Posts tagged Ronald Reagan

There’s a PC on the Right

32
5 months ago
by Michael Weiss in

Shining-Saint-Reagan-300x232For decades, the term “polit­i­cally cor­rect” has been used almost exclu­sively to describe a lib­eral mind­set. In the 1990s, as part of the Gin­grich Rev­o­lu­tion, it became a pejo­ra­tive used by the right against Democ­rats. Yet, along the way, the under­ly­ing man­i­fes­ta­tion of polit­i­cal cor­rect­ness has become more of a con­ser­v­a­tive con­cept than a lib­eral one.

What under­ly­ing man­i­fes­ta­tion? It’s all about using spe­cific lan­guage, and social rules around the lan­guage, to drive dis­cus­sion. Cer­tain terms are ver­boten, to be replaced by oth­ers designed to instill a set of beliefs.

How did a lib­eral tool become a tool for the right? Like so many of the Repub­li­cans’ prob­lems today, the answer points to Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan.  (more…)

Foreign Policy Forecast

8
5 months ago
by dcpetterson in
President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain...

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama and Sen­a­tor John McCain in a press con­fer­ence, tak­ing place on March 4, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We can use Pres­i­dent Obama’s per­for­mance in his first term to give us an inkling of what the Pres­i­dent might do in his sec­ond term. Last week, I wrote about many of this Administration’s achieve­ments in the area of civil rights. Today, I’ll con­cen­trate on secu­rity and for­eign policy.

This is a par­tic­u­larly use­ful area to dis­cuss, as one of the crit­i­cisms lev­eled against then-​​candidate Obama dur­ing the 2008 cam­paign was his inex­pe­ri­ence in for­eign mat­ters. This was, indeed, one of the per­ceived strengths of his cam­paign oppo­nent, Sen­a­tor John McCain, as rank­ing Repub­li­can on the Sen­ate Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, dec­o­rated war hero, and undis­puted heavy­weight in mil­i­tary and for­eign pol­icy. A look at how Barack Obama has fared in a field where he wasn’t thought of as hav­ing much knowl­edge could also tell us how well his is likely to do in fac­ing the unex­pected chal­lenges we will undoubt­edly have to face over the next four years.

(more…)

The Eighth Word?

65
10 months ago
by dcpetterson in
Went to see GC in Trenton on 4/4/08. His openi...

Seven Words

On this Fourth of July, on the two hun­dred thirty-​​sixth anniver­sary of the sign­ing of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence (or the date on the doc­u­ment, any­way), let’s take a look at one of our most cher­ished free­doms, next to which nearly every­thing else pales in sig­nif­i­cance: the free­dom of speech. With­out this free­dom, it is impos­si­ble to have a national debate, impos­si­ble to have a dis­cus­sion of social issues, impos­si­ble to express dis­sent, or to advance a cause or to wor­ship as we choose. The right to assem­ble or to peti­tion the gov­ern­ment for a redress of griev­ances is mean­ing­less, if you can only say approved things. You can’t run for office against an incum­bent, or rely on the exis­tence of a free press. There is no other right so cen­tral to our democ­racy.

 

But there are lim­its, even on this most basic of free­doms. One is not enti­tled to yell “Fire!” in a crowded the­ater. It is ille­gal to threaten the Pres­i­dent. The Supreme Court, only three years ago, affirmed the right of cor­po­rate per­sons to out-​​shout every­one else.

But per­haps most impor­tantly, forty years ago, George Car­lin gave us the clas­sic descrip­tion of the seven words you can’t say on tele­vi­sion. This puts lim­its on every­day speech by every­day per­sons. Recently, it seems, there has been an addi­tion to the for­bid­den words. This addi­tion has had a chill­ing effect on our pol­i­tics, our pri­or­i­ties, and even our privileges.

I am talk­ing about the most obscene word in Amer­i­can cul­tural lan­guage today, the word that makes strong men faint and war heroes trem­ble, the sin­gle word that can destroy a polit­i­cal career or even cause a land­slide to back­fire, the Pol­icy That Dare Not Speak Its Name. I am talk­ing about the word (shield your eyes and whis­per it in secret): tax. (more…)

Slouching Toward November

0
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

In his State of the Union speech, Pres­i­dent Obama gave a pre­view of the themes we can expect to see in his reëlec­tion cam­paign. It was a soar­ing and forward-​​looking speech, express­ing opti­mism and acknowl­edg­ing the moun­tain of work there remains to do. In the Florida pri­mary, we got a pre­view of what the Repub­li­can side of that cam­paign is likely to be.

There was a car­pet­bomb­ing of tele­vised adver­tis­ing. Nearly all the ads in the last week — 92 per­cent — were neg­a­tive attack ads. Mitt Romney’s cam­paign out­spent Newt Gin­grich by at least three to one. Less than 0.1 per­cent of Romney’s ads were pos­i­tive things about Rom­ney. The other 99.9 per­cent were attacks on Newt or the Pres­i­dent or both. Newt him­self was no slouch in the neg­a­tive depart­ment. Look to the left for a photo of Newt hold­ing up a sign com­par­ing “Rom­n­ey­care” to “Oba­macare”, with Rom­ney painted in the Joker face that got plas­tered on Pres­i­dent Obama in Tea Party signs from 2009.

The les­son we can take from the Florida Repub­li­can pri­mary is that it is mid­night in America.

(more…)

Reagan the RINO

43
1 year ago
by CaptainPlatypus in


Editor’s Note: We enjoy hav­ing the oppor­tu­nity to include arti­cles from guest writ­ers. Today, Pauly Platy­pus is pleased to present this post by his cousin, Captain.

Say you’re the Pres­i­dent of the United States. The country’s in the mid­dle of a reces­sion, unemployment’s over 10%, and you’re faced with a severe bud­get deficit. What do you do?

If your answer was “sign a bill with a mix of tax increases and spend­ing reduc­tions”, con­grat­u­la­tions. You may be the late Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan. (more…)

Lose One for the Gipper

8
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

We are wit­ness this cam­paign sea­son to some­thing that has not hap­pened in a long time — a nation­wide inter­nal fight among Repub­li­cans. Democ­rats do this all the time. Repub­li­cans usu­ally have more dis­ci­pline. Why is it hap­pen­ing? Why is it hap­pen­ing now?

Ronald Rea­gan insti­tuted an Eleventh Com­mand­ment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fel­low Repub­li­can.” This edict served the party well, and, sur­pris­ingly, it lasted for some three decades. I cat­e­go­rize this as a “sur­prise,” because politi­cians are inher­ently an ambi­tious, ego­tis­tic, and self-​​centered bunch. It takes a spe­cial kind of chutz­pah to run for elected office, and to believe any­one wants to vote for you. Peo­ple with that much ambi­tion and inflated self-​​esteem nat­u­rally feel it’s their right to use what­ever under­handed tools will help them get ahead.

(more…)

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