This is, without doubt, brazen and even radical stuff, full of the sort of triumphalistic, jingoistic, and greedy rhetoric you expect from Republicans and conservatives:
[We] will confidently proceed to unshackle American enterprise and to free American labor, industrial leadership, and capital, to create an abundance that will outstrip any other system.
Free competitive enterprise is the most creative and productive form of economic order that the world has seen. The recent slow pace of American growth is due not to the failure of our free economy but to the failure of our national leadership. ...
Economic growth is the means whereby we improve the American standard of living and produce added tax resources for national security and essential public services. ...
The American free enterprise system is one of the great achievements of the human mind and spirit. It has developed by a combination of the energetic efforts of working men and women, bold private initiative, the profit motive and wise public policy, until it is now the productive marvel of mankind. ...
We will seek further tax reduction—and in the process we need to remove inequities in our present tax laws. In particular we should carefully review all our excise taxes and eliminate those that are obsolete. Consideration should be given to the development of fiscal policies which would provide revenue sources to hard-pressed state and local governments to assist them with their responsibilities.
Every penny of Federal spending must be accounted for in terms of the strictest economy, efficiency and integrity. We pledge to continue a frugal government, getting a dollar's value for a dollar spent, and a government worthy of the citizen's confidence.
Our goal is a balanced budget in a balanced economy.
Wow. That Ayn Rand-worshiping Ryan fellow is crazy! Oh, wait. My apologies; the quotes above were all taken from the 1960 and 1964 Democratic Party Platforms. How did that happen? Whoops. Well, consider it a quick journey down memory lane.
I actually started writing this post three days ago, not long after the news broke that the most right-wing, narrow-minded conservative in the history of the world had been chosen by Mitt Romney as vice-president candidate for the "Hate the Women!" party (yes, I'm struggling to control the sarcasm). A man so radical that in the early 1960s he would have been reasonably positioned and perceived as a moderate to conservative Democrat. A man so far the the Extreme Right that he regularily is re-elected—by substantual margins—for office in a district that voted for Obama in 2008. Chew on that for a few seconds and then ask yourself, "Do the Dallas Cowboys have a shot at the Super Bowl this year? How much has changed in the U.S. in the past fifty years?"
I had intended to write a 20,000-word essay about the Righteous Rebukes of the Radical Ryan, but have decided to instead highlight some of the several dozen articles and posts I've read about the topic, adding in a few thoughts of my own. Here goes!
Similar to my previous Tweet, this is an outstanding expose of the loss of focus of the Democratic Party. Kennedy, then considered pretty liberal by 1960 standards, would be a welcome respite from today's RADICAL pro-socialist, pro-choice, pro-LGBT, anti-family views of today'a Dems!
Ryan is a breath of fresh air to the GOP and to the 2012 ticket! I, for one, have notices how he has even energized Romney to get ready to fight, something heretofor lacking by this observer.
Frankly, I would love for the Democratic Party to return to some of its previous "roots", so that, once again, we might have some genuine political debate & discourse over differing (but moral) approaches to our nation's problems!
Growing up, I recall our pastor encouraging the congragation to go to the polls and vote after praying & searching your heart for what you believe to be the best solution among two moral & Christian (or Judeo/Christian) candidates.
NO MORE! Now, in 'most' cases, it's a choice between good and evil and, to me, this is a sad state of the nation!
Posted by: LarrySalberg | Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 05:57 PM
I've always wanted to know what the main differences between Democrats and Republicans were during the 50's and 60's. I love reading but have not found a satisfactory answer. If anything the Democrats sounded pretty reasonable while the Republicans seemed more vested in Northern industrial interests. In fact many southern Democrats aligned with Republicans to prevent some of the more radical aspects of FDR's New Deal. Where would JFK fit today?
Posted by: Alex | Monday, August 20, 2012 at 12:34 PM