Disclaimer

Our Herculean President

September 27th, 2012 | Posted by Rich in Blog | Featured - ()

by Rich Abete

We loyal lefties have had to endure some hits this go around. From the ACA (“ObamaCare”) without a public option, to necessary bank bailouts with no strings attached, to the continued wholesale tax giveaway to the rich and corporate welfare for Exxon/Mobil and the like, to watered down legislation of all varieties, it hasn’t been a perfect ride. But I do not blame President Obama for that. He’s been getting so egregiously hammered by the Right, unlike any of his predecessors except for perhaps Bill Clinton (sans the racism), and has been up against the most obstructionist and singularly motivated opposition in our history; all this with the corrupt corporate influence of Citizen’s United and the brave new world of heretofore unseen influence of multi-billionaire characters such as the Koch brothers (et al.)  still to come.

During his tenure, and certainly during this campaign, President Obama has been accused of being the following (this is by no means an all-inclusive list):

•    A usurper and an exotic foreigner and therefore illegitimate

•    “The worst president ever”

•    Weak on national defense

•    A socialist

•    The creator of a “government takeover” of  healthcare (when the ACA clearly remains a market-based system)

•    Treasonous (Yup! He was accused of treason by his post-fact opponent(s))

•    Incompetent and ineffective

The President, did however,  repeatedly commit one monumental error during the last four years: He allowed his PR folks to take a powder when they should have been busy indeed trumpeting his achievement de jour, from rooftops if necessary. If his PR team were effective, the electorate would be perfectly clear on the President’s triumphs over adversity and almost heroic accomplishments. Here are some of his more Herculean, albeit, un-celebrated, efforts:

•    He prevented a second Great Depression (As if that isn’t enough by itself! This is considered a fact to any economist of merit.)

•    He stopped the U.S.from hemorrhaging the almost 800,000 jobs a month we were losing when he took office

•    He facilitated more than two years of monthly gains in private sector jobs at a time of lackluster economic growth and near economic calamity

•    Here’s one that our Republican friends should really appreciate, but don’t: The value of the stock market has essentially doubled during his tenure, again despite a tepid economic recovery

•    He made health insurance available to almost 40 million Americans

•    He ended healthcare insurance “redlining” (no loss of insurance for pre-existing conditions or reaching a cap)

•    He made a politically difficult decision to save an entire banner industry (auto)

•    He reversed the trend of a waning manufacturing base inU.S.(knowing that a lost manufacturing base is a last indicator of empire in decline)

•    Good or bad, he has radically increased domestic petrol-based energy production over almost all previous administrations, including the Bushs’

•    He allowed gays to serve proudly and openly in the military

•    He substantively improved benefits for military families and veterans

•    He directed a sorely needed  overhaul of the student loan program by cutting out the banks from the middle and saving student’s money (thereby making college more affordable)

•    He vastly improved K-12 education via Race to the Top

•    He dramatically decimated al Qaeda’s command structure, including the elimination of their top 20-30 leaders

•    He liberated Libya by taking Gaddafi out with minimal risk to our blood and treasure

•    He made a courageous decision to take out Osama bin Laden that would have crushed his re-election prospects and legacy if it failed

•    He ended the war in Iraq in a timely manner

•    He has thankfully demonstrated an acute awareness that austerity at times of sluggish economic growth is a path to economic catastrophe (via Europe’s example)

•    He fought to preserve women’s right to dictate their own reproductive healthcare choices

•    He signed into law a provision to allow for equal pay for equal work for women

•    He appointed two high-caliber progressive women (one a minority) to  the U.S. Supreme Court

•    He effectively wielded his power to circumvent a “do nothing” congress by issuing Executive Orders to achieve some of his agenda

•    And just for good measure (for those who disparage the notion of “collective good” and fail to realize that reasonable taxes are a price one must pay for a civil society, he cut taxes numerous times for the middle class and small business.

…and the list goes on.

Compare this partial accounting of the President’s noteworthy achievements to any Republican…or Democratic administration, even those of two terms. In fact, in one term, he has arguably more significant accomplishments than any other President in the modern era…perhaps in any era for that matter. How can anyone criticize this President with a straight face? My bet is that Romney and Ryan and McCain and all of their minions share in a good laugh at the frivolity of their own public statements when they are out of public view. Let’s just hope the folks in swing states realize that.

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Jesus was not a Republican!

March 7th, 2012 | Posted by Rich in Blog | Featured - ()

Hi friends:

From the very beginning, when we were asked exactly what Jesus was a Democrat meant, the short answer was always, “Jesus was not a Republican.” In fact, instead of stating that “Jesus was a liberal,” we used the word “Democrat” in our name to specifically draw an antithetical contrast to the notion that Jesus was a Republican (i.e.,that He lived and demonstrated a right-wing ideology when he was alive).  For reasons unclear, we could not see what was in front of our collective faces. In retrospect, it is clear that we should have named our endeavor Jesus was not a Republican (JNR) and not JWAD. We would much rather state that Jesus wasn’t something he clearly wasn’t, than state that Jesus was something that can be endlessly debated. Of course, we firmly stand by our statement that Jesus was a staunch liberal, which is clearly demonstrated by His words and deeds as described in the New Testament. Now more than ever, with the Republicans lurching ever rightward on social issues, foreign policy and domestic policy (i.e., the war on women’s liberty, warmongering re: Iran, and the proposal to gut Medicare, respectively), we believe it is paramount that we should stand up and call the Right out for their hypocrisy. A large majority of them claim to be devout Christians, but their words and deeds are anything but characteristic of the example Jesus left for us in the Bible.

Before I get completely tangential and write a full thesis on our guiding philosophy which is well-documented throughout this site, let me get to the point of this post: We will be relaunching our website in the coming weeks at jesuswasnotarepublican.org.  We’ll let you know when. In the meantime, please visit us at our popular new facebook page at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jesus-was-not-a-Republican/311925502180080?sk=wall. We promise that the debate is lively and there is rarely a dull moment. We hope to see you there!

Thank you so much for supporting us and spreading the word.

Respectfully,

JWAD/JNR

 

 

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HOTW # 10: Rand Paul “Like Father, Like Son”

January 28th, 2012 | Posted by Rich in Blog | HOTW - ()

(by Rich Abete)

I’ve been reading lately that Ron Paul’s current Presidential bid might just be all about paving the way for his son, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) in 2016.  That is a truly frightening proposition. What makes the phrase President Rand Paul more disturbing than President Ron Paul is only one thing: plausibility. Unlike his father, Rand Paul is young, articulate, handsome, unburdened by a long record or racist newsletters, and, most importantly, not an overt wacko. In other words, he’s electable. As such, when a glaring example of Rand’s hypocrisy was reported on Monday, it became incumbent upon me to perform my civic duty and deem him our new Hypocrite of the Week (HOTW).   

They say, “The fruit doesn’t fall very far from the tree.”  Whether it be nature or nurture at work, the old adage typically has some validity. In the case of Senator Paul, he and his father, Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), can both be described as, among other things, arrant hypocrites (see HOTW#7: Deconstructing the Constructionist: Ron Paul http://jwad.org/2011/12/hotw_ron-paul/). As is the case with some libertarians, virtually all small government conservatives and all right-wing Christian leaders, “keeping the government out of your personal business” is just a hackneyed platitude that is tossed quickly out the window once your business gets really personal.

For instance, on Monday, Paul the Younger, a self-described libertarian, was detained when refusing to comply with a TSA pat-down, according to a Tweet by his father that read, “My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming.”  To be fair, the pat-downs are more than a little intrusive and Mr. Paul’s refusal to comply is perfectly congruent with his libertarian ideology that rejects government intrusion in personal business and infringements on civil liberties. What’s ironically disturbing in this case, is that Dr. Paul was en route to Washington to speak at a huge Right to Life rally, an anti-choice organization whose singular objective is to cause the ultimate intrusion into the personal lives of women and families.

Leading up to Dr. Paul’s successful Senate bid in 2010, many inconsistencies in his libertarian positions were identified that tainted his supposed ideological purity. For instance, while repeatedly decrying “government handouts” and “governmental intrusion in health care,” it was revealed that he had collected perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars from Medicaid and Medicare, programs he frequently derided.

More recently, in May of last year, Dr. Paul temporarily blocked the renewal of the The Patriot Act to add amendments that critics said weakened the law, but civil libertarians believed necessary to relieve some of the inherent infringements upon civil liberties contained in the law.  He said it was worth potentially putting the nation at risk to stop the government from “blatantly ignoring the Constitution.” But, later that day… when appearing on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, the good doctor proposed a far more breathtaking infringement on civil liberties and trampling of the First Amendment, that, to the point, blatantly ignored the Constitution.  Specifically, Dr. Paul said that individuals attending radical political speeches should be thrown in jail!  Here is the text from the interview:

DR. PAUL: I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison.

What do you call it again when you preach one thing and practice another?  Oh yeah…Duh!

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Where Do Hate and Intolerance Lead?

October 25th, 2011 | Posted by Rich in Blog | Featured - ()

I was recently told a very interesting and ultimately troubling story. It seems that liberal Christians are actually being ostracized from their churches for being Democrats. Since when did voting Democratic become tantamount to committing a mortal sin? Apparently, it’s been going on for quite a while. In the story, a young woman in Florida (in a swing district no less) was made to feel so uncomfortable in her church for being a Democrat that she ultimately felt impressed upon to leave the congregation. Amazingly, she was led to believe, of all things, that she would one day certainly join the likes of Jimmy Carter and George Clooney (to name two, evidently) in spending eternity in Hell. I suppose I shouldn’t be so shocked. Those kind of Christians seem to be reading a different Bible altogether. I seem to remember Jesus preaching love and practicing tolerance. I also seem to remember that those who are persecuted for righteous causes go to Heaven, not Hell.

One might not be so shocked by such a practice in the Bible belt “red” states, where a right wing brand of Christianity is the norm and the politics are overwhelmingly conservative. But for this to occur in the swing state of Florida, in a county where there are almost as many Democrats registered as Republicans (150K vs. 170K respectively) is harder to swallow. It makes you wonder if the liberal Christians in the most hard-line of the red states are actually safe! (more…)

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