GOP Using Reagan ~ What A Brilliant Plan for the Democratic Party

 

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Saturday, May 05, 2007 GOP Using Reagan ~ What A Brilliant Plan for the Democratic Party

Friday May 4, 2007 Guardian Unlimited GOP Contenders Embrace Reagan Legacy By LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press Writer

``Ronald Reagan was a president of strength,'' Mitt Romney intoned. ``Ronald Reagan used to say, we spend money like a drunken sailor,'' said John McCain. And Rudy Giuliani praised ``that Ronald Reagan optimism.''

May 4, 2007 New York Times By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARC SANTORA ’08 Republicans Differ on Defining Party's Future

"Three of the candidates — Mr. Huckabee, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado — raised their hands to signal that they did not believe in evolution."

“I believe we had a president who made the right decision at the right time on Sept. 20, 2001, to put us on offense against terrorists,” Mr. Giuliani said.

"Several Republicans said they believed the intervention by a Republican Congress in that case helped the party lose control of both Houses last years."

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May 5, 2007 Newsweek By Marcus Mabry The Elephant in the Room A majority of Americans believe Bush is not politically courageous:

In the early 1980s I was a young Mom and wife, part of and related by marriage to a generational working class family. I had the desire to stay home for one year before my youngest went off to kindergarten. I also came up with a plan to earn money for our family, because we would be hard pressed, much worse off if I didn't do something to add to my husbands paycheck.

Off I went to set up child care services for parents who worked evening shifts. I found a balance and a demand that worked well with my husbands schedule and my services were in great demand. There were lot's of parent around our school district who needed someone they could trust, to watch their child while they worked at a factory or at the packing house.

The challenge though was in choosing who I would do the child care for. I had to limit the number of children, preferably to two families with two children each. This way I would still have the most important reason I was doing this, in front of me....my children. Compatibility just fell into place and all of the children got along well.

That year was a time I will never regret. The time with my children was invaluable. But, thanks to my principled ways, I ended up costing my family more money at tax time. All the savings, menu and healthy meal planning, bargains, coupons and other cost savings efforts, all of that effort was erased with Reaganomics. Other mothers who did child care, repeatedly told me not to report my child care earnings.

I had called our tax person before I started up, just to make sure I was doing everything the legal way. I was assured that we would be good, our HUD home, homestead and my husbands paycheck from the factory would allow for me to do child care in my home without financial risk to us personally.

I had a very limited number of children, no desire to become licensed and I did plan to go out of the home to work in a year. I tracked the costs of the meals that I provided, I itemized, itemized and itemized. At the end of the year 1985, I thought I had done well in keeping costs down without sacrificing quality. We were told at tax time 1986, we were required to pay both State and federal tax. I was dumbfounded, I had all of my receipts. We weren't well off, we were working class!

My husband was so upset that we had to pay in, that his face turned bright red and then he yelled at me in the car "it was my fault for reporting the child care income!" I felt awful. What had I not done right? I called the tax person back when I wasn't so shaken by the episode in the office. The statement that was made.....the tax codes and laws had changed. The very protection for a working class family under the tax laws had changed drastically in a year!

We didn't have a great savings account, due to the very first to be laid off in his family, my husband had suffered that a few years prior. We had bought our HUD home for $1, that's right $1. The car we had had been given to us by parents. The new truck for my husband was something he needed to have. The health care plan was very sound and we didn't splurge, except to go to the movies. Usually the drive-in during the summer was the place our whole family liked best.

Well, I felt so guilty that 'my' family would now sacrifice because I wanted to stay home for one year with my children. Or, was it they were suffering now because I could never have lied to gain income. Not reporting the income was the same as lying. How could I be a good Mom, a good role model if I was ready to split hairs over whether it was fair or not, to justify lying? It was the law

For my son, I went back to work within three months and for my daughter it was 6 weeks. It was an instinct that I had to pick this time to stay out of the traditional workforce and it was that instinct I went with. I don't think I would have felt so guilty if everyone didn't keep reminding me that I should've kept my mouth shut and my business private. I tried to argue my case to friends and family. It was the law, the law said that if you make a certain amount, you have to report it. It's the law, the law damn it. That simple! That simple?

Those discussions opened a whole new world of knowledge to me. I heard so many stories about so and so and what happened to them when they tried to be honest. Some stories were heart breaking and some stories just made a person mad. We were not in as bad shape as some of the people in the stories, at least not at that point. And we did have family, family who were from the strongest generation of working class workers.

The working class that stood up for their rights and put their unions to wise use, held their union stewards accountable and expected their union to do their job, along with the working class member who stood out in the freezing cold on picket lines for $10.00 a week strike pay. That ultimately got them the health benefits, pension plans and wages that were acceptable. Acceptable within a living range, something re-negotiable if it looked unfair or became unfair.

But the discussions that I was encountering were about working class people, not poor -- poverty entrapped people on public assistance (which my abused abandoned divorced mother of two was forced to apply for when needed). We were talking about people who lived in single family homes in the same town, that had worked all of their lives to build a future.

We were talking about the family whose father was a military officer and his wife who worked at the bank, bouncing checks all over town. The Mom who worked grueling back breaking hours at the packing house to pay her property taxes, the drug addicted man who couldn't get mental health treatment until he over dosed -- he was never the same after that.

Or what about the girl who got pregnant at 16 (on purpose) in order to get out on her own -- she went on AFDC and the school aged child who went around the block and secretly sold their toys and painted rocks to neighbors. Then there was the teenager who sold their prized guitar and stereo at a local flea market. All to help the working class family.

And what about the dad who hid his snow mobile at his parents house, so it wouldn't get taken away in the bankruptcy. He had nothing left except the symbol of his hard work. And not least, the woman who became an exotic dancer and an escort to make sure her children wouldn't go without. She was on the road quite a bit.

And of course not to forget the immigration bashing on the newest ethnic group that packing houses were moving in, to reduce wages and bust any contract remnant left of the union, the union by that time that was already dead. All of these people -- their stories, were emerging into the light of day, but not advancing any farther than in their own small world of toil, into a larger world that had changed. A larger world that had reaganomics stamped all over it. A working class world that was pounded and diminished by Reaganomics.

Hey, anyone who remembers the best of the beginning of the 1980s can't help but remember the WORST of the 1980s during the Reagan years. In our world at the time -- the blue and pink collared one and not to exclude the first level white collar worker, we had many discussions about the Governemnt. We even thought that President Reagan was somones "Puppet." It was absolutely inconceivable that President Reagan would do such a nasty thing, especially to the blue and pink collared worker. It couldn't have been President Reagan's idea, decision and plan.

Now we have Blue, Pink, Gray and White collared workers (and maybe other hues I'm not familiar with) wondering the same about the Bush administration.

I've heard several people exclaim that it couldn't be Bush who has caused all of the problems we face today. They insist without a doubt that it is other deceitful coniving people behind the scene, in his administration.

A few actually believe that the president isn't capable of such heinous thought and action. Here we are today, people think that president Bush may very well be a puppet. And there we were yesterday....1984, I voted for Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.

In 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1986, 1987 - 1988 and 1989, people suspected that Reagan was a puppet president. So 'WHO' was and 'WHO' is pulling all of the strings if that is the case?

It is all about smoke and mirriors, isn't it?

"That's right, GOP, including all of your factions -- even the fanatical fatalist ones, keep bringing up Reagan......cuz it looks like we're ( people who don't support you) part elephant -- A real elephant never forgets."

Ronald Reagan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia