GOP Values

I was watching “Up with Chris Hayes”  yesterday and Professor Melissa Harris Perry a MSNBC contributor made the comment that Newt Gingrich has stated the GI Bill after WWII was one of the most important piece of legislation the Congress of the US has ever written. The GI Bill was a major reason the Middle Class grew to record heights. It allowed the men and women who came home from the war to go to college and become the dentist, doctors, lawyers, educators and so on and on of America. It allowed for a more educated population which led to better paying jobs and the foundation of the modern American Middle Class.

The GI Bill was the greatest public investment in Human Capital. Prior to WWII the American worker was broken. The Great Depression had decimated the middle class and the American worker. People were in despair. Roosevelt had “fire side” chats via the radio with the American people to boost their spirits. The war gave the American people the self pride and national pride to launch the greatest counter attack in the history of war.  This pride was fueled by Nationalism and a very real treat of our existence from world dictatorships.

World War II not only showed the world, the power of the American people, it showed the American people they could accomplish anything.  The men and women who held this country together became our future leaders. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, O’Neil, Dole, Reagan, all men who changed the face of America, turning it into a Super Power it is today.

The investment in Human Capital was just the first step in the growth of the country. The next step was the investment in the infrastructure of the land. The Interstate Highway System, the Inter - Coastal Waterway, bridges, dams, the electric grid, ports, and so on and so forth. The country grew and so did the middle class.

The politicians who rose to the leadership from both sides of the aisle worked together because it was good for America. The common good was more important than party ideology. The countries middle class grew, the rich got theirs and the total wealth of the country grew to an astonishing $160Trillion dollar, and the number of people who were left behind from the depression, who were still in poverty, shrunk to the lowest levels in the history of the country.

The end of the World War II also brought many African American men and women back home from war. They also felt the new found pride in self experienced by white America. They also came home from Europe and Asia believing the freedom they just helped the people of England, France and the rest of the allies win, would be waiting for them when they got home. President Truman integrated the Army before the war was over, the African American population wanted the same as everyone else did and while helping to rebuild Europe and Japan they experienced rights, privileges and freedoms never experienced before at home.

The recovery from the Depression, World War II and the Rebuilding of America and the rest of the free world, was all paid for. Americans were making great deals of money; home ownership was a real opportunity for many America. The industrial base of the country grew and as more money was made the USA grew to be the greatest economy in the history of man. All of this was made possible by taxes, hard work and leaders who cared about the American Dream for all of its citizens not just the few wealthy at the top of the economic chain.

The returning African Vets had a very rude awakening when they stepped back on American soil. Racism and bigotry were alive and well. I do not believe anyone thought segregation was just going to go away but the taste of respect and self worth was the fuel behind people like Jackie Robinson to stand up to the white establishment and say I am a man and I want the same as any other man.

The American Civil Rights movement was born and many people became threatened by the rise of the African American people and their fight for equality.  Old habits are hard to break and many white Americans had a hatred for black Americans based on nothing more than their completion.  

The divide between North and South was now defined by one issue and one issue only, race. The segregation of black Americans in southern states was the norm and many white southerners believed giving equal rights to black Americans would lead to their demise as a people. That fear and those anxieties were used by many in political power to foster the current Republican Party. 

This was very evident in the South Carolina primary and the results confirm my thinking. Newt Gingrich was approached by a supporter, “Thank you for putting that Juan Williams in his place” she said. That one sentence in response to Newt Gingrich’s flippant answer to Juan Williams’ question posed to him at a South Carolina debate, “Do you see how, when you say black children should become the janitors of the schools they attend because it will give them money, and a job is insensitive at best?” “No,” was his offhand answer along with yet another tirade on the subject of African American children growing up in neighborhoods where no adults work and how liberals have created a class of people who do not see a value in work or responsibility. The audience, at the debate venue went into raucous applause at his attacks on people in poverty, African Americans and liberal politics. 

Just what did that woman mean when she told Mr. Gingrich thank you for putting that Juan Williams in his place? What place is that? That place in the past where a black man could not question a white man? Is that the place she was referring to?

People in poverty, African American, immigrants and in general anyone who is not white, straight or thinks differently than they do, have been the punching bag of the GOP this primary season all the while GOP candidates have spouted Family Values, the American Dream, and ultra right wing ideology.

The disdain for Barack Obama and his family has its roots in that same thinking as the woman in South Carolina.  How dare a black man think he can tell a white man what to do or question his authority?  The hatred and I mean hatred, which is felt for Barack Obama has no other explanation.

His policies are not much different than most moderate Republicans. Obama’s foreign policy is basically a mirror image of Bush’s. All the time lines for the pull outs of Iraq and Afghanistan were set in stone long before Obama came to office and most conservative military observers have nothing to complain about when it comes to Barack Obama’s defense plan for the country. Obama has accomplished so much more than the Bush administration ever did in world affairs. He did get OBL and he showed how to help the Libyan Insurgency over throw Qaddafi without using ground forces or having any casualties.

The Affordable Care Act can’t be a reason to hate a person, can it be? Mitt Romney and the Republican think tank The Heritage Foundation not only supported mandated health insurance, Romney brought the same philosophy to Massachusetts in his own mandated health care law. Just the use of the term "ObamaCare" is a derogatory synonym for the ACA and meant to demean the President.

Maybe it’s the deficit, but then Bush ran up almost $10Trillion in debt with unfunded wars, a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan,Tax cuts for the wealthy and the Wall St. bailout? The rich are living better than anyone in this economy and have been for a long time. The top 10% have not felt the sting of a recession and Obama has not touched the tax code at all. The rich are still making money hand over fist with no stop in sight.

So what is it? Why do many in the GOP hate Barack Obama? There can be only one conclusion and that conclusion is, the hatred projected at Barack Obama, is caused by the color of his skin.  I am not saying all people who call themselves Republican or Conservative fall into the hate group, but I am saying many in the GOP both in their leadership and in their rank and file are flat out bigots, racist and reactionary.

The GOP talks a real good game when it comes to Christian and Family Values. Last time I read the teachings of Christ, hate, segregation and discrimination would be against the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. They have convinced many poor and middle class white people that they, the GOP is the defender of everything Christian, the defender of babies, the defender of the Constitution, and the defender of the status quo.

Bob Dylan sang many years ago “some people don’t have much food on the table and they have to cut something.” That something is black people. Poor whites just had to put down someone because rich white folk put them down and no one wants to be below or equal to ex slaves.

That thinking has been used by white politicians since before the Civil War creating animosity where there was none, developing the thinking of superiority and promoting class warfare.  Hard working blue collar white folk have been used by the GOP for the last 50 years, telling them they can be rich like them and they too can experience the American Dream like they do. Unfortunately the only dreams poor whites have experienced are bad dreams where factory close and blue-collar jobs are shipped overseas by the same GOP leaders who use Capitalism and free trade to explain their anti labor behavior.

Over the last year the GOP has tried to reverse worker gains made by the New Deal and if they could I am sure the Civil Rights act, the Clean Water Act and any legislation that helped create the country it is today. States like my current home State of Tennessee have instituted voter ID laws that have infringed on the voting rights of the elderly and poor of all races. The sole purpose is to disenfranchise voters. Studies have been made and the data is in, the number of people committing voter fraud is less than .01% of votes cast. In today’s electronic age does anyone really believe elections will be rigged by people at the polls? The threat of voter fraud is much more likely to come from one person with a computer. 

The GOP sees the hand writing on the wall. Their numbers are dwindling and they know it. The complexion of the country is changing, and they do not want to share in the wealth, status or power. These laws are nothing more than a new form of Jim Crow.

The country was bleeding when Barack Obama became President and it was his policies that stopped the hemorrhaging. The economy is coming around. The country has seen almost two years of employment growth and we all know there is much more to do and the country is far from out of the woods. The GOP has tried as hard as they could to stall the economy and force Obama out of office on the backs of a shrinking middle class and an ever growing number of people living in poverty.

Setting a bigoted tone, attacking people in poverty or using the filibuster to stop the recovery is not just wrong, it is un - American. The GOP has abdicated any serious consideration from the middle class and none at all from people in poverty to have them elected for any position of leadership. I know there are many conservatives out there who believe in true conservative principals and not the rhetoric coming from the current GOP leadership.  I also know the number of people who think like them are dwindling, they are dinosaurs and that thinking is old, out dated and seen its day.