As nasty as the conservatives were to Bill Clinton, and now to President Obama, they were just as bad during the years of FDR.
So, why did the GOP also hate FDR back in the 1930’s and 40’s?
>>> They called him vile names because FDR was a “President for the average working American, not one of their wealthy bureaucrats protecting Wall Street”. In a 1932 campaign speech, FDR smilingly said the following about the Republican party, “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
>>> And because FDR’s, “New Deal” was successful at leading the country out of the Great Depression, while their president Hoover had done nothing to help the nation’s economy from1929 to 1933. Just as the GOP has been in today’s politics, they had also expected, “...the nation to cure itself”, which by the way, has never worked.
>>> They hated FDR because he supported regulating the banks and Wall Street.
>>> And because FDR and the Democrats started the Social Security Insurance Fund to prevent the elderly from becoming homeless.
>>> And because FDR led the country to a decisive win in WWII.
>>> And because he supported bills to send vets to college and the FHA for buying new homes.
>>> And because FDR ended prohibition.
>>> And today, FDR has been rated as the “Best US President” by 238 US History scholars.
The conservatives also hated their own, very liberal but popular, President Teddy Roosevelt because he supported the nation’s environment and he saved millions of acres of US land as US National Parks. They also hated TR because he worked closely with the American Labor Unions and he was in support of government health care for all Americans.
So, why do the Republicans now hate President Barack Obama?
>>> Americans always tend to want “instant gratification”. Needless to say, after decades of the GOP driving the nation’s economy into a ditch, when the economy wasn’t immediately fixed by the president in 2009, that has unfortunately caused many of the still unemployed and the anxious low-information Republicans to blame the president.
>>> The other truth is that some bigoted conservatives (such as Rush Limbaugh) hate Barack Obama simply because they cannot accept the fact that the President is a black man. This is in spite of his intelligence, education, and articulateness.
>>> History shows us that generally, during bad economic times, the president in power usually takes all the negative blame and they usually have very low approval ratings. It's true that the president has the power to do things, but the US has 3 branches of government for a reason. People should know (but they don’t seem to) that there are many things the president cannot do without the approval of both houses of Congress. And today’s Congress is run by a “just say no” Republican House and a GOP “Filibuster” ridden Senate. These Republicans have made their #1 goal, not to help all Americans, but instead to focus on making Obama a one term president.
>>> Some conservative Americans hate Obama because they don't believe in what he stands for. His views on the size of government, government job creation, universal healthcare, etc. Plus, based on their “Republican talking points”, many conservatives view Obama to be an anti-American socialist, and that he apologizes for the very country he represents. (This is un-true, but it’s what some conservatives have falsely chosen to believe.)
>>> And some people have been mistakenly led by the FOX cable network to believe that Obama was raised by his dad as a Muslim. The truth is that Obama’s mother raised him as a single mother and she was a Kansas Christian. He didn’t visit his dad’s country until he was an adult. He hadn't even seen his dad since he was 2 years old. He also had, what some people wrongly say, is a questionable birth certificate from Hawaii. Unfortunately, people need to get their facts straight and do some of their own research on Barack and his family background.
>>> Certain Republican politicians and members of the right-wing media have embarked on a campaign to denigrate the president, even to the point of falsely claiming that he is not a native-born American, and is therefore, not eligible to be President.
>>> All of these are mean-spirited, false Republican talking points. Obama is our President, and should be permitted and supported to use his first four-year term to lead America the way that a President is supposed to do. If his policies and leadership do not please Americans, we have the right to vote differently in November.
>>> Unfortunately, the Republicans have derided everything about the president, from the day he was elected and even before he took office. They did the same thing when Bill Clinton was elected. As the greatest nation in history, they should be totally ashamed. And despite our constitutional right of Freedom of Speech, it is completely disgusting, unproductive and unpatriotic.
>>> Democrats usually leave a new Republican president alone at the beginning of their terms, at least until that president does something with which they seriously don’t agree, (such as a useless foreign war). Republicans however, tend to immediately start ripping at a new Democratic president, mainly because they usually don’t have workable politics, nor do they ever represent the average American worker. Therefore, they tend to go after the Democratic presidents on a highly personal basis.
When you are a political party that supports a political process that is not democratic, and that has never proven to actually work, then you only have the option of going after the opposition on a personal or social issue basis. Since you cannot win a debate based on the issues, you must instead go after the opposition on fringe issues such as religion, abortion, the environment, sexual orientation, private versus public, and a host of other social issues. This is where the Republican party is stuck today.
According to the conservatives, we can’t have health care for every American, as it currently is with every other industrialized nation on the globe. “Everyone should be on their own and they must pull themselves up by their boot straps, even if they don’t have any boot straps.” “If you aren’t wealthy, or you don’t have a job, blame yourself.”
This is why they were wrong about FDR, and they are wrong about Obama. They are also wrong for all Americans.
Copyright G.Ater 2012
Follow me on Twitter: gater01
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