Steve of the Aging Hipster Blog had an excellent post this weekend debunking Harry Truman. For at least 3 decades, Truman has been in the Pantheon of Great or Near-Great Presidents – someone who supposedly stood up for principle and scorned the gales of popular opinion.
As usual, this is bunkum. Steve lays out how Truman paved the way for subsequent presidents to commence wars in contempt of the Constitution, Congress, and the American people.
I hope Steve is a bellwether among enlightened Democrats. He is a big Kucinich supporter who also has kind words for Ron Paul. He is a high school teacher and coach who is writing a history of the Mississippi regiment in the Civil War in which one of his ancestors served. His Aging Hipster blog is a lot of fun, even for people not from the Deep South.
This congruence of philosophy held by certain wings of “conservative” and “liberal” thought has been brewing for some time now and it may be the only good thing…. if only as a reaction….. to come out of this current government and its’ descent into a kind of bulemic manifest idiocy.
Pragmatic Americans of all political pursuasions have been given a brilliant tutorial on what not to do and though it will take time, the inevitable worsening of an irredeemable government will insure that more Americans will slowly come to their senses. Unfortunately, it is a fair bet that our destination lies on the other side of a devastating self-inflicted catastrophe that may very well create an atmosphere where all bets are off. We are already seeing talk of a swing of the pendulum back to leftist policies as some kind of ameliorating effect. The current popular “leftism” is just as bad as the current popular “rightists” because they mirror one another’s special interest dysfunctions. Look at the state of partisan politics today and one can find its’ closest parallel in the Omerta of organized crime.
This era’s spectacle driven “us vs. them” nature of politics flies directly in the face of the Framers intent. They established a creaking and cumbersome machinery that was powered by dialectic. History, Reasoned debate, Intellectualism and Compromise were not the pejorative they have become in our time. Sure, character assasination, cynical use of the press, acid partisanship and self-interest were alive and well then just as now but there remained impressed on the generation of the Founders a certain respect for the basic dialectic and it’s power to overcome our more base instincts. When we return to this mode of thinking , the world will welcome back an America that lost it’s way during a severe bout of fear-induced amnesia that followed an extended period of self-absorbed narcissism.We may in fact be better off for it.
The caveat to all this is , of course the nasty junkyard dog of a standing army that would have made George Washington chew clean through his American Basswood Dentures. Hidebound Federalists would look at this current crypto-military government and brand it as the pox it most surely is.
Kucinich is anti gun.
“In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, Kucinich proposed a plan that he says will address violence in America. Kucinich is currently drafting legislation that includes a ban on the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of handguns by civilians.
The congressman has pushed for gun control, even as a city councilman. He did carry a handgun for a period of time in 1978 (under the recommendation of the police) when he was the target of a mafia plot.” [W]
At Sierra Leone Africans had faced barbaric war conditions for about 10 years. The alleged reason was blood diamonds or conflict diamonds. Finally the UN and British intervened. The real reason the sheep suffered so much was because they were unarmed.
” On January 18, 2002 President Kabbah declared the civil war officially over; an estimated 50,000 people were killed, and hundreds of people had their arms or legs hacked off by rebels. That same year, the Sierra Leone Government and the United Nations agreed to set up war crimes court in Freetown.”
Wherever you find atrocity you also find unarmed citizens. Gov’t is our worst enemy.
…The State never abdicates unless confronted by a superior Political force. One willing, capable and intent upon achieving unilateral demands. Thus faced with success, this not only presupposes the respective formation of yet another State ensure its own Dominion. But usually one even more Draconian than that which it has supplanted. Revolts are not thought through and promoted to ensure Democracy, Liberty and Equality etc., etc. But moreover to found a relative Tyranny.
…In other words we’re our own worst enemies.
Ahh yes , but Ron Paul’s campaign netted another few million bucks yesterday, I have seen Robert Taft’s name mentioned in three separate and disparate publications recently, actually heard the phrase “Austrian School of Economics” on the feckless telly and even saw a reference to Albert J. Nock in a newspaper the other day. We are seeing not just the “morning in America” and “lets chat” cant in American politics now but some real thinking and recall beginning to flicker…. if only to distance the vocal thinker from the huge edifice of cognitive dissonance we, as a society seem so content within. The tanker is poised for a course cortrection.
Four years ago, I would have said I’d never vote for another Texan again, even if the only opponant to a new Karl Marx was a Texan. But, we have the good Mr. Paul making headway against dismissive critics on both sides and gaining friends….on both sides in the process. This amateurish public is woefully inadequate to the demands of a civil society with the type of government Mr. Paul advocates but so were the Soviets and they are moving slowly forward out of the Socialist quicksand. As a confirmed cynic, I detect a whiff of hope …kind of like coming to with a compound fracture but finding a cold beer next to an opener in the middle of a train wreck.
Great progress in this Republic never came on the heels of happy afternoons, it usually arrived caked in mud.
Ladies and gents, start wallowin.
I’ve noticed politicians mentioning the constitution with a bit more frequency, and while I think it inappropriate for them to discuss that which they do not understand, there is the remote possibility that all this talk might lead just a coulple people to realize we actually have one. The step from there to thinking that it might contain a good idea or two is another matter of course…but it is a start. At the very least, with the continued success of Ron Paul’s money-making its a comfort to realize that thirty thousand other people realize just what a mess awaits. Now if they vote….
alcohol sales should go up if nothing else.