Tag Archives: Obama

Ukraine

International Politics, Politics, , , , , ,

I had planed to write about the 60’s and domestic politics this week but it would seem that Russia and Putin had other ideas.  All I really want to point out is just how silly all of the anti Obama people are acting.  These are the same folks who decried the people who dared questioned the reasons for the 2nd Iraq war.  They told everyone that we should support the President when we were in an ‘international crisis’.  Even one of our own making.  It was the patriotic thing to do, the right thing to do.

Well, now we are in an international crisis that was non of our doing and these same people are telling everyone who will  listen that it is all Pres. Obama’s fault, that he is weak, that he is not acting strong enough with Putin and the Russians.  All this even before we know just what we and our allies in Europe are doing or trying to do.  These same people who have forgotten that G.W. Bush said that he had looked into the eyes of Putin and saw his soul and this was a man we could work with.

I expect that the response to this observation is that GW was talking about himself & the GOP working with Putin, not Obama and the Dems.  I say this, I feel that all Presidents speak for the US in international politics and not for themselves and definitely not for any one political party.  I believe that GW Bush was speaking for the US.

Inclosing I just want to point out that this is a great opportunity for the anti-Obama folks who felt we should to support the President in time of international crisis to tell tell all those folks now attacking the President to sit down, shut-up and let the President do his job with out all there carping.

What we can expect to see in a HRC Presidentcy

Politics, , , ,

220px-Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropYes, it is two plus years till we need to really worry about who should be President but I’ve been hear quite a lot on “Hillary” Clinton running once more.  There is enough, more than enough, time to talk about her qualifications and liabilities.  What I want to talk about here is what we, the country,  can expect to see if she is elected.

I’m not talking about what can be expected from her, her administration, or the Democrats in Congress.  I want to address the reactions from the right.  We’ve had six plus years of the Obama Presidency, the first non-white Presidency and we’ve seen some very strong reactions from the right.  I think it is reasonable to make some extrapolations on their, conservatives, reaction to the first Woman, non-male, President.

First, I expect a strong effort to de-legitimatize her election on the same order as the ‘Birther’ attacks on Obama.  But!  I do not expect any effort to say she is not a citizen, natural born or not.  If the election is close look for people talking about how it was ‘stolen’ by voter ‘fraud’ and machine politics of the cities.  I think this because I see that the GOP has been quite successful in playing to American conservative disdain and horror of anything not Small Town/Rural.  While I expect there will be some misogynistic at work I think it has more to deal with hate & fear of change and the new than of women.  By 2016, the conservative movement will have had to deal with eight years of  new and change and they have had more than enough.  They will be pushing even harder for someone who is ‘just like me’, who represents ‘things as they were and the way they should be’.  I dread what there reaction will be if faced with eight more years of things going/being wrong.

Does this mean I’m not in favor of   a woman being President? No.  Of  Hillary Clinton being President?   Again No.  What I am saying is we must be prepared for the reaction of some of those members of the conservative movement who are ready, willing and able to do what ever is needed to appose anything done by Hillary, just because she is doing it.  We need to be ready for them not to compromise on anything, not because they are bad or evil, but because they are good people who happen to believe that compromise with Hillary (or the left) means ‘compromising with the devil’.  Many feel that they are ‘compromising more than enough’ when they let the left join them in doing something, anything.  We have seen this type of activity and thought for the last few years and we can expect more to come as the 2016 election approaches.

We have been in this same situation many times in our history and I dare say we will be in this situation in the future.  I submit for you consideration that there are a great many similarities between now and the 50’s and 60’s.  Not the causes mind you, but with what is happening, how people are acting and reacting.  The danger this country faces now is the rise of the unscrupulous politician(s).  People like Huey (Kingfish) P. Long  of the 30s or Joe McCarthy of the 50s.  These people can do a great deal of harm before they are brought down.  But more dangerous are the people who honestly believe they are doing what is right, for the best of the country, and who are just dead wrong.  These people can not be brought down, they can only be apposed.  More about them at another time.  For now it is enough for us to deal with the unscrupulous politician.  These people can make a new Clinton Presidency a living hell.