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Friday, March 29 2024 @ 07:07 AM CDT

To the GOP: I still like Ike

Age of Reason

By Mary MacElveen

In listening to tonight’s Republican debates held at the Reagan Library, I went into the mindset of being a Republican and having to choose between all ten candidates. What most of my readers may not know is that at one time, I was a Republican.
It was during the nineties when I witnessed the extremist right-wing religious faction take hold of the party, it left me wondering if there was room for moderate Republicans within the party. The last straw for me was when this new brand of Republicans impeached President Clinton. That is when I switched to Democrat. I did not leave them, they left me. Even if I stayed, I would have realized my beliefs would not be mirrored within it. Leaving a party is a hard decision, because it becomes a person’s identity. If truth be told, I do not always vote straight party line, and never have. I vote for the person whose beliefs best mirror mine.

During that political Salem-witch-hunt known as the Clinton impeachment, this new brand of Republicans foolishly derailed the nation’s business when it came to terrorism. Not to excuse the former President for bad acts, but was it really in our best interests as a nation to go that route? One only has to look at September 11th as a prime example. Perhaps if this new brand of Republicans were doing their job, leaving President Clinton to do his and more importantly working together, those that died on September 11th, would still be alive today. Was the impeachment of Pres. Clinton that important?

Instead of listening for divine intervention, all should have been listening to the intelligence reports which told all of us of that Osama bin Laden was coming after us. Speaking of Osama bin Laden, while Senator McCain said he would chase him to the gates of hell. Where was the collective voice of all ten candidates calling President Bush a failure in his failure of capturing the mastermind of September 11th? Wasn’t it that attack that led us down this road in the first place? Former Gov. Mitt Romney said of Osama bin Laden, "It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay and he will die." To, Gov. Romney, try telling that to the 3,000 plus victims who died on September 11th, that it’s more than Osama bin Laden. You may wish to remind President Bush of his promise to capture this terrorist when he said he would capture him “Dead or alive.”

Speaking of terrorism, two terrorists responsible for the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center whose names are Ramzi Yousef and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman are currently spending life in prison. They are housed at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

When the Oklahoma City bombing took place two domestic terrorists were captured, tried and convicted. One was Timothy McVeigh who suffered the ultimate punishment, the death penalty and Terry Nichols received a life sentence. He is currently housed at Supermax in Florence, Colorado.

Even the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski who terrorized many was finally caught. To avoid the death penalty, Kaczynski entered into a plea agreement, under which he pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. He too is housed at the Supermax prison.

Many Republicans just love to blame former President Clinton for September 11th. During his administration, five terrorists were caught and actually punished. Oh and here is the rub, they actually were responsible for these acts of terrorism unlike Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks.

In listening to the saber rattling coming from these Republican candidates, I am of the opinion that all wish to police the world and use our military to further imprint our way of life on other countries namely the Middle East. As the domestic agenda suffers at home, one has to ask these candidates; what about our way of life?

Have these Republican candidates learned nothing from our illegal invasion into Iraq? The only one who did not vote to authorize our invasion was Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. In fact, he was the only candidate that reminded all of us of the value of our United States Constitution which has been ripped to shreds during this current Republican administration. Paul even reminded all of Habeas Corpus which makes us very American. It defines us from the terrorists we are currently fighting.

While candidates such as former Gov. Jim Gilmore, former NYC mayor, Rudy Giuliani, former Gov. Mitt Romney, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Gov. Tommy Thompson were not authorized to vote for this invasion, I did not hear a real change in direction from the current Bush policy. Senator John McCain, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Duncan Hunter who voted for this war want to continue our military presence in that country.

I have often spoke of the blow-back affect and wonder what blow-backs await us down the road due to the lies that led to this invasion of Iraq. When you have killed over 600,000 Iraqis and displaced millions more; one wonders of the blow-back that awaits us all.

What I was hoping to hear in tonight’s debate was for one of them state that they would extricate our troops from Iraq and divorce themselves from a failed foreign policy. I was hoping to hear that one would see diplomacy as our best answer to calming a volatile world. No such luck!

In watching a CNN report of a soldier who came home from Iraq having lost two legs in which he counted himself lucky, one must wonder how many more soldiers will come home just like him. My faith tells me that the soldiers who have died are with their creator, but it is the ones that come home wounded they will suffer this war for the rest of their lives. How many more must we put through this meat grinder?

Speaking of the world, I wonder how this debate was seen through the eyes of the international community as we have isolated ourselves due to President Bush’s foreign policy. It was this statement made in Pres. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation made on January 17th, 1961 that came to mind, “Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.” How I wish that the Republican Party would go back to his guiding principles.

The AP reported that these candidates “called for lower taxes and a muscular defense and supported spending restraint.” If I were still a Republican, I would be listening for the wisdom of the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower to come forth. He always warned us of the military industrial complex and military spending. You cannot cut taxes and continue to fight this non-ending war. In fighting this un-ending war what spending restraint will be forth coming? Something has to give.

President Eisenhower once said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” Now that was true compassionate conservatism and he was my kind of Republican. I often wonder if there are Republicans that still carry the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower and more importantly; where are they?

When it comes to this muscular defense the late Pres. Eisenhower also stated in his farewell address, “We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” Those are wise words that came from a wise man.

I also noticed that the majority of these Republican candidates placed their faith in God or even just faith itself at the center of their debate in order to cater to the religious right. What about the more moderate Republicans who may not see it as being that important? I wonder how many blue-collar and moderate Republicans have found themselves working on Sundays in order to make ends meet due to Bush’s failed domestic policy. One must wonder if their faith in God has been tested as many have lost their jobs, do not have health care and have lost their homes.

What I also noticed is that all believed in the sanctity of life itself especially when it came to Terrie Schiavo and abortion. Yet, how can they be pro-life when many innocent Iraqis are dying including children? How can they be pro-life when many Iraqi mothers are terrified in giving birth due to our use of depleted uranium? Many of their babies are born with hideous birth defects. Even the offspring of our soldiers succumb to these same birth defects due to these munitions. How many Iraqis have succumbed to the same fate as Terrie Schiavo? How many Iraqis are now in a persistent vegetative state due to this war? How many soldiers have come home brain damaged? While not as severe, but one that I can commiserate with since I am an epileptic, Newsday reported on March 29th, that some soldiers with brain injuries can develop epilepsy. There is no dignity as one convulses.

If I were still a Republican, I would urge all of these candidates not to invoke Reagan’s name as they did so many times, but to read the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to our nation {posted below}. There are many great lessons from that speech and other past speeches made by this once great president. If the Republican Party kept to his principles and not veered right, I would still be a Republican today. I highly doubt that President Eisenhower would have approved of the militarization of space, but to feed the needs of America’s people.

http://www.marymacelveen.com












Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation
January 17, 1961

Good evening, my fellow Americans: First, I should like to express my gratitude to the radio and television networks for the opportunity they have given me over the years to bring reports and messages to our nation. My special thanks go to them for the opportunity of addressing you this evening.

Three days from now, after a half century of service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on questions of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the nation.

My own relations with Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and finally to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the nation well rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the nation should go forward. So my official relationship with Congress ends in a feeling on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.

To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people.

Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in the newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research – these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in light of a broader consideration; the need to maintain balance in and among national programs – balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages – balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between the actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well in the face of threat and stress.

But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise.

Of these, I mention two only.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

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.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war – as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years – I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

So – in this my last good night to you as your President – I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I – my fellow citizens – need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nations' great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Now, on Friday noon, I am to become a private citizen. I am proud to do so. I look forward to it.

Thank you, and good night

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/


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