John F. Kennedy’s Men
Filed under: Health Care, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, State Politics, U.S. Economics
Last week Sargent Shriver died at age 95. Last week Senator Joseph Lieberman, current Independent but caucuses with Democrats, declared that he will not seek a fifth term as Senator of the State of Connecticut. Both remembered President John F. Kennedy as their political father. And so do I.
This is Roger Madon this is what I think.
Sargent Shriver was appointed by President Kennedy as the first director of the Peace Corps. Shriver set the standards and culture of what would come to be one of the most honorable governmental service organizations in the history of America. As one of the first Peace Corps volunteers I served under his directorship and benefited from his powerful belief that young and educated American men and women could go out into the world, serve as mentors in some of its most remote parts and provide a new pathway, a new way of thinking to the poor and oppressed populations. Even today, nearly 50 years later, with 20,000 Americans having served, the standards and culture of the Peace Corps still belong to Sargent Shriver. He was 45 when he was the Director, I was 26 when I served but we were both President Kennedy’s children.
Joe Lieberman’s political career was ignited when 50 years ago, almost to the day, he heard President Kennedy’s ringing statement at his inaugural in which he said,
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
And Joe Lieberman did. He supported a war, the war in Iraq, which his party was dead set against. And for this he paid the ultimate political price, his party abandoned him. We know the rest of the story. I find it hard to forget the vitriol, the accusations of treason, the insults that were thrown at Joe Lieberman. I also find it hard to forget that he was the 60th vote in the Senate that broke the filibuster against Obamacare which for me, if not repealed or reformed will bring this country to a crashing end. But throughout his political career he was a John F. Kennedy unfaltering, unshakable, intrepid patriot. And for that neither of us are Democrats today.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Public And Private Union Effects On Elections
Filed under: Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Social Commentary, State Politics
State governments in their attempt to deal with their massive debt are beginning to grapple with the fact that public sector unions are its main cause. The conflict between state taxpayers and public sector unions is therefore shaping up to be the battle of the coming decade. Private sector unions, beware.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
If there was anything that brought to the American public’s attention, especially those taxpayers who have been paying for the high wages and high pensions of state and municipal public sector employees, it was the hundreds of millions of dollars paid by public sector unions into the campaign chests of Democrat politicians during the election last November. If you want to understand the dynamics between state and local politicians and public sector unions, follow the money. Dues paid by members of public sector unions is used to fill the campaign chests of sympathetic politicians who when they get elected, with no little help due to those public sector political contributions, return the favor by passing legislation which raises union wages and union pension benefits. To top it off, notwithstanding that the country is experiencing high unemployment public sector employees are unique in effectively resisting this personal economic calamity.
Taxpayers are furious and throughout the country have thrown out of office those politicians who have been on the receiving end of public sector unions’ largesse. What is fascinating however is now that public sector unions know they have a target on their back and they are attempting to drag into the fray union members in the private sector seeking help to fend off the attacks. Further, newly elected state officials are overreaching by also going after private sector unions which have been completely innocent in this corrupt relationship between organized labor in the public sector and elected state officials.
Here’s my advice: State and local elected officials keep your eye on the real culprit, public sector unions. And as for private sector unions, keep in mind that your membership is made up of taxpayers many of whom are currently unemployed and they are in no mood to help their fat and happy brethren.
This is Roger Macon and that’s what I think.
What Is In The Water In Washington?
Filed under: Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Social Commentary, State Politics
Yesterday the American people witnessed the sad ending of the long and impressive political career of 4 decades of Representative Charles Bernard Rangel, former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee when he walked out of the House ethics panel hoping that this would delay the ultimate reckoning for his improper and perhaps even unlawful behavior.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
By now most of us know the allegations, allegations which yesterday the ethics panel found to be true: that Charles Rangel failed to report assets, failed to pay taxes on rental income from a vacation property, unlawfully occupied 4 rent controlled apartments in New York City and to which he was entitled to occupy none, misused congressional stationery to raise money for a college center named in his honor, and the list goes on.
Charlie Rangel burst upon the political scene in 1971 serving as a U.S. Representative of the 15th Congressional District which included Harlem, where he was born. I remember him well in those halcyon days. He was a handsome, articulate and by all accounts one of the most effective representatives for his district and for the City of New York. He was the ultimate peripatetic politician always being in the right place at the right time. From the very beginning of his career due to his incredible good looks and grace, and serving his Harlem constituents in the communications capital of the world, TV journalists, in particular, always sought him out for his opinion about whatever was the subject that engaged New Yorkers or America at that moment in time.
By dint of his ambition, his intelligence and political acumen he attained perhaps the most powerful position in the House of Representatives, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that holds sway over how and to what extent the American people are to be taxed. The ancient Greeks expressed tragedy through fate or a deep flaw in one’s character. Modern tragedy is a lot simpler. It looks to moral weakness.
However the House ethics committee deals with Charlie Rangel, it is another sad day for America since he represents just one more example of a politician having gone bad.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Get Out And Vote!
Filed under: Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, State Politics, U.S. Economics
Tomorrow is Election Day and probably the most important day for America since 1945 the end of the Second World War. Tomorrow Americans decide whether their country will devolve into a socialist society or remain what it has always been from the day of its founding a country based upon free enterprise and individual liberty.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
In their recently published book “America’s Four Gods” Paul Froese and Christopher Bader divide religious Americans into 4 categories: The belief in a benevolent God, who is both loving and engaged in the world; an authoritative God, judgmental and engaged; a critical God, apart but watchful; and finally a distant God, more like a cosmic force, removed from the world and therefore forgiving. But the more interesting question which this book addresses is how belief in God affects one’s political point of view.
On April 15, 2009 Americans experienced the beginning of a phenomenon that hasn’t occurred in this country since the abolition movement that expressed itself in the nascent beginnings of the Republican Party in 1856. It was various and disparate groups of Americans throughout the country protesting the increase in taxes and spending that Congress placed upon the shoulders of working Americans. This movement was labeled the Tea Party not as a name of a political party but as tribute to the those revolutionaries in 1773 who threw barrels of tea overboard in Boston Harbor as a protest to what they believed was an unfair tax by the British. But the Tea Party of 2009 became something even more powerful in 2010. Tea Party candidates began challenging the establishment Republicans in their primaries for Federal and State offices and winning.
The criticism of the Left is that these Tea Partiers are nothing more than God believers, not part of the mainstream political movement. Even some establishment Republicans have been saying that. I say it’s probably true and thank God.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
The Groucho Marx Tea Party Movement
Filed under: Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, State Politics
When the husband barges into his bedroom and finds Groucho Marx in bed with his wife there is little to explain even as Groucho protests vehemently. Finally, knowing that his life may be at stake Groucho blurts out, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes!”
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
When the Tea Party came exploding on to the American political scene in April last year pundits from the left immediately marginalized it as a kooky, racist bunch of red necks with a large space between their 2 front teeth and with not an ounce of political sophistication. Fast forward today and what we have are numerous Tea Party candidates, having won positions on Republican tickets throughout the country running against Democrats, in some cases entrenched Democrats, either leading or neck and neck in campaigns in which incumbent Democrats can’t even get above 50% in the polls.
On January 3, 2011 President Obama will be running into the brick wall of the United States Constitution, the very Constitution about which he has expressed derision, accusing it of being defective by failing to include a provision which requires the distribution of wealth. During this fall campaign the President has been going around the country claiming that the Republican Party is the party of “No” and it was the “No” of the Republican congressional representatives that stopped the necessary legislation to cure the ailing American economy by spreading the family wealth to those poor Americans who have been adversely affected by capitalism. The American people haven’t been listening and will going to the polling booths throughout the country to express their idea of the Constitution that they love and wish to preserve.
This is the Constitution that Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institute recently said contains enumerated powers; a separation, balance, and blending of these powers among branches of the federal government; and a distribution of powers between the federal and state governments which operate to leave substantial authority to the states while both preventing abuses by the federal government and providing it with the energy needed to defend liberty. That may be a mouthful but that’s what the Tea Party movement is all about. And what’s so apparent is that it doesn’t take a pinheaded law school professor to figure it out.
So who are you going to believe the President of the United States or Groucho Marx? This is the one time I’ll pick Marx.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
White, working class support for the GOP
Filed under: National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, State Politics
White working class Americans have been favoring the Republican Party ever since Reagan won the presidency in 1980. Today polls show that white working class Americans favor GOP candidates in the upcoming election in November by a whopping 22 percent.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
White working class Americans constitute 40 percent of those that actually show up to vote. They are not college educated and do not consider themselves middle class. Though Democrats consider these voters one of their core constituencies they seem to be doing everything they can to alienate them. This time around, especially as a result of the high unemployment rate among those with an education level of high school or less white working class Americans sense that the Democratic Party has thrown them under the bus.
West Virginia exemplifies the white working class anger at the current unemployment rate. Polls show a dead heat for the Senatorial seat of the late Robert Byrd between Republican John Raese and Democrat Joe Manchin. Manchin is a popular governor and was thought to be a shoo-in when the race started.
Democrats have been accusing white working class voters in particular, of being racist in their criticism of blaming President Obama for the bad economy. Remember this is the group of voters they want to win over. During the campaign of 2008 for the presidency candidate Obama accused white small town residents, read white working class voters, of expressing their bitterness about their status in America by clinging to their guns and religion.
White working class Americans are very angry. They sense the party in power, the Democrats, is doing nothing about closing our borders, reducing the entry of low cost imports and creating jobs. Moreover they sense that the Democratic Party cares more about perceived racial injustice and global warming then their own economic well being. How ironic that the party Democrats claim to be made up of fat cat capitalists is the very party that the white working class is coming to believe is its savior.
This is Roger Madon and that what I think.
California Governor-Elect Targeted By Unethical Lawyer
Filed under: Local Party Politics, Social Commentary, State Politics
Over these past few days Americans have observed something about their beloved legal system they don’t quite like. It’s an abuse of a client by a celebrity attorney for a purpose wholly unrelated to the client’s best interest.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Meg Whitman, a billionaire conservative Republican has been running a superb campaign for the governor of California against the former governor Jerry Brown a very liberal Democrat. All had been going quite well for Whitman, with polls showing her slightly in the lead and gaining momentum. That was until last week when Gloria Allred, a well known attorney known for defending the abused and downtrodden and making millions at it, accused Whitman of discharging her housekeeper approximately a year ago when Whitman allegedly realizing that having an illegal immigrant as an employee would not sit well with Hispanics which constitutes about 15% of the voters in the state. Whitman has been calling for tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, and the fact it has now come to light that she employed an illegal immigrant housekeeper from Mexico for nine years, notwithstanding unbeknownst to her, polls have shown that it has undermined her credibility. Not dissimilar, I might add, to Obama claiming that he had no knowledge that he and his entire family were sitting in the church of a bigoted crackpot minister for 20 years.
But it is Gloria Allred and that comes off very badly. In spite of the fact that her client, Ms. Nicky Diaz Santillon, lied on her I-9 that she is a legal U.S. resident, for which she can spend time in jail, and can be deported, or both Allred makes Diaz a now notorious poster child for the sole purpose of showing Whitman’s uncaring actions by discharging her because of Diaz’ illegal status and thereby hoping to gain the ire of the California Hispanic voters against Whitman. Allred is a known liberal and long time Democrat and supporter of Jerry Brown for Governor. However by bringing Diaz into the lime light for a purpose that can only be described as nefarious she clearly has alerted the Federal authorities about Ms. Diaz’ perjury and immigration status placing her under threat of an investigation. But I think it’s Gloria Allred that should be investigated by the California Bar Association for violating her most important duty: Not to place her client before any personal or perceived political gain.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
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