It's clear to me that the first African-American POTUS is a catalytic president.

[Zen Democrat]

15. Did you read what I wrote?

Last edited Sat Aug 24, 2013, 04:37 PM - Edit history (1)

I said LBJ passed the Kennedy social agenda for his own personal cover after the assassination, and to give him the leverage to go into Vietnam. When did I ever say Kennedy could have passed it? Although in a second term for him, we can't rule that out.

Anyway, If you think I'm a Kennedy worshiper, guilty as charged. I confess that I do thank Providence that Kennedy was president to stand up to the War Pigs Lemay, Lemnitzer, et al. who despised him after he failed to push the nuclear button against Russia in 1962. Yes, I thank God for that man, even with his flaws.

I was 14 during Goldwater v. Johnson. I didn't know anything more than that I had read Conscience of a Conservative as a 13 year old and liked it, and LBJ gave me physical reactions that he was a bad man to the core. My parents were union people who let me explore the conservative movement, which I did until I realized that the words and actions didn't relate. But my feelings about LBJ never changed. I'm from Texas and knew he was a crook because everyone who ever had dealings with him said so! I had immediate family members in Dallas who knew some of the official story was a crock. But just accept that LBJ was not my guy ever. Nor was Goldwater after 1965 when I first became aware of his "nuke 'em into the stone age" philosophy (and you're right I young and had no informed understanding of the Cold War although I was a debate champion by 1965 against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.). Nor was Nixon EVER anyone I could stomach. I was, and still am, a student of the Watergate Era, and found LBJ and Nixon eerily similar, no more so than when LBJ's right hand man for 40 years, John Connolly, switched parties and joined the Nixon Administration. My first vote was for George McGovern. I rallied my workplace and neighborhood in 1976 for Jimmy Carter. I adore him, and was privileged to see him three times (the last time was a Carter-deMenil award to Bishop Tutu at the Rothko Chapel in Houston with Tutu absent due to apartheid).

If you only been around liberals and progressives all your life, you really don't understand the nature of the fringe right and their end justifies the means dogma. I had uncles and cousins in the '50's who wouldn't watch I Love Lucy because she had been a member of the Communist Party during the Depression. It was pernicious and I've been doing one on one philosophical combat with this mindset since the mid-60's.

Yes, we do have the first health care bill since 1965, and regardless of the costs to those with cadillac plans and higher costs for Delta (puhleese), millions will be insured for the first time, and millions more will have the security that if they've had a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other too numerous to mention health issues, that they won't ever be denied because of preexisting conditions. That's huge. I expect the ACA to adapt and change over the years, as did the SS and Medicare programs become more inclusive over time. I think single payer is inevitable now, but would not be without the ACA bridge. I can see a natural evolution as more and more companies decide not to participate in employer based healthcare, pay a fine, and employees are eventually forced into a national medicare because the insurance insurance won't make enough profit to fool with health insurance anymore.

I don't want to argue personally. I have a point of view. I was one of those hippies against the war and against J. Edgar Hoover's Cointelpro, and against all manner of neo-fascism. But again, making Obama the enemy is absurd. Whether from the left or right, trying to chop him in the knees hurts the Progressive movement. Hate the NSA, not Obama. He's limited in what he can do and say without massive support from the people. Wonder if Obama got that meeting Bill Hicks cracked about shortly before his death in 1993: