1. The United States is not a Christian nation, and the Bible is not the cornerstone of our law.
It may be hard for some to comprehend, but the founding fathers were acutely aware of the potential damage to society that all religion is capable of and they made it abundantly clear, that the United States is to be a country with complete separation of church and state. Although the 100% separation is now quite clouded and in jeopardy, there is still time to correct our destructive course.
Doubt it? Then Google; John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or George Washington and see what they had to say.
2. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist.
The Pledge was written in 1892 for public school celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. Its author was Francis Bellamy, a socialist (which is still NOT a bad thing no matter the false connotation in today’s undereducated).
3. The first president to propose national health insurance was a Republican.
He was also a trust-busting, pro-labor, Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist. Is there any wonder why Theodore Roosevelt, who first proposed a system of national health insurance during his unsuccessful Progressive Party campaign to retake the White House from William Howard Taft in 1912, gets a scarce mention at Republican National Conventions these days?
4. Ronald Reagan once signed a bill legalizing abortion.
In the spring of 1967, four months into his first term as governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed a bill that, among its other provisions, legalized abortion for the vaguely-defined “well being” of the mother.
5. Reagan raised federal taxes eleven times.
Okay, Ronald Reagan cut tax rates more than any other president – with a big asterisk. Sure, the top rate was reduced from 70% in 1980 all the way down to 28% in 1988, but while Republicans typically point to Reagan’s tax-cutting as the right approach to improving the economy, Reagan himself realized the resulting national debt from his revenue slashing was untenable, so he quietly raised other taxes on income – primarily Social Security and payroll taxes - no less than eleven times. And his theory (although I doubt very much that it was his originally) of Trickle-Down Economics has been proven beyond all doubt that it is a recipe for recession and yet we still have a battle with Republicans that refuse to see the folly in this failed economic approach.
6. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a predominantly Republican-appointed Supreme Court.
Technically, Roe v. Wade did not make abortion legal in the United States; the Supreme Court’s decision held only that individual states could not make abortion illegal. That being said, the landmark 1973 ruling that Republicans love to hate, was decided on a 7-2 vote.
7. The Federal Reserve System was a Republican invention.
The Federal Reserve System was the brainchild of financial expert and Senate Republican leader Nelson Aldrich, grandfather of the future Republican governor and vice president Nelson Rockefeller. The Federal Reserve Act, developed around Senator Aldrich’s recommendations and - adding insult to injury in the minds of today’s Republicans - based on a European model, was signed into law in 1913.
8. The Environmental Protection Agency was, too.
The United States Environment Protection Agency, the arch-enemy of polluters in particular and government regulation haters in general, was created by President Richard Nixon. In his 1970 State of the Union Address, Nixon proclaimed the new decade a period of environmental transformation. Too bad that the agency is under attack by the current idiot that seems to have the complete destruction of all social agencies and wants to turn our government into just a figurehead of ineffectiveness for corporations to fleece for profit.
1970 Nixon declared his intention to establish the Environmental Protection Agency, and that December the EPA opened for business. Hard to believe, but if it hadn’t been for Watergate, we might remember Richard Nixon today as the “environmental president”.
Oh, yes - Republicans might enjoy knowing Nixon was an advocate of national health insurance, too.
9. Obama has increased government spending less than any president in at least a generation.
Republican campaign strategists may lie, but the numbers don’t. Government spending, when adjusted for inflation, has increased during his administration (to date) by 1.4%. Under George W. Bush, the increases were 7.3% (first term) and 8.1% (second term). Bill Clinton, in his two terms, comes in at 3.2% and 3.9%. George H. W. Bush increased government spending by 5.4%, while Ronald Reagan added 8.7% and 4.9% in his two terms.
10. President Obama was not only born in the United States, his roots run deeper in American history than most people know.
The argument that Barack Obama was born anywhere but at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, is not worth addressing; the evidence is indisputable by any rational human being. Too bad that most Republican voters are anything but rational nowadays.
There you have it, ten facts that will curl the toenails of any hardline conservative and I must share that parts of this article were “ borrowed” from a Daily Kos article written by By Richard Riis and published on; Tuesday Sep 04, 2012.
The whole article can be accessed by clicking here:
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