tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post8906883226298531793..comments2024-03-28T10:07:24.955-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: Brain Dead?Owen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-61362989317324960962012-02-01T10:19:36.701-05:002012-02-01T10:19:36.701-05:00I agree, Kirby that -- on some issues -- the Demo...I agree, Kirby that -- on some issues -- the Democrats and the Republicans have switched positions. Now one party stands for what the other used to stand for. <br /><br />And while there was an ugly side to Roosevelt -- he began the expansion of what came to be known as the "American Empire" -- he was also a trust buster and, in some ways, a progressive. <br /><br />My point is that the Republican Party used to embody some noble ideals. Those ideals have no place in the modern party.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-83866998544645610602012-02-01T09:19:21.663-05:002012-02-01T09:19:21.663-05:00But, of course, the modern republican party is a r...But, of course, the modern republican party is a reflection of a large portion of the public in the US, and that public is frighteningly ignorant of almost everything. And, what is worse, they are not just ignorant, but they are wilfully and actively ignorant (as you have recently pointed out), and they actually oppose knowledge and see meaningful debate and education as an enemy. (A real parallel to the Harper government) They support an ideology of "know-nothingism"<br /><br />As for Lincoln and Roosevelt, I don't think the comparison is germaine. For one thing, the growth of the two parties in the US is complex because the democrats grew out of the Jeffersonian group in the very early days of the Republic. But the Jeffersonians were about decentralization and state's rights as against the Federalists who really wanted to recreate the system of British centralization and were even in favor of a real American aristocracy. But those ideologies shifted as progressives began to see the government as a vehicle not just for tyranny but for helping average people. (In other words they began to catch up with Thomas Paine!) Meanwhile the growth of the Republican party was complex because it was, in its pro-capitalist and pro-elitist stance, an extension of the Federalists but because the growth of the Federal government was becoming more progressive and more interested in social welfare, they took on the position of states' rights. <br /><br />As a result of these machinations, Lincoln stands somewhere in that middle ground between progressives of the 18th century and conservatives of the 20th. <br /><br />As for Teddy Roosevelt, he really was an old B**tard and a dreadful colonialist and despite his support for the American Progressive Party, I do not believe we should dignify him as a man of vision. <br /><br />I grew up in the states and left in 1990 because I saw that it was degrading as a nation into a cyber-punk world of chaos and ugliness, like the vision of Bladerunner. The only hope for the US is that the progressive parts of the nation split from those parts that are stuck in the past.Kirbycairohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17528654183160305877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-27156970007981194192012-01-31T15:20:08.037-05:002012-01-31T15:20:08.037-05:00It's easy to forget, Gertrude, that the Republ...It's easy to forget, Gertrude, that the Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt -- both men of extraordinary vision and sympathy for ordinary citizens.<br /><br />It would be nice to know that there is a Lincoln or a Roosevelt in the Republicans' future.<br /><br />But one has to wonder if -- at least as they are presently constituted -- they would have the wisdom to choose such a person as their presidential candidate.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-40467936767600746012012-01-31T14:16:57.626-05:002012-01-31T14:16:57.626-05:00The Republicans painted themselves deep into a cor...The Republicans painted themselves deep into a corner during George "the Baby" Bush's presidency. While they won the hearts of the far right, making it an important ally to the party's electoral success, they have continued paying for that success by always honouring the views of the far right, regardless of how simple-minded those views are. <br />To rein in the silliness, it may take a very strong Republican Presidential candidate, one who's not afraid to cut through what has to be intellectual cynicism and begin speaking the truth.Gertrudenoreply@blogger.com