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I haven't heard of Reinhold Niebuhr, but it does appear to a very wise statement.
Walidm, you might enjoy watching that program if you get the time, it was one of the most amazing "truth to power" pieces I have watched in some time. Considering the guy has written for both Conservative and Liberal publications as well as addressed Congress on numerous occasions, I give some credit to what he has to say.
It appears he was an evangelical communist/prophet.
Well considering that Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of International Relations at Boston University, retired Army colonel, and West Point graduate and also happens to refer to Niebuhr as providing some notable and important observations, I think that I would enjoy reading some of his work.
From what I read in that Wiki article, he certainly seems a learned man who has fought with his own conscious and came to his own conclusions in a most unusual manner.
Have you ever stopped to think WHY they want to do that in the first place?
Hint: It's not because they "hate freedom."
I think in a larger context that people rarely if ever ask the simple question of "why" to any given subject.
While we all approach issues, topics, concepts, with our already held experiences as a basis to come to some conclusions about a given subject, in the course of doing so we so very rarely ask what is something unto itself. We often fail to question our own beliefs and even more so, we fail to question our own disbelief.
As I sit here again scanning through the multitude of postings, I'm in awe at the level of absolutism and lack of logical argument present in many peoples views. I would be willing to bet that a simple semester class in high school on critical thinking and logical argument would raise the bar at least to the point of turning our election process back into a personality contest instead of its current pageantry of party worship.
Also because the supporters from both camps are like their candidates, both which are paying more attention to morning talk show host than issues of actual substance.
American politics have truly now become... the politics of neener neener.
For many years I have had this feeling like many Americans that it seems that it just doesn’t matter who we vote for, the result is pretty much the same. The economy goes up and down, the US engages in every possible global conflict we can find and if we can’t find one we make one. Each election cycle is fraught with instances of voting irregularities, corruption abounds in nearly every branch of government, and all the while, the people pick one side or the other, point to the other side and say, everything bad is because of the other guy.
I claim that both political factions are the same at the core and to point out why, one only has to put partisanship aside and look at things for what they are. Conservatives have traditionally been the party in favor of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and laid claim to a higher moral standard. However since Reagan and even before, every republican has expanded government, increased spending, engaged in nation building, and have committed immoral acts. In the case of the Democrats we only have to look back to 2006 when Reid and Pelosi, along with many Democratic incumbents said, “vote for us to end the war in Iraq”. With the public behind them, they were elected into office and have since completely utter failed to provide any oversight of the Executive Branch. In addition to failing to fulfill their promises to end the war, they instead chose to continued to fund and support it by granting nearly every power requested by the White House. Congress has ceded its power of oversight and given it almost entirely to the Executive Branch and in turn has become an institution that has only one concern, and that is to get reelected to a fat paycheck and do nothing.
We have went from a nation that was fashionably called, “The empire of production” in the post WWII years when the vast majority of all the worlds goods were made right here in America. The rest of the world demanded them with vigor and the American worker produced them and ended up in a blossoming middle class. Since about the middle to late 1960’s, we went from a production based empire to the, “Empire of consumption” and has remained this way ever since. We have now come to depend upon foreign nations for our goods, our food, and most importantly, our energy, and every single President since Nixon has promised to give us a sound energy policy, but not one single one has fulfilled this promise.
So when I look to Obama or to McCain, I see a continuation of the empire of consumption, imperialistic mindset that requires us to now occupy nations half the world away in order to maintain our own house. I don’t see either of these candidates desiring to reduce the size of government, reduce the size of our trade deficit that is like 800 billion a year and has grown every single year since the mid 60’s. I don’t see either of these candidates putting forth a sound energy policy that would make the United States independent of foreign sources of energy, and so thus always at the mercy of some backwater third world crap hole full of nutjobs who want nothing more than to kill as many of us as possible. I do not see either of these candidates attempting to bring America back to a world leader in manufacturing production, or technological innovation, all I see is more of the same. We no longer have conservative or liberal, we have a single party known as the incumbent party and we will forever be looking forward to the next President to fix things and giving pass to the one in office for not.
I will leave you with a statement by Andrew J. Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University, retired Army colonel, and West Point graduate, who I think has one of the most comprehensive views and grasp of the geopolitical and domestic situation that our country is in.
I so totally agree with you. I think a vote for either side is the same. I am so discouraged with the choices we have. I was so hopeing that Ron Paul would be a candidate we could choose from, but the media discarded him, in their haste to put forth a liberal, socialistic candidate. He has urged that we vote for a 3rd party candidate--however, I don't see one, other than he, that I could vote for. I really don't have a good feeling about Bob Barr. I don't know why. I don't even think that Ron Paul is a fan of his. I'll have to admit that I am adrift, right now, as who to vote for. I could never vote for Obama, because I disagree with everything he says. Mccain seems to be the same old same old, even tho he has tried to convince us differently. He may be the "lesser of 2 evils", but that's not saying much. I hate to sound so pessimistic. It's late--I'm tired--maybe tomorrow I'll wake up with fresh new optimism. I never give up. Till then--
I so totally agree with you. I think a vote for either side is the same. I am so discouraged with the choices we have. I was so hopeing that Ron Paul would be a candidate we could choose from, but the media discarded him, in their haste to put forth a liberal, socialistic candidate. He has urged that we vote for a 3rd party candidate--however, I don't see one, other than he, that I could vote for. I really don't have a good feeling about Bob Barr. I don't know why. I don't even think that Ron Paul is a fan of his. I'll have to admit that I am adrift, right now, as who to vote for. I could never vote for Obama, because I disagree with everything he says. Mccain seems to be the same old same old, even tho he has tried to convince us differently. He may be the "lesser of 2 evils", but that's not saying much. I hate to sound so pessimistic. It's late--I'm tired--maybe tomorrow I'll wake up with fresh new optimism. I never give up. Till then--
Which is why I have pretty much come to the conclusion that there is no longer Liberal or Conservative, or even Republican or Democrat, they are merely two wings of the same party, the "Incumbent Party". Part of the success of the incumbent party is that both wings of this party do anything possible to prevent any new parties from enjoining in the fun of their ping pong game. It is the illusion of choice that keeps the masses turning out each election cycle to vote for their team. The great irony is that it isn't even "their" team anymore.
For many years I have had this feeling like many Americans that it seems that it just doesn’t matter who we vote for, the result is pretty much the same. The economy goes up and down, the US engages in every possible global conflict we can find and if we can’t find one we make one. Each election cycle is fraught with instances of voting irregularities, corruption abounds in nearly every branch of government, and all the while, the people pick one side or the other, point to the other side and say, everything bad is because of the other guy.
I claim that both political factions are the same at the core and to point out why, one only has to put partisanship aside and look at things for what they are. Conservatives have traditionally been the party in favor of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and laid claim to a higher moral standard. However since Reagan and even before, every republican has expanded government, increased spending, engaged in nation building, and have committed immoral acts. In the case of the Democrats we only have to look back to 2006 when Reid and Pelosi, along with many Democratic incumbents said, “vote for us to end the war in Iraq”. With the public behind them, they were elected into office and have since completely utter failed to provide any oversight of the Executive Branch. In addition to failing to fulfill their promises to end the war, they instead chose to continued to fund and support it by granting nearly every power requested by the White House. Congress has ceded its power of oversight and given it almost entirely to the Executive Branch and in turn has become an institution that has only one concern, and that is to get reelected to a fat paycheck and do nothing.
We have went from a nation that was fashionably called, “The empire of production” in the post WWII years when the vast majority of all the worlds goods were made right here in America. The rest of the world demanded them with vigor and the American worker produced them and ended up in a blossoming middle class. Since about the middle to late 1960’s, we went from a production based empire to the, “Empire of consumption” and has remained this way ever since. We have now come to depend upon foreign nations for our goods, our food, and most importantly, our energy, and every single President since Nixon has promised to give us a sound energy policy, but not one single one has fulfilled this promise.
So when I look to Obama or to McCain, I see a continuation of the empire of consumption, imperialistic mindset that requires us to now occupy nations half the world away in order to maintain our own house. I don’t see either of these candidates desiring to reduce the size of government, reduce the size of our trade deficit that is like 800 billion a year and has grown every single year since the mid 60’s. I don’t see either of these candidates putting forth a sound energy policy that would make the United States independent of foreign sources of energy, and so thus always at the mercy of some backwater third world crap hole full of nutjobs who want nothing more than to kill as many of us as possible. I do not see either of these candidates attempting to bring America back to a world leader in manufacturing production, or technological innovation, all I see is more of the same. We no longer have conservative or liberal, we have a single party known as the incumbent party and we will forever be looking forward to the next President to fix things and giving pass to the one in office for not.
I will leave you with a statement by Andrew J. Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University, retired Army colonel, and West Point graduate, who I think has one of the most comprehensive views and grasp of the geopolitical and domestic situation that our country is in.
I didn't read your post but urge you to honor your duty as an American who is fortunate enough to be able to freely vote and enjoy freedom of speech.
This is the problem with being so ideologically demanding of individuals working within a fixed system. You never have a "perfectly" matched candidate if you're a mature person with opinions. Just like you never have a perfect relative or child.
You must make a choice then work to change the system if you don't like it. And not a third party choice it's too late for that.
Florida enjoyed a lousy 17% turnout in the August primary. They also have the highest dropout rate nationally. Don't "embarrass" yourself by complaining but not participating, be proud and vote please.
I didn't read your post but urge you to honor your duty as an American who is fortunate enough to be able to freely vote and enjoy freedom of speech.
This is the problem with being so ideologically demanding of individuals working within a fixed system. You never have a "perfectly" matched candidate if you're a mature person with opinions. Just like you never have a perfect relative or child.
You must make a choice then work to change the system if you don't like it. And not a third party choice it's too late for that.
Florida enjoyed a lousy 17% turnout in the August primary. They also have the highest dropout rate nationally. Don't "embarrass" yourself by complaining but not participating, be proud and vote please.
I will absolutely be going to the polling booth to cast my vote. In fact, in the past two Presidential election cycles, I have been active in two separate campaigns, and was a state electorate in 2004. In addition, I am locally involved and active as well, to the extent that I have spoken with my Congressional representative on more than one occasion as well as my county officials, not to mention the piles of mail I have sent them on a variety of issues.
I suppose when you know how many districts are in your own county, where county representatives reside and which represent each district, and the numbers of registered voters and their historical voting trends might make someone a political junkie. How much change that I as an individual can affect, I have no idea how to measure, but there are times when one merely goes forward on little more than faith that they are doing something positive and constructive.
Reading this forum, you see the level of discourse that politics have come to in this country. We've got the Blame America crowd, blame the Republicans crowd, and blame the Democrats crowd. We really need a crowd that blames Americans for voting for the wrong people in every level of government.
Here in NC, we've got Sen Dole who is ranked 93rd among the Senators for her "effectiveness". I'd rank all of them 100th. There's not one Senator that I can think of that deserves to keep his/her job. There are a small handful in the House that have done what they were elected to do, uphold the Constitution. They aren't there to push an agenda. The agenda is spelled out by the Constitution and should be adhered that way.
I won't be voting for either of the two major candidates either. I see them as the same coin, different sides. They both want an empirical America. They both want power over something. Neither is willing to prove (based on their votes) that the Constitution is more important than their party or financiers.
Jim DeMint R-SC deserves to keep his seat in congress.
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I agree
