chevy Chase on "Saturday Night Live" doing pratfalls as a parody of Ford's perceived clumsiness.

The most significant event in the Ford presidency was the pardon of Richard Nixon, which came before Nixon was even charged or tried.  I don't know if there was a deal between Ford and Nixon, but you have to think it was part of the process in getting Nixon to resign the presidency.

Ford managed to get the Republican nomination for president in 1976 despite a challenge from the very right-wing Ronald Reagan, whose political star was on the ascendancy.  Then Ford committed a major gaffe in the presidential debates with Jimmy Carter when Ford made the astounding claim that the Poles did not consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.

The Vietnam war came to its inglorious end.  I remember video footage of people trying to  grab on to helicopters leaving the U. S. Embassy in South Vietnam and seeing helicopters pushed over the sides of ships into the ocean.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING  DESTRUCTION PART 26

The United States has an unsavory history of taking territory from others or backing corrupt regimes that will support the interests of big business in the United States.

Early in our history we had slavery.  We waged constant war against the indigenous Indian tribes to take their land from them.  We had a war against Mexico and got California, Texas, and other territory.  We waged war in the Philippines to make the Philippines a colony of the United States.  We had no problem with a dictator named Batista when he ruled Cuba,  but big problems when the anti-capitalist Fidel Castro assumed power.

In the 1950's we helped the Shah of Iran when we orchestrated the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The United States helped overthrow a democratically elected government in Guatemala because of threats to American business interests.  In the Nixon years we helped install a vile dictator named Augusto Pinochet in Chile and overthrew the government of socialist Salvador Allende.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 25

I remember the night Richard Nixon announced his resignation.  He looked haggard, perhaps more haggard than usual, as he told the country he would leave the presidency the following day and that Gerald Ford would be sworn in as president.  Nixon saw the handwriting on the wall when he lost his case before the Supreme Court.  The Court said that Nixon had to turn over all his tapes in the Watergate matter and there was no doubt that Nixon had participated in a cover-up and suborning of perjury.

The next day Nixon gave an emotional speech before the White House staff and the country and talked about his mother.  He boarded a helicopter, gave his characteristic "V" signs, and headed for California.

Upon assuming the presidency Gerald Ford declared that, "Our long national nightmare is over."  That was fantasy, of course.  Nixon had left behind a trail of abusing the power of the presidency, creating a major distrust of the federal government, and thousands more dead in the Vietnam war that he failed to end.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT DESTRUCTION PART 24

Richard Nixon was a cocktail shaker mix of neuroses.  He probably would be a psychiatrist's dream.  He exhibited signs of paranoia and a persecution complex.  The Nixon administration's creation of an enemies list was very disturbing.

He had his interesting quirks, of course.  He reportedly liked eating ketchup with cottage cheese.  He liked to sit inside the White House with a roaring fireplace and the air conditioning turned up full blast.  He took walks along the beach wearing dress shoes.  He is shown in numerous photos with his fingers in the "V" sign.  It is said he didn't hold his liquor well and some White House aides advised people to be careful in implementing some presidential orders because the president might be drunk.

His paranoia led him to create the White House taping system that ultimately was his downfall.    He once revealed a great deal when he said, in essence, that nothing the president did was illegal.  He surrounded himself with people who shared those beliefs.

He took the totally wrong approach to the Watergate scandal and the scandal engulfed his administration.

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 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 23

Merle Haggard recorded "Okie From Muskogee" mostly as a joke, but it became a kind of anthem for many who thought the country was in big trouble in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

The Nixon administration started talking about the "silent majority," the people the administration said quietly supported the administration in contrast to the loud protests of the administration's opponents.  Vice President Spiro Agnew led a war against the media and termed many in the media establishment as "effete snobs."

The war dragged on, but Nixon began a process of what was called "Vietnamization" of the war.  It was intended to gradually reduce U. S. involvement in the war and turn the war over to the South Vietnamese.

Nixon went to China, which was probably his greatest foreign policy achievement.  We had the Pentagon Papers controversy when the behind the scenes story of the Vietnam war was revealed and the Nixon administration tried to suppress publication of the information.

There was what Nixon called a "third rate burglary" at the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, which was to have major ramifications.

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A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 22

Richard M. Nixon entered the White House in a time of tremendous disillusionment.  The 1960's had been a turbulent decade.  We almost had a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.  We entered a proxy war in Vietnam instead.  In 1969 we fulfilled JFK's vision of landing men on the moon and returned them safely to the earth.

For a time it appeared the 1960's would take the United States and the world in a new direction.  The young generation preached about making love, not war.  But the election of Richard Nixon and running mate Spiro Agnew was a decisive endorsement of the establishment.

We didn't know then that the Nixon campaign probably sabotaged attempts to end the Vietnam war.  Had LBJ succeeded in finally ending the Vietnam nightmare, there is a good chance Hubert Humphrey would have been president.  The country had been prosperous in the Kennedy-Johnson years.  We had fulfilled a dream of all mankind in going to the moon.  The possibilities were boundless.

But Richard Nixon, who won the election largely because of Vietnam, made very little effort to end the war.  He even expanded the war into Cambodia.  Protesters at Kent State University and Jackson State were gunned down by the National Guard and by the police, respectively.  Exercising the right to freedom of speech suddenly was a deadly exercise.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 21

The Vietnam war became a kind of flypaper and the United States couldn't extricate itself.  The growing opposition to the war forced President Johnson from the presidential race and persuaded Senator Robert Kennedy to announce his candidacy.

The country was polarized.  Kids burning draft cards and protests against the war got major media attention.  But there was also a backlash from people who considered themselves patriots and who continued to support the Vietnam war.

Martin Luther King, who had always advocated non-violence, was the victim of an assassin's bullet when he went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking garbage workers.  Just weeks later Robert Kennedy was shot down in Los Angeles after winning the California primary.

There was more than a little irony in Richard Nixon getting the Republican nomination for president.  Nixon, who represented himself as a law and order candidate, would become the first president to resign from office a few years later.  Hubert Humphrey, who served as vice-president for Lyndon Johnson, got the Democratic nomination for president.  Humphrey was saddled with the Vietnam war and Nixon promised to end the war.

The country was appalled at the violence in the streets at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  It represented a clear demarcation between people who considered themselves loyal to the establishment and the opponents of the war.  The Chicago violence also hurt Humphrey in the presidential race.

Humphrey came surprisingly close to winning the election when you consider the baggage he was carrying.  Had the Johnson administration succeeded in ending the war, Humphrey might have won the election.  But operatives for Richard Nixon, from all appearances, sabotaged the peace talks.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 20

As the Vietnam war escalated, so did the dissension here at home.  There was increasing resistance to the military draft and protests against the war.  The protests occurred both because young men were being sent to Vietnam for questionable reasons and because of the death and destruction rained on the Vietnamese people.

It was a good time for the military-industrial complex.  It meant big profits in providing war material.  We got introduced to new products, or at least previously little known products, such as Agent Orange and napalm. One of the most noted and searing photos of the Vietnam war shows a young girl whose clothes have been burned away by napalm.  She is running down the road in terror.

Vietnam was going to be the premier issue in the 1968 presidential campaign.  The political establishment thought that President Johnson would seek reelection.  Senator Eugene McCarthy mounted a campaign that was largely in opposition to the war and did surprisingly well in the New Hampshire primary.

After Robert Kennedy left the Attorney General's office, he won election as Senator from New York.  He was under enormous pressure to run for president in 1968, but resisted because a campaign would be incredibly divisive for the Democratic party.  But President Johnson changed the equation when he announced he would not seek reelection.

More to come

 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 19

Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency after JFK's death and immediately adopted a more vigorous commitment to Vietnam.  The force we sent went from a few thousand "advisers" to a major military commitment, which continued to grow over the next few years.

Johnson succeeded in passing some major legislation in civil rights and in getting Medicare passed.  Ronald Reagan was busily warning the country about the evils of Medicare.  We had racist diehards such as Governor George Wallace proclaiming the evils of the federal government enforcing civil rights and encroaching on states' rights.

Johnson ran against the very right wing Senator Barry Goldwater and crushed Goldwater in the presidential election in 1964.  The Warren Commission was appointed by President Johnson to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy and the Commission concluded that the very strange and previously nondescript Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.  The Commission's report didn't satisfy many people and questions still linger fifty years later.

Vietnam turned quickly into a quagmire.  The military kept telling us that light was at the end of the tunnel, but the war expanded and increased in ferocity.  Lots of American boys, mostly poor boys, were coming home in body bags.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 18

The world breathed a sigh of collective relief after resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  JFK and Khrushchev agreed to install a "hot line" so they could reach other immediately in the event of a crisis.

As the country moved into 1963, things appeared to be going in the right direction.  There was a lot of work to be done.  We needed to find a way to resolve problems in Vietnam.  We needed to find a way to address poverty in the United States.  We needed meaningful and workable civil rights legislation.

Just weeks before his assassination, JFK gave a speech at American University laying out the stark reality of the nuclear world we live in.  His speech impressed the leaders in the Soviet Union because it wasn't the usual bellicosity, but a realization that people the world over are pretty much the same.  Most of us want to live our lives happily, enjoying our families and friends, performing work that matters to us, and making contributions to our communities, our country, and our planet.

The year 1964 was an election year and JFK had to start thinking about the next presidential campaign.  Texas was going to be an important part of that election.  Splits in the Democratic Party in Texas were a concern and JFK decided on a trip to Texas to do some fence mending and lay the basis for the 1964 campaign.

The rabid right wing in Texas hated JFK.  On the day of his assassination handbills were in circulation stating that JFK was wanted for treason.  After the news of his death, some people actually cheered.

It is impossible to know how history diverged on November 22, 1963.  But JFK's death was a victory for the right wing in the United States and a tragedy for the rest of us.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 17

After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, JFK berated himself for putting too much faith in the CIA and in the generals who advocated the invasion.  That experience may have saved the world from nuclear war in 1962.

In October, 1962, United States reconnaissance planes detected Soviet missile installations in Cuba.  JFK didn't feel he had any alternative but to respond to the missiles being installed so close to our own shores.  He was also aware that Soviet Premier Khrushchev was being pressured by hardliners in the Kremlin.

The strategy of a naval blockade of Cuba was a compromise.  Some people in the Pentagon thought the United States should launch a full fledged invasion of Cuba.  Some generals were not even dissuaded by the threat of nuclear war.

The naval blockade posed risks of its own.  A miscalculation on either side could have sparked a nuclear war.  The Soviets were finally persuaded to take their missiles out of Cuba in exchange for a removal of U. S. missiles in Turkey.

Even after coming so perilously close to annihilation, many on the political right have advocated for bigger militaries and huge nuclear stockpiles.  We have had other close calls such as an incident in 1983 when the Soviet Union misinterpreted war games by the United States and Britain as an imminent attack.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 16

The communist-led government of Cuba was a major preoccupation in the early 1960's.  Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.  Batista had been a right-wing ally of the United States.

Business interests inside the United States were unhappy about the appropriation of their properties in Cuba and the loss of profits in the new communist regime.  The outgoing Eisenhower administration began planning to overthrow Castro's government.

As unbelievable as it may seem, the CIA even enlisted the aid of the Mafia in their plans to oust Castro.  The Mafia  enjoyed major profits in Cuba during the Batista years and those profits were gone after Castro took power.

The idea behind the Bay of Pigs was that Cubans would be aroused by the invasion to rise up and overthrow Castro.  But it didn't happen.  President Kennedy wanted the invasion disassociated from the United States.  He was concerned the Soviet Union would retaliate by attacking West Berlin.  He received heavy criticism for not providing enough support to the invading forces and engendered considerable hatred among right-wingers in the United States.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 15

The United States and the world were in ferment as we entered the 1960's.

We were ready to expand our boundaries technologically and scientifically.  We were ready to finally embrace civil rights for African-Americans who had been denied their full constitutional rights for one hundred years.  The Cold War took on a new dimension with a proxy war in Vietnam.  The United States supplied aid to South Vietnam and the Soviet Union supplied aid to North Vietnam.

But the very real Cold War, the kind that employed nuclear weapons, was a Sword of Damocles hanging over the human race.  Both the United States and Soviet Union had weapons sufficient to destroy the entire human race several times over.

John F. Kennedy brought glamour, wit, and idealism to the White House.  Important social safety nets such as Medicare got seeded during the Kennedy years and finally passed into law during the subsequent Johnson administration.

The realities of the Cold War were symbolized by construction of the Berlin Wall.  Berlin was ground zero for a possible nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union.

We saw the rise of Martin Luther King as a major civil rights leader and we saw the ugliness of entrenched racism in the United States on display.  Civil rights workers were attacked and killed in the South.  Martin Luther King was arrested and wrote his famous Letter From Birmingham Jail.    Opponents of civil rights brought up the old doctrine of states' rights to justify segregation.

President Kennedy stated the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade.  It was another form of proxy war because the "space race" was intended to show the superiority of the American system over the system in the Soviet Union.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 14

 John F. Kennedy was a vice-presidential candidate in 1956, but lost out to Estes Kefauver.  It may have been one of the biggest breaks of Kennedy's career. Had he run with Adlai Stevenson in that election, he may have been blamed for the massive loss Stevenson suffered to Dwight Eisenhower.  Kennedy's Catholicism was considered a major negative.

Despite his Catholicism, Kennedy won the 1960 Democratic nomination.  In his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention Kennedy proclaimed the start of a "New Frontier" and "New Frontier" was  the name attached to the years of the Kennedy administration.

Kennedy was matched up against the experienced and better-known Richard M. Nixon.  Nixon had served for eight years as Dwight Eisenhower's vice president.  Nixon had strong anti-communist credentials after his pursuit of Alger Hiss and his "kitchen debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.    Kennedy had to overcome the idea that he was too young and too inexperienced to take on the tough and wily Soviet Premier.

Kennedy and Nixon had a series of presidential debates that proved Kennedy could stand toe to toe with the Republican nominee.  Nixon's television image did not serve him well.  He appeared haggard and looked shifty and dishonest.

The election was one of the closest in United States history and Kennedy squeaked out a victory.  It was the harbinger to come of the tumultuous 1960's.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 13

Many people remember the 1950's with a fond nostalgia.  They think of the Fifties as a version of the television show Happy Days.  Television shows from the time such as Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best show well-adjusted and white middle class families thriving in the post-war era.

Rock and roll music gained popularity with talents such as Elvin Presley, Buddy Holly, and Rick Nelson among the most prominent entertainers.

But racism still prevailed.  The Cold War was a very real and present danger.  The economy stalled and went into recession.  In 1960 the U. S. government was caught in a lie when U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia.

The seeds for dramatic foreign policy maneuvers were planted during the Eisenhower administration.  We first started  military involvement in Vietnam.  It was a small involvement at first.  President Kennedy inherited the situation and sent around 16,000 "advisers."  After Kennedy's death, Vietnam became a major military involvement and one of the worst foreign policy debacles in United States history.

The planning for the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba was also started during the Eisenhower years.

There was the infamous "Kitchen Debate" in 1959  between Richard Nixon, who represented the wonders of capitalism, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who proclaimed the virtues of the communist system.  Khrushchev had warned in  1956 that, "we will bury you."

Although Senator Joseph McCarthy was repudiated, the charge of being "soft on communism" was still a potent weapon used by right-wingers.  It was part of the thought process that ultimately led to the major calamity  in Vietnam.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 12

President Eisenhower was a Republican and would probably be considered much too liberal in today's Republican party.  Eisenhower didn't set out to destroy the New Deal programs that had proven both popular and successful.  He was responsible for building an interstate highway system that made travel much easier across the country.

Eisenhower,probably reluctantly, used the National Guard to enforce desegregation in Arkansas after the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Topeka decision.  The Court declared that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional.

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus was defiant.  Faubus ordered National Guardsmen to block the entry of African-American students to Little Rock's Central High School.  Faubus used the blatantly transparent lie that it was necessary to prevent mob violence.  But Eisenhower successfully enforced the Supreme Court's decision.

The tensions of the Cold War were always a concern.  The Soviet Union upstaged the United States in 1957 with the launch of its Sputnik satellite and aroused concern that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union technologically and scientifically.

The Eisenhower years were also marked by economic recessions, which have been consistent with Republican administrations.

More to come

 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 11

President Truman surprisingly won reelection in 1948 and then we entered the fearful and paranoid 1950's.

We found ourselves in another war in Korea, although it technically was a United Nations effort to stop Communists from overrunning South Korea.  General MacArthur, hero of the Second World War, was fired by President Truman for what amounted to insubordination and made his famous statement, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

Another World War II hero, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was nominated by the Republican Party to run for president.  Richard M. Nixon was his running mate.  Nixon, caught up in the first major scandal of his career, made his famous "Checkers" speech and told us about Pat Nixon's cloth coat.

Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson and moved into the White House.

Anti-communism was a prime talking point for Republicans.  Richard Nixon vaulted his career in his pursuit of Alger Hiss, who was accused of being a Communist.  Hiss was convicted on a perjury charge and sentenced to prison.

One of the most infamous politicians in U. S. history, Joseph McCarthy, put the Communist threat or perceived threat on the national agenda.  McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin, made wild charges implying that Communists had infiltrated the highest levels of the U. S. government.  McCarthy and others were responsible for blacklists of Americans who had been convicted of nothing, but were suspected of being Communists.  They frequently lost their livelihoods and their reputations thanks to the Communist witch hunt launched by McCarthy.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 10

We entered a totally new world at the end of the Second World War.  Two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan and there was no turning back from the nuclear age.

Europe was in ruins.  We discovered the horrors of the Holocaust.  The Soviet Union, formerly an ally, became an enemy.

Harry Truman carried on in the tradition of FDR with his "Fair Deal."  The United States faced the daunting and happy prospect of reintegrating millions of returning military veterans into the economy.  Women had broken through barriers during the war when "Rosie the Riveter" symbolized women in the workforce.

The United States funded the Marshall Plan, one of the most ingenious examples of foreign policy in our history.

Berlin became a symbol of the Cold War that was to endure for decades.  Fear of communism reinvigorated the right wing in the United States and paved the way for the paranoid and fearful 1950's.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 9

FDR asked for a Declaration of War against Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Congress agreed.  Then we were also at war against the other Axis powers, the Germans and Italians.

It must have been a difficult time for right-wingers.  They hated "that man" in the White House.  But the country had been attacked and there was no question we had to fight a war.  Of course, down through the years there have been several rather stupid conspiracy theories that FDR somehow allowed the attack to occur. I think it's ludicrous.  An attack by the Japanese would, in and of  itself, constitute a case for war.  We didn't have to let the Pacific fleet be disabled and leave the West Coast open for possible invasion to justify a war against Japan.  If it was a conspiracy, it has to be one of the strangest in history.

Right-wingers may not have been thrilled that the Soviet Union was a U. S. ally.  But we probably wouldn't have won the war without the pressure the Soviets put on Germany.  The war against the Soviet Union took manpower and resources that Hitler couldn't devote to other theaters of the war.  The Russians suffered immensely in World War II and took horrific losses.

FDR died mere weeks before the war ended and Harry Truman became president.

More to come

 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 8

We've all probably seen those iconic photos from the 1930's showing unemployed people lined up at soup kitchens.  We've heard about the Dust Bowl or read great novels like The Grapes of Wrath.

I'm glad that Franklin D. Roosevelt was willing to take on the job of being president and take on the monumental problems he faced.  Not everything the New Deal tried worked, but many programs did.  Thanks to FDR, we have Social Security.  Right-wingers would like to destroy Social Security and let their fat cat friends on Wall Street have access to the money.  If your investments go bad, then too bad.  No pension for you, pal.

Even as the world endured the Great Depression, what Herman Wouk termed "the winds of war" were blowing.  The world got a preview in the Spanish Civil War.  The fascists waged war against the Republic of Spain.  The fascists were backed by Nazi Germany and the Republican forces were backed by the Soviet Union.

Right-wingers in the United States were isolationists.  They didn't want involvement in what they termed a European war.  FDR saw the danger and tried to provide aid to our allies the best way he could.  The attack on  Pearl Harbor by the Japanese made U. S. involvement in the war inevitable.

More to come

 A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 7

Republican Herbert Hoover followed Calvin Coolidge into the White House and inherited a booming economy.

But the stock market crashed in 1929 and set off the Great Depression.  Hoover believed in a hands off approach from government, that the markets would right themselves, and that normalcy would return.  But it didn't happen.

Historians Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager observe in A Pocket History of the United States:  "In the case of the 1929 panic there were factors that led, clearly enough, to the collapse.  In the first place, the productive capacity of the nation was greater than its capacity to consume.  This was largely because too large a part of national income was going to a small percentage of the population who promptly turned it back into savings or investment, and not enough of the income to the labor, farmer, and white-collar classes upon whose continued ability to buy the whole business system rested."  Disparity of wealth and income, concentration of wealth, and other similarities abound, don't they?

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 6

As the world entered the 1920's, Republican Warren G. Harding was president of the United States.

Harding's administration is well known for its scandals, particularly the Teapot Dome scandal.  He, like so many other politicians, had at least one mistress.

Harding actually did or attempted to do some good things.  Harding signed the first federal child welfare law.  He supported an eight hour day for mining and railroad workers.  He advocated for an anti-lynching bill to protect African-Americans.

Like several other presidents, Harding died in office.

Harding was succeeded by "Silent Cal" Coolidge.  Coolidge was the Ronald Reagan of his day.  He believed in a laissez-faire form of government.  The economy boomed in the 1920's, although there was still rampant inequality.  The policies of the Coolidge administration also paved the way for the Great Depression when the bubble burst in 1929.

Just as in the 1980's, the United States went from a creditor to a debtor nation.  Policies of the Coolidge administration made it almost impossible for defeated Germany to make reparations payments and that helped create the environment that brought Adolf Hitler into power and finally another world war.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 5

The years 1900-1920 saw a hodgepodge of disasters and a few accomplishments.  The biggest event of the two decades was World War I.  It was the first true world war and got called "the war to end all wars" by some.  That proved illusory, of course.  It was only the beginning of the bloodshed that would characterize the 20th century.

Technology continued to develop and it had its good and dark sides.  For instance, the Wright Brothers built the first successful heavier-than-air aircraft.  Airplanes would later be used in World War I to inflict death and destruction.

The "Titanic," considered a marvel of ship building technology, sank on its maiden voyage.

In the United States we had the Triangle Shirtwaist fire on March 25, 1911.  The owners, like good conservatives, had locked the doors to the workplace and workers could not escape when a fire broke out.  Victims of the fire included children, who worked at the company.  We know the conservative history in decrying laws requiring workplace safety and we know that conservatives would love to allow child labor.

President Woodrow Wilson worked toward the establishment of the League of Nations, but the United States did not join the League because of opposition by Republicans in the Senate.  You wonder now if the League had included the United States and if the League had possessed any real power if World War II might have been averted.

We had the Communist Revolution in Russia.  It resulted in the deaths of Czar Nicholas II and his family and the installation of a totalitarian government that acted as a good foil for militarists in the United States for the next few decades.

More to follow

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 4

The parallels you see in history are fascinating.  At the turn of the 19th century the United States found itself involved in a war in the Philippines.  It was in many ways an early version of the Vietnam War.

The Philippines had previously been a Spanish colony.  Spain gave up control of the Philippines as part of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War.

The Philippine war lasted three years.  4,200 Americans died in the war and an estimated 20,000 Filipino combatants were killed.  An astonishing 200,000 civilians died as a result of the war, famine, and disease.

Just as in Vietnam a few decades later, the U. S. enjoyed a vast superiority in military technology.  The Filipinos found conventional warfare ineffective.  Just as the Viet Cong did later on, the Filipinos engaged in guerrilla warfare.  Even the topography was similar to Vietnam.

Both sides committed atrocities.  Both sides used torture.  That is also a parallel with more modern history.

Aggressive foreign policy that involves the use of the military has been a hallmark of conservative politicians.  The Philippine war was a result of the conservative McKinley administration's policies.  The policies were carried out by President Theodore Roosevelt after McKinley's assassination.

Famed writer Mark Twain was a prominent opponent of the Philippine war.  Twain wrote "A War Prayer" and blasted the hypocrisy of people who proclaim their virtue while carrying out atrocities in colonial wars.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 3

After the Civil War ended, the United States entered a period that has been called the Gilded Age.

The Gilded Age saw technical progress and expansion of U. S. territory and influence.  It also saw the development of the some of the great fortunes that still exist today.  Men like Andrew Carnegie and J. D. Rockefeller built financial empires.  They were largely free from governmental restraint.

Things were not so pleasant for working class people.  There was no social safety net in those days except for what could be provided by churches and private charities.  It wasn't only African-Americans who suffered discrimination.  Newly-arrived immigrants from Ireland, Italy, and other countries faced discrimination.

We saw completion of great railroads, largely with federal government help.  It was the equivalent in some ways of government research that developed the Internet and other technologies in our day.

There was movement toward giving women the right to vote.  It was resisted strenuously by the reactionary forces of the time.

As the century turned, we had a war with Spain.  The war was justified because of an apparent attack on the United States battleship "Maine" in Havana Harbor.  The Fox News of the day was probably William Randolph Hearst, a practitioner of "yellow journalism."  Hearst pounded the drums for a war with Spain.  The Spanish-American war may  have been the equivalent of George W. Bush's trumped up reasons for attacking  Iraq.

More to come

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 2

After the Civil War ended, there was a transition period in which the defeated South was treated much as a defeated country would be treated.  United States troops occupied parts of the South.  There was a desire by some in the North to punish the South for the Civil War.

There was also positive movement toward giving African-Americans rights as free people.  Passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution made African-Americans, in theory, equal citizens of the United States.  But the right wing backlash was already developing.

Political forces in the South were determined to subvert the Constitution whenever and wherever they could when it came to rights for African-Americans.  Extralegal groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, a group dedicated to white supremacy, were also created.  The Ku Klux Klan was committed to intimidating African-Americans and subverting the voting process.

If African-Americans couldn't be scared away from the polls, there were other devices put in place to suppress their votes such as the poll tax.  The poll tax was highly discriminatory against poor people and most African-Americans were obviously poor.  Other obstacles such as "literacy tests" were implemented to make it almost impossible for African-Americans to qualify as voters.

More to follow

A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 1

When you read American history you can see an undercurrent of right wing philosophy from the beginning of the United States as a sovereign nation.

Prior to ratification of the Constitution, the law of the land was the Articles of Confederation, which epitomized the idea of "states' rights."  The federal government was weak and largely ineffectual. It was so bad it prompted political leaders to call for a constitutional convention to replace the Articles.

The members of the constitutional convention hammered out the Constitution, the document we see today.  The Constitution is a document filled with compromises and fear of a federal government that would be too strong.  We got the so-called "checks and balances" system that creates three co-equal branches of government:  the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.  Even the legislative branch is split into two houses as a form of compromise.  The House of Representatives might be considered a  democratic body because the number of members of based on the population of the individual states.  The Senate has two members from each state, regardless of population, and makes it a decidedly undemocratic body.

Even the checks and balances system didn't satisfy the conservatives of the time.  They demanded a Bill of Rights that would place even further restraints on federal government power.

Conservatives of the time got their way by making African-Americans 3/5's of a person because that increased the power of the southern slave-holding states.

Thomas Jefferson was one of the earliest and most prominent advocates of states' rights.  Jefferson was a slave-holding southerner.    The concept of states' rights is a direct assault on the idea of a strong federal government.  It says, in effect, that each state has power equal to that of the federal government.

Slavery was the hot button issue in the early days of the United States.  The southern states depended on the free labor provided by slaves to bolster their economies.  The northern states began moving toward a more manufacturing based economy, not based on slave labor.  Southerners were concerned that the federal government would move in a direction that would restrict or perhaps even eliminate slavery.  We got compromises such as the Mason-Dixon line.

Conservative doctrines such as "manifest destiny" and the "only good Indian is a dead Indian" came into play.  But the world was moving away from the use of slavery and conservatives worried that slavery would be banished.

The election of Abraham Lincoln is an interesting parallel to the election of Barack Obama.  Lincoln's election was a landmark moment. Conservatives feared that Lincoln would finally abolish slavery and that led to the firing on the United States Fort Sumter by forces of the rebel Confederacy  and the launch of the agonizing and brutal American Civil War. I think we can say the conservatives of the era were primarily responsible for the Civil War.

More to follow.

FIRE UP THE RAIL

The modern Republican party doesn't believe in governing.  It believes in obstruction, lying, smearing, demonizing its opponents, distorting history and the Constitution, and outright hypocrisy.

We now have the spectacle of a government shutdown because the Republicans don't like the health care law that was passed by a previous Congress. Never mind that the new health care law is modeled on a law one of their own, Mitt Romney, implemented while he was governor of Massachusetts.  Never mind that millions of Americans have done without health insurance.  Never mind that other industrialized nations have left the United States in the dust when it comes to providing for the basic needs of their citizens.  About the only area where the United States is Number One now is the size and scope of its military.

I think we need to fire up the proverbial rail and run Republicans out of power wherever and whenever they present themselves.  They are clearly not interested in serving the needs of the American people except for their rich friends and corporate backers.

WARM UP THE RAIL

We've gone through the latest tawdry display in Congress over the so-called "fiscal cliff."  Republicans these days think governing requires putting the shaft deeply into the backs of workers and middle class Americans.

So we got this deal that is like sticking chewing gum to plug a leak and before long we'll be back to it again.  The Congressional Republicans couldn't even find it in their craven little hearts to pass legislation to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.  They're even getting blasted by other Republicans.

I think it's time to warm up the rail to provide a hasty exit from Washington and government for the Republican party.  They don't represent the interests of most of us.  They don't care about the country.  They care about their fat cat donors and that's it.