Thom Hartmann: FDR & The Fiscal Cliff

Source:Thom Hartmann talking about Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"Thom rants on what Americans really want - more progressive actions in this country.  He explains how even FDR new this and why Democrats should realize it now." 

From Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann is right about one thing here, he's just not aware of that. America has always been a liberal country. But what does that mean? It means we are a country that's built around the principles of liberal democracy. What comes with liberal democracy are liberal values like: 

limited government 

federalism 

rule of law 

checks and balances 

fiscal responsibility 

equal rights 

equal justice 

strong national defense 

individual freedom, opportunity, and responsibility for all, 

free speech, free press

property rights

freedom of choice

the right to privacy. 

These aren't leftist values, they're American values and also happen to be the real liberal values that closeted Socialists (like perhaps Thom Hartmann) have never been able to accept, because they keep losing at the ballot box when they want America to go to the far-left and transform America into some type of social democracy, that we've never been. America is not a right-wing or left-wing country. We're a liberal democracy, like any other center-right country in the world.

The Daily Beast: John Avlon, Meghan McCain & Mike Moynahan: 'Real Housewives of the CIA'

Source:The Daily Beast- John Avlon, Meghan McCain, and Mike Moynahan.

Source:The Daily Journal

"As new details emerge about Gen. David Petraeus' affair with Paula Broadwell, Meghan McCain, Michael Moynihan, and John Avlon debate the scandal's potential repercussions, on today's NewsBeast."

From The Daily Beast

Sounds like a real reality TV show in the works, perhaps Megan McCain will produce it. You heard that here first. As far as David Petraeus and his sex scandal, I guess this is the clincher that American politics and government is never boring and why we have a political junky industry. And for Progressives I guess who believe that America should be more like France, well we are when it comes to our public officials and how they live their personal lives. Political junky, is no longer just a hobby for unemployed politicians who can't seem to win another public office and keep losing. And spend all of their free time, which is really all of their time, especially if they have a Congressional pension, watching C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and FNC. But a way for writers and pundits to make their living. To tell Americans how much they don't know about American politics and government.

As far as Benghazi, if it wasn't for that story, what would House Republicans do? At least some of them like Speaker John Boehner, are smart enough to know they can't repeal ObamaCare in this Congress with a Democratic Senate and Democratic President, that the law is named after. Most of them probably never have any attention of leaving Congress, at least the House of Representatives. So they don't want to work with Senate Democrats to pass anything constructive that President Obama might actually sign. And risk being primaried and having to go home and work for a living. Like washing cars, or hosting radio talk shows, teaching gym in high school, or whatever they were doing in 2009 before they decided to run for the House. So all they have left in their one page playbook that a five-year could read is a bogus (to be too nice) Benghazi investigation.

Remembering The Past: George McGovern (1922-2012)

Source:Remembering The Past- U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat, South Dakota) 1972 Democratic Party nominee for President.

"George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972, left a lasting legacy to the Democratic Party. A political descendant of the Kennedys, McGovern was one of the first major political figures to come out against the Vietnam War in the mid-1960's. With that as a centerpiece of his campaign, he made the Democratic Party more inclusionary to the young, women, and minorities. His 1972 presidential campaign was marred by self-inflicted errors and conducted in the shadow of Watergate spying. Despite his epic defeat, he remained a decent and honorable man, and today's Democratic Party owes much to his efforts." 

From Remembering The Past 

To me at least Senator George McGovern represented the Henry Wallace Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party, that is essentially lead by Senator Bernie Sanders (the only self-described Socialist in Congress) today. 

The reason why a George McGovern came anywhere near close to the Democratic nomination for President in the early 1970s, when the Democratic Party was still lead by FDR/LBJ Center-Left Progressives and even Center-Right Conservatives, is because the Democratic Party was split between it's Center-Left lead by Senator Humbert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie and its Far-Left that emerged in the Democratic Party lead by Senator George McGovern and others. Which is how McGovern gets the nomination because he was the only Far-Left Democrat running for President in 72, with a bunch of other Center-Left Progressives like Humphrey and Muskie running for President.  

President Richard Nixon wanted to run against the Senator McGovern. Think about it, 1972 America is still involved in the Cold War against Russia, Americans hated all forms of socialism, really and not just Communists and communism. And you have a Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist leading the largest political party in America in the Democratic Party, running against a Center-Right President in Richard Nixon, who was fairly popular in the summer and fall of 1972. Which is how you get a 60-40 presidential election in 72, with the Democrats only winning one state, because the Socialists had taken over the Democratic Party. 

Losing a landslide presidential election is not the only legacy that George McGovern has even as a politician. He basically democratized the Democratic Party and is a big reason why the Democratic Party is a national, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, national political party today, that's no longer dominated by Anglo-Saxons in the South and Irish-Catholics and other European ethnics in the North. And George McGovern deserves a lot of credit for that.