2017: Current Democratic Priorities (Platform)
The current priorities of the Democratic Party come from the 2016 party platform. All are investments in the middle class that would create a stronger, more stable economy that works better for everyone, rich and poor. All of which Republicans oppose. Here they are:
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Equal pay for women
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Raising the minimum wage
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Lowering the cost of college
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Paid family and medical leave
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Comprehensive immigration reform
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Fixing our broken infrastructure
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Building a new clean energy economy
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Banking and finance reform
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Removing loopholes for large corporations
The New Democratic Message, "A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future" is very close to what Martin Luther King Jr. preached about during his 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. The only thing standing in the way of these policies are Republicans.
"This march was to demand better jobs, better homes, better education—better lives than the ones they were living."
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
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Democratic Party Platform | DNC
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People’s Campaign
A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future - YouTube
2017: Republicans Try to Kill Americans to Cut Taxes
Physicians and public health researchers estimated that, if passed, the Republican Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal bill could kill as many as 41,600 people by 2027. Under financial threat by the Koch brothers, Republicans came close to killing Americans to give tax cuts to the rich. The reason for this is that most Republicans are just evil.
Republican Repeal Bill Would Kill Estimated 41,600 People by 2027
List of Medical Groups Opposing Republican Health-Care Bill | WAPO
Doctor, Hospital, and Insurance Groups Blast Republican Healthcare Bill | Business Insider
2017: Highest Taxes in the World? False!
One of the most persistent falsehoods Republicans have used for years is telling people that U.S. companies pay the highest taxes in the world. They don’t. They claim this is why they can't hire more workers to create more jobs and stimulate the economy. It’s not. They use this as an excuse to cut taxes (bribes) for the rich. Republicans say: "Tax cuts will pay for themselves through growth." Except for the two times we tried it our deficits exploded and we had terrible recessions both times.
There is a big difference between the "tax rate" and what companies actually pay after loopholes and exemptions. U.S. rates are about the same as Germany and Japan’s, but our "effective tax rates" are the lowest among industrialized countries. According to the U.S. GAO, it’s about 12.6%. Each year over 50 U.S. Fortune 500 companies pay no taxes at all while making $ billions in profits.
I helped create the GOP tax myth - Bruce Bartlett | WAPO
"Tax cuts will pay for themselves through growth." "No they don’t." | Esquire
Even Fox News says: “there is no evidence tax cuts pay for themselves”
GAO: Effective U.S. Corporate Tax Rate 12.6% | Money.com
Untaxed U.S. corporate profits held overseas top $2.1 trillion | Reuters
2016: The Comey FBI Letter Gave Us Trump
Nate Silver released data that showed "Late-deciding voters broke strongly against Clinton in swing states, enough to cost her Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania." and "Comey had a large, measurable e impact on the race. Harder to say with Russia/Wikileaks because it was drip-drip-drip," and "Clinton would almost certainly be President-elect if the election had been held on Oct. 27 (the day before Comey letter)." This is sickening but Erik Prince and Rudy Giuliani conspired to intimidate and trick FBI Director James Comey into sending the letter to congress. "All of the major actors in the conspiracy have already confessed to its particulars either in word or in deed; moreover, all of the major actors have publicly exhibited consciousness of guilt after the fact."
Erik Prince is the brother of Sec. of Education, Betsy DeVos. Both are the children of billionaire Edgar Prince who helped form and fund Christian Dominionist organizations the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family. Christian Dominionists are essentially white men who believe everyone else should be enslaved by them or dead. They went by a different name in Germany in the 1930s and '40s. Erik Prince is also the founder and former CEO of Blackwater (Now named "Academi") which made a fortune as a private mercenary army in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of Prince's Blackwater employees said that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and “intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis.” This is who gave us Trump.
Nate Silver: Clinton 'almost certainly would've won before FBI letter
The Domestic Conspiracy That Gave Trump The Election
Blackwater’s Dark Secrets
2016: Russian Hacking, Trolls, and Trump
Donald Trump used a powerful one-two punch of racism and sexism to win the Republican primary but he got a ton of help from Vladimir Putin and the Russian Intelligence Service to hack into U.S. campaign and election systems to win the general election. The Russian Intelligence Service employed an army of social media agents who posed as pro-Bernie Sanders and pro-Donald Trump Americans to flood social media networks with fake news and attacks on Hillary Clinton. The result was that about 93 million eligible U.S. voters did not vote in 2016 and 64 million of those were already registered to vote. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary by 4 million votes and the general election, popular vote by 3 million votes, Republicans, Russians, Nazis, and the KKK managed to manufacture a win through the electoral college system, used to select the U.S. president.
Putin’s Pro-Trump Operation May Have Been Far Bigger | Mother Jones
Did Jared Kushner’s Data Operation Help the Russians? | Vanity Fair
Putin wanted 'revenge' against Clinton - The Hill
Sanders’ Campaign Faced A Fake News Tsunami - HuffPo
2016 Presidential Campaign Hacking | CNN
Inside Russia’s Social Media War on America | Time
Trump's Campaign Strengthened Russia's Election Meddling | ABC News
Russia Hired 1,000 People To Create Anti-Clinton 'Fake News' During Election
2016: Benghazi Witch Hunt
Terrorists were to blame for the 2012 attack in Benghazi, but the lack of security was the fault of Republicans in Congress who cut funding for embassy security and then wasted over 20 million taxpayer dollars on a witch hunt to damage Hillary Clinton's chances to win the 2016 presidential election.
"House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012." —The Washington Post
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Republicans Cut Embassy Security Funding by $460 Million in 2011-12 |WAPO
GOP Rep: "I Absolutely Voted To Cut Funding For Embassy Security" | Think Progress
Republicans Finally Admit There Is No Benghazi Scandal | Mother Jones
House Report Finds No Attempt to Mislead Over Benghazi | Political Wire
2016: Who is Better for Our Economy?
Republicans claim to be the party of business and economic growth but their history is one of handing everything over to the rich and causing severe inequality, which creates economic bubbles that crash, causing recessions, depressions and leaving Democrats to clean up their mess. Democrats have a history of creating and renewing the middle class with investments in the middle class, growing the economy from the middle out, which creates a stronger more stable economy that works better for everyone. The problem is Democrats are only able to implement the policies we know works after Republicans wreck the economy. To fix our economy and raise wages for everyone, we need to stop putting Republicans in charge and vote for Democrats in every election.
Middle-Class Income Hit Highest Level On Record in 2016 | WAPO
Clinton: Economy Better Under Democrats | FactCheck.org
2015: Birtherism and a Pack of Lies - Trump
Republicans had been quietly courting racists for a long time but Donald Trump brought it all out into the open in 2015 with his conspiracy theory about President Obama's birth certificate. Trump elevated the ridiculous claim to national prominence and rode it all the way through the Republican primaries and the general election. Six months into his presidency, he famously blamed both sides for racist violence at a protest in Charlottesville, VA. The two sides were made up of racists, Nazis, and KKK on one side and people who were protesting racists on the other side. One of the racists killed one and injured nineteen people protesting racism. Trump justified the violence by stating the racists had a permit and the people protesting the racists did not.
Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years | NYT
Birtherism is Donald Trump’s Big Lie | WAPO
Trump Is Still Lying About Birtherism | Newyorker
Kushner Admitted Trump Lies to Base Because He Thinks They’re Stupid | GQ
2014: PolitiFact's Lie of the Year - Ebola
Every presidential and midterm election year, Republicans latch onto whatever is scaring people in the news like "Ebola" and hype it across conservative media to scare people into voting more conservative. If there's nothing good going on, they just make something up like "Death Panels," "Benghazi," or "Hillary's Emails." Very often, whatever they settle on becomes the PolitiFact's Lie of the Year. Democrats need to figure out how to make this clear to people to inoculate voters against these predictable lies and scaremongering.
PolitiFact's 2014 Lie of the Year: [Republican] Exaggerations about Ebola | Politifact
Obama Struggled With Fallout From Fake News (Death Panels) | NPR
PolitiFact's 2009 Lie of the Year: 'Death panels' | Politifact
Limbaugh Revives Obamacare Death Panel Myth Ahead Of Midterm Elections
2010: Widespread Voter Suppression
Thirty-four states pass restrictive voting laws after 2010. Voter ID laws are only one of several practices that add up to a widespread effort at election discrimination. Others include purges of the voting rolls, reductions in early voting opportunities, and the closing of polling stations.
The GOP War on Voting | RollingStone
Voter Suppression, Not Fraud, Looms Large in U.S. Elections | Brookings
2010: Gerrymandering on Steroids
Through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and legislative tricks, Republicans took control of state houses, and, eventually, Congressional redistricting to rig our Democracy so it serves the rich and not the majority of poor and middle-class voters. Here’s how they did it:
Gerrymandering On Steroids: How Republicans Stacked The Nation's Statehouses
How Republicans Rig the Game | Rollingstone
Congressional Gerrymandering: Moneyball Applied To Politics | NPR
The GOP's Real Agenda | Rollingstone
How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich | Rollingstone
2010: Birth of the Tea Party
The Tea Party may have formed organically by conservatives who were upset about a black man becoming president but the Koch brothers pumped a ton of money into it and turned it into a monster. Koch funded FreedomWorks organized and paid for rallies all over the country with country music bands, conservative media stars, and local Republican elected officials. They herded the angriest and easily fooled people together. They tapped into people's primitive (limbic) brains to stir them into a frenzy of fear and paranoia over guns, gays, abortion, immigration, taxes, government dysfunction, Obamacare, and socialism. And then Republicans would walk out on stage to make it clear that they would have to vote Republican in order to relieve the pain of all this intense fear, anger, and hatred.
"FreedomWorks, under the Army's leadership, was a key player in the rise of the tea party in 2010. The organization helped elect tea party favorites" and works as a "connector between tea party groups around the country, organizing protests against Obamacare and expanding the ranks of the conservative movement." -- Mother Jones
FreedomWorks - Sourcewatch
The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster | Rollingstone
2009: The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as "Obamacare" was an attempt to make major improvements to current health insurance as well as cover more of the 49 million Americans who had no health insurance at all. In 2010, before Obamacare began taking effect, 16.3 percent of Americans lacked health insurance, a whopping 49 million Americans. By the end of 2016, the rate had dropped to 8.8 percent, with 28.1 million people lacking coverage. That's nearly 21 million people covered as a result of the ACA. States that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare saw a much more dramatic drop in uninsured rates than non-expansion states.
In addition to the 21 million new people covered, ACA made dramatic improvements to everyone's coverage. ACA stopped insurance companies from dropping or denying care based on gender, age, health status, pre-existing conditions, lifetime and annual caps. It required large businesses and provided tax breaks to small businesses to cover their employees. ACA provided free preventive care, birth control, and coverage for out-of-network emergency room visits. It also improved Medicare for seniors and provided rapid appeals of insurance company decisions. By 2017, Obamacare also helped reduce personal bankruptcies in the U.S. by 50%.
Truman was the first U.S. president to propose a single universal comprehensive health insurance plan that included all classes of society in 1945. It was the beginning of the Cold War and Republicans labeled it “socialized medicine” and killed it. Many of the ideas found their way into the creation of Medicare and Medicaid under LBJ. In 1993, the Clinton administration proposed universal healthcare for all Americans, which again, Republicans demonized as “socialized medicine” and defeated. The Republican alternative at the time included an individual mandate, standardized benefits, the creation of purchasing pools, vouchers for the poor to buy insurance, and a ban on denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions but it did not go very far.
In 2006, Massachusetts used a version of the 1993 Republican plan to pass health care reform in Massachusetts and because Mitt Romney was the Governor, it became known as "Romneycare." The ACA or "Obamacare" was based on "Romneycare" because it was believed that if many of the ideas were Republican ideas the Republicans would not try to sabotage or repeal health care that helped millions of Americans. Obamacare was passed with about 100 hearings, 171 Republican amendments, and 160 hours of debate, compared to zero hearings, zero Democratic amendments, and only 20 hours of debate for the Republican alternative.
How Obamacare Slashed Personal Bankruptcy by 50% | Money
Mitt Romney Admits Obamacare Was Based on Romneycare | Motherjones
69 years ago Truman proposed national health care | PBS
List of countries with universal health care | Wikipedia
PolitiFact's 2009-10 Lie of the Year: 'Death panels' | Politifact
2008: The Obama Rescue and Recovery
In 2008, Barack Obama saved us from another Republican depression, rescued the U.S. auto industry, improved and expanded access to health care, cut personal bankruptcies in half, rebuilt some of our infrastructure, increased middle-class income to the highest on record, cut our deficits by two thirds, and had the highest corporate profits, stock market performance and longest period of continuous job growth in U.S. history. Republicans did everything they could to slow down and sabotage that recovery and blamed Democrats for moving too slow and we ended up with Trump.
U.S. Corporate Profits Highest in History
Dow Jones 100 Year Historical Chart | Macrotrends
Federal deficit lowest since Great Recession | LA Times
Obama era ends with steady job growth | MSNBC
Middle-class income hit highest level on record in 2016 | WAPO
Booming jobs and falling gas prices make this the best economy in 15 years | WAPO
“In the unlikely story that is America, there's never been anything false about hope.”—Barack Obama
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"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
—Barack Obama
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2007: The Republican Great Recession
Ronald Reagan delayed the inevitable crash of trickle-down economics in the 1980s by combining it with massive government debt spending, which tripled our debt and got the U.S. addicted to debt spending. The Reaganomics crash happened during his successor's administration and there was nothing George H. W. Bush could have done to stop it. In 2000, the "Neocon" leftovers from the Reagan/Bush years were convinced it was the lack of purity in Reagan's trickle-down that caused the failure. They made sure George W. Bush implemented pure trickle-down policies, which handed massive tax cuts to the rich, who used it to move millions of U.S. jobs overseas. He burned through our surplus and "borrowed" $1.37 trillion from Social Security to pay for the worst strategic mistake in U.S. history, the Iraq War. Bush gutted financial regulations and enforcement, which helped banks, Wall Street, and corporations rip off the American people. The greed got out of control and they wrecked our economy again, losing 8 million jobs and nearly burned down the entire world economy.
Great Recession | Wikipedia
Republican Presidents and Recessions | Bloomberg
Trickle-Down Economics of Hoover, Reagan, and W. Bush
Republicans' Explanation Of The 2008 Crash Is Dangerously False | Business Insider
2004: Massive Republican Dirty Tricks
In the 2004 election there was massive GOP voter fraud and suppression; from black-box voting fraud, vote tabulating fraud, re-registering people into different precincts, destroying voter registration forms, misinformation in poor neighborhoods, moving polls close to election day, old ballot machines in poor and black neighborhoods that spoil ballots, ballot checking machines in wealthy neighborhoods that allow wealthy voters to re-cast spoiled ballots, police intimidation, caging lists and more. The exit polls had Kerry winning by 5 million votes but the results had Bush winning by 3 million votes. An 8 million vote discrepancy.
[2004] U.S. campaign begins to get dirty | BBC
Vets group attacks Kerry | SF Gate
Outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame | FactCheck.org
The GOP War on Voting | RollingStone
'Unprecedented' GOP-Crafted Redistricting in Texas | WAPO
Seeing red in Florida - More Dirty Tricks | Salon
Here Come the Dirty Tricks | Mother Jones
GOP dirty tricks in Ohio? | Salon
Bush-Cheney Campaign Admits Illegal Use of Funds in Texas | Boston.com
GOP Lies about DNC manual to accuse Dems of dirty tricks | Media Matters
Republican Dirty Tricksters Sproul & Associates Accused of Vote Fraud
Media Urged to Fight Dirty Tricks | BBC
GOP staff pried on Democrats | Boston.com
Medicare Vote Scandal - Drug-Company Bribe | Slate
Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith | Slate
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." — John Kenneth Galbraith
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2001: 9/11, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden
In 1998, Bill Clinton issued the capture or kill order on Osama bin Laden and put together a national security team to go after Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. Republicans attacked Clinton for bombing Al Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998. They called it "Wag the Dog." In 2001, George Bush demoted the head of the team tracking Al Qaeda and ignored the explicit warnings before the 9/11 attacks. In 2006 Bush disbanded the CIA bin Laden unit and stated publicly: "I don't know where he is [Osama bin Laden] ... I truly am not that concerned about him." In 2007, Mitt Romney said catching bin Laden would be "insignificant" and “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” In 2009, President Obama reconstituted the CIA bin Laden unit. Along with drone strikes and US Special Forces, we decimated the leadership of Al Qaeda and killed Bin Laden in 2011. This series of facts by themselves should disqualify Republicans from ever holding elected office.
2006 CIA Close Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden
2006 Bush Not Concerned About bin Laden
2007 Mitt Romney on Osama bin Laden
2011 Obama on Death of Osama bin Laden
2001: Republican Tax Cuts For The Rich
George W. Bush took the greatest U.S. economy in history, with a projected $2 trillion surplus, and handed it over to the rich in the form of two large tax cuts in 2001 and 2004. The result ballooned our deficits and debt and contributed to a rise in income inequality. The promised economic expansion was weak at best and any jobs created were erased when the economy collapsed in 2007 and lead to a loss of 8 million jobs in the Republican Great Recession. The tax cuts were just bribes for the rich. Billions in tax cuts and deregulation to get millions in return in the form of campaign contributions.
2000: The Many Tricks of Karl Rove
Republican Karl Rove dropped out of college to devote his full time to College Republicans, where he becomes protégé of dirty trickster Lee Atwater, the group's Southern regional coordinator. Rove becomes executive director and then national chairman. John Dean compared Karl Rove to Nixon’s Chuck Colson: [Chuck] "Colson, on the other hand, was as nasty a political operative as could be found. Colson was brutal, cruel, and vicious... While he once famously said he would run over his grandmother to get Nixon reelected...Karl Rove, from what I've seen, makes Colson look like a novice." — John Dean "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush."
Mastermind - Karl Rove's Political Career | PBS
More vicious than Tricky Dick [Karl Rove] | Salon
Bush Advisor Sabotaged Peace Negotiations before 2000 Election
1999: The Clinton Economic Boom
Bill Clinton cut taxes on low-income and middle-class working families and moved our federal budget from a quarter trillion dollar deficit to a projected 2 trillion dollar surplus. Clinton balanced the U.S. budget for the first time since Andrew Jackson, created 22 million new jobs, reduced the number of people on welfare, and fostered the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. Unemployment dropped from 7.5% to below 4% for the first time in more than 30 years and the Dow Jones rose from 3,200 to 10,000.
Bill Clinton |Wikipedia
Bill Clinton Timeline | CBS News
"We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more." —Bill Clinton
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"We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs." —Bill Clinton
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"Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." —Bill Clinton
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1996: The Rise of Conservative Media
By 1996 the corporate takeover of our government was close to complete, as outlined in the 1972 Powell Memo. This included corporate control of every major media outlet and the conversion to a more conservative output of content, which sought to help Republicans get elected so they could provide a more business-friendly government. This included slashing regulations that protect workers, consumers, and the environment to increase profits.
Republicans Own Every Major Media Outlet | Freepress
1993: Bill Clinton Witch Hunt
Princeton professor Julian Zelizer defines a "witch hunt" as ". . . endless investigations into whatever people could find with the purpose of just getting him." Republicans in Congress wasted massive amounts of time and money investigating Bill Clinton and eventually charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice over an affair he had with Monica Lewinsky. At Clinton's deposition, a precise definition of sexual relations was used that did not include fellatio. So when Clinton was asked by the lawyer: "...have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1, as modified by the Court?" Clinton answered: "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." Legally, he was telling the truth and he was acquitted on all impeachment charges.
When Is Sex Not "Sexual Relations"? | CNN
Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, led the witch hunt, while he was having an affair with a Congressional aide, while his wife was dying from cancer. Gingrich resigned and was replaced by Bob Livingston, who resigned after it was revealed he had had at least 4 affairs. Livingston was replaced by Republican Dennis Hastert. In 2015, Hastert was charged with $1.7 million in illegal payments to cover up "sexual abuse against a former male student." In open court, a federal judge repeatedly called Hastert a "serial child molester."
The Men Who Led The Impeachment Of Clinton | Think Progress
Gingrich Admits to Affair During Clinton Impeachment | ABC News
1993: The Arkansas Project
The "Arkansas Project" funded by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, was designed to damage and end the presidency of Bill Clinton through a series of bogus investigations and trumped-up charges. Republicans in Congress spent more than $25 million of taxpayer money to investigate Scaife’s false charges on Troopergate, Travelgate Filegate, and Whitewater. None of which resulted in sufficient evidence to file criminal charges.
It all began with "Troopergate." Republican fundraiser Peter W. Smith admitted to paying Arkansas State troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry $6,700 each to smear the reputation of President Bill Clinton. Self-described "Conservative Hit Man" David Brock, writing for the Scaife owned American Spectator wrote and broke the bogus story in 1993.
In a 1997 Esquire article titled "I Was a Conservative Hit Man, " Brock recanted his claims. In 1998 he went further and personally apologized to Clinton. Brock went on to write: "Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative" in which he exposed the right-wing conspiracy to destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton and Anita Hill.
Troopergate | Wikipedia
Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative | Wikipedia
The smear campaign against both Clintons was carried out and amplified by The Washington Times, owned by ultra-conservative cult leader, Sun Myung Moon, Right-wing billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s FOX News, and New York Post, Rush Limbaugh, and the Internet gossip column "Drudge Report." On September 20, 2000, the independent counsel announces that the "Whitewater" investigation is closed due to insufficient evidence against the president and first lady.
Arkansas Project | Wikipedia
The Hunting of the President | Wikipedia
The Republican Noise Machine | Wikipedia
1991: NAFTA Was a Republican Creation
NAFTA was entirely negotiated and initiated under George Bush Sr. but the legislation was passed during the beginning of Clinton's first term. Trade agreements are largely based on the enforcement or lack of enforcement on both sides. Clinton enforced the protections on our side of the agreement, which limited the negative impacts and helped create over 22 million new U.S. jobs. Unemployment dropped from 7.5% to below 4% for the first time in more than 30 years and our trade deficit was moved from a quarter trillion dollar deficit to a projected 2 trillion dollar surplus. It was the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. When Bush took office he dropped the enforcement, which contributed to the 2007 great recession and loss of 8 million jobs.
George Bush (Sr.) Remarks at the Initialing Ceremony for NAFTA, DEC 1992
Pres. Bush Signs NAFTA DEC 1992 | ABC News Video
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
1988: Lee Atwater’s Racist Willie Horton TV Attack Ad
The "Willie Horton" attack ad was so racist its creator apologized for it on his deathbed. It was also so effective that Republicans have used it as a model since it first appeared in 1988. The ad featuring a black murderer was used against Michael Dukakis by supporters of his opponent, George H. W. Bush. The "Revolving Door" ad never mentions Horton by name, but the connection to recent events was clear and the ad received considerable news coverage.
Roger Stone, a Republican strategist and key Trump ally and longtime adviser, claims that he told Atwater during the campaign that the ad was “a huge mistake.” “You and George Bush will wear that to your grave,” he continued. “It's a racist ad. You're already winning this issue. It's working for you. You're stepping over a line. You're going to regret it.'' In 1991, when Atwater was dying of cancer, he apologized for using the Horton ad against Dukakis.
In 2016 Sean Spicer, chief RNC spokesman, tweeted about how Republicans are launching a “Willie Horton-style attack” on Hillary Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine to promote a new ad it debuted one day before Kaine debates Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence. Hours later, the RNC official Twitter account promoted the same “Willie Horton” story about the Party’s game plan. Spicer later deleted his tweet and blamed the media.
‘Willie Horton’ Attack Was So Racist It's Creator Disavowed It
Lee Atwater’s Willie Horton TV Attack Ad | Time
1986: GOP Bank with Terrorists & Drug Dealers
Pakistan-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a massive criminal enterprise, engaged in fraud and money laundering for drug dealers, terrorists, and arms traffickers all around the world. Their clients included Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the heads of the Medellin cocaine cartel, Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, Manuel Noriega, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a web of Washington lobbyists with close ties to President George H.W. Bush. A French intelligence report obtained by The Washington Post in 2002 described the financial network operated by bin Laden today "is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI." As one senior U.S. investigator said in 2002, "BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations."
Follow the Money | David Sirota
1986: Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran-Contra Affair revealed a Republican plot to illegally sell weapons to a U.S. enemy, Iran to help finance the training and support of anti-communist armies in Nicaragua (Contras). The anti-communist armies were actually drug cartels, which used CIA-trained death squads to terrorize and maintain control over the people to grow and harvest cocaine, which was sold in the U.S. to also help finance anti-communist actions in South America. In November 1987 a Congressional report stated U.S. President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides in the Iran-Contra Affair. Reagan's administration had over 138 administration officials investigated, indicted, or convicted, the largest number for any U.S. president. See topic 1983: Reaganomics.
Iran–Contra Affair | Wikipedia
Reagan administration scandals
1984: Reagan Gave U.S. Epidemic Drug Addiction
In 1983 Ronald Reagan scared the Soviet Union into nearly launching a preemptive nuclear war. That nuclear scare was used to justify some pretty horrible things that tripled our debt and created the nuclear threats, terrorism, massive wealth and income inequality, epidemic drug addiction, and mass incarceration we are still dealing with today.
Security Chiefs Block Release of Report on 1983 Soviet Nuclear Scare
Reagan changed the National Security Policy to: bankrupt the Soviet Union and stop the spread of Communism around the world. For Reagan, this meant massive government debt spending to accelerate a nuclear arms race, which exploded the nuclear threats around the world. Reagan created the Council on Competitiveness to helped US companies move their manufacturing overseas to take advantage of cheap slave wage labor in third world countries. For jobs that could not be moved overseas, Reagan used National Security Executive Orders to reclassify immigration misdemeanors that made it possible for millions of non-union workers to cross the U.S. border and provide cheap domestic labor. Later Reagan supported and signed an amnesty for 2.9 million undocumented workers. These policies had the added benefit of crippling U.S. labor unions and by extension, weaken the Democratic party. They also lowered everyone's wages across the board, which helped U.S. companies become more profitable and able to donate more money to Republicans.
U.S. Council on Competitiveness | Wikipedia
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man | Wikipedia
A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants
To stop the spread of Communism, Reagan's CIA helped Nicaraguan drug cartels flood U.S. streets with massive amounts of cocaine to finance anti-communist armies in South America. This did help bleed the Soviet Union but it also created a massive drug addiction problem in the U.S., which exploded gang violence, created a massive policing problem, and led to the mass incarceration of mostly young black men, all of which we are still dealing with today. The CIA did not create crack cocaine but they did create the demand to reach a broader lower-income market, which led to crack cocaine. The reporter who linked the CIA to the sale of Nicaraguan cocaine in Los Angeles, in the 1980s was found with two bullet holes in the back of his head, which was ruled an apparent suicide (two bullet holes).
The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations | GWU
Reporter Who Linked CIA to Cocaine Sales Found Dead
1983: Reaganomics = Trickle Down + Debt Spending
The combination of typical Trickle Down or Supply-Side Economics with massive debt spending became known as "Reaganomics." It delayed the typical economic crash, which happened after Reagan left office, during George H. W. Bush's administration in 1991.
How Reaganomics Destroyed The Middle Class | MSNBC Video
I Helped Create the GOP Tax Myth - Bruce Bartlett | WAPO
George H. W. Bush Calls Reagonomics "Voodoo Economics" | Youtube
Why Trickle Down No Longer Works | Forbes
Trickle-Down Economics: Four Reasons Why It Doesn't Work
The Failure of Supply-Side Economics
1980: Carter Risked His Job to Stop Inflation
Jimmy Carter took on major domestic problems that had been ignored by previous presidents and got more done in his first year than most accomplish in two terms. Carter established the Department of Education and increased college tuition grants for needy students. He ended federal price regulation of trucking, interstate buses, railroads, and airlines. Created the Department of Energy and the first comprehensive energy plan, which included the first strategic petroleum reserve and tax incentives for home insulation and solar energy. Negotiated the first Middle East peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Carter expanded human rights around the world, negotiated a comprehensive nuclear weapons test ban, implemented Welfare reform, food stamp reform, increased the minimum wage, Social Security reform, economic stimulus to create jobs, government reform to be more efficient, effective, and transparent, paperwork reduction, ethics reform, financial disclosure, stopped revolving-door, improved internal government security, farm bill to help farmers, hospital cost containment, heating fuel assistance for the poor, extended civil rights and equal opportunity to women and handicapped, gave assistance to minority-owned businesses, improved consumer protection on debt collection, auto safety (airbags), signed into law the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Fraud and Abuse Act, improved the Clean Air Act, reduced water pollution, limited strip mining, contained redwood logging, and created new oil spill regulations.
"Carter not Reagan appointed [Paul] Volcker a full 14 months before Reagan became president. Carter knew that Volcker would raise rates sharply probably causing a recession but told his counselors who advised against the appointment to let him worry about the politics... So contrary to the mythology, Carter took the political risks [to eliminate inflation] not Reagan."
"Carter took on bruising political fights with Congress to end price-fixing by airlines (1978) and trucking companies and railroads (1980). He opened the auto and steel industries to more intense competition (1980), as well as oil, natural gas, and electricity (1978) with the same anti-inflationary results. These were political fights in Congress against powerful interests that Reagan never had to take on."
Inflation: The Reagan Myth and Carter Record | Huffington Post
Jimmy Carter’s Unheralded Legacy | NYT
Carter’s First-Year Domestic, National Security and Foreign Policy Accomplishments
Presidency of Jimmy Carter | Wikipedia
Jimmy Carter | Wikipedia
"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future." —Jimmy Carter
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"Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent." —Jimmy Carter
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1972: The Powell Memo - Corporate Takeover
Before Nixon appointed Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court, Powell created a plan for corporations to take control of the U.S. government. The memo led to the creation of the Business Roundtable (1972), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC - 1973), Heritage Foundation (1973), the Cato Institute (1977), the Manhattan Institute (1978), Citizens for a Sound Economy (1984 - now Americans for Prosperity). It is also credited with the takeover of every major media outlet and the creation of FOX News and conservative talk radio. All of which sought to increase corporate profits by slashing regulations that protect workers, consumers, and the environment.
The Powell Memo: A Call-to-Arms for Corporations | Bill Moyers
1972: Nixon and Watergate
White House operatives are caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters to replace a malfunctioning listening device (bug) and were arrested. The subsequent investigation by the FBI established that the Watergate break-in was part of a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage of Democratic candidates conducted by the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) and to ensure Nixon’s re-election. Nixon launched a cover-up, drawing White House officials into a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice. Only the release of Nixon's White House tapes, under order of the U.S. Supreme Court, made clear that Nixon was lying and on Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon resigned the Presidency.
The Watergate Timeline | WAPO
Watergate, the "national nightmare" | WAPO
Watergate Tapes Online | WAPO
Watergate Scandal | BBC
1972: Republicans Sabotage the Democratic Primary
FBI agents established a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of President Nixon's re-election and were directed by officials of the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President. The sabotage included surveillance of Democratic candidates and their families, assembling dossiers on their personal lives, forging damaging letters and distributing them under the candidates' letterheads, leaking false and manufactured items to the press, throwing campaign schedules into disarray, seizing confidential campaign files, planting provocateurs in the ranks of organizations expected to demonstrate at the Republican and Democratic conventions and investigating the lives of dozens of Democratic campaign workers.
FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats | WAPO
Segretti Indicted in Mailing Of Bogus Muskie Letter | NYT
The Sabotage of Presidential Campaign of Senator Ed Muskie
Pat Buchanan Outlined Plan to Harass Democrats in '72 | WAPO
1971: Republicans Sabotage Equal Rights Amendment
Democrats led the fight for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Congress, in 1971, while Republicans led the opposition to prevent it from being ratified by the states. The landslide passage in the House and Senate led many to believe it was only a matter of time for the states to ratify the ERA. But conservative Republican, Phyllis Schlafly led the movement to stop the ratification in conservative Republican states.
Equal Rights Amendment | Wikipedia
1971: Nixon's Enemies List
On September 9, 1971, President Nixon ordered Charles Colson to compile an "Enemies List" which was sent to John Dean on September 9, 1971. The list was part of a campaign officially known as "Political Enemies Project." The official purpose, as described by the White House Counsel's Office, was to "screw" Nixon's political enemies, by means of tax audits from the IRS, and by manipulating "grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc." The list included Democrat Rep. John Conyers, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Barbra Streisand, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Nixon's Enemies List | Wikipedia
1968: Nixon Sabotaged Vietnam Peace Talks
Recent releases of Nixon's papers, confirmed by transcripts of FBI wiretaps, now confirms that Nixon ordered Anna Chennault to persuade the South Vietnam government to stop a cease-fire being brokered by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968. This makes it possible for Nixon to beat Hubert Humphrey and win the 1968 presidential election. The Vietnam war continues for seven more years and more than 20,000 American soldiers and millions of Southeast Asians died as a result.
Nixon’s Vietnam Treachery | NYT
Yes, Nixon Scuttled Vietnam Peace Talks | Politico
Richard Nixon’s long shadow - George Will | WAPO
1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People’s Campaign
"This march was to demand better jobs, better homes, better education - better lives than the ones they were living." —Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
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Martin Luther King Jr., after years of fighting racism, came to the conclusion that racism, economic exploitation, and war were all connected as "triple evils" and before he died, formed the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. The campaign sought to unite all poor people to fight economic inequality by demanding better healthcare, jobs, homes, and education for all poor people. King emphasized the need for poor whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans to unite. He asserted that the Poor People’s Campaign would only be successful if the poor could come together across all the obstacles and barriers set up to divide us.
The Poor People’s Campaign of 1968
Many progressive Democrats have since included many of the policies outlined in the Poor People's Campaign in their own campaign policies, including George McGovern, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Paul Wellstone, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. The 2016 Democratic Party platform came close and the 2017 Democratic message: "A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future" is essentially a concise description of MLK's Poor People's Campaign. The only thing standing in the way are Republicans.
1968: The Southern Strategy
With the help of former Dixiecrats, Republicans developed a "Southern Strategy," also known as "race-baiting” to exploit the racial conflicts in southern states by tapping into widespread white racism and bigotry using themes like "states' rights" "forced busing" "racial quotas" and later "welfare queens" to alienate liberal candidates in the south. The strategy has more recently been expanded and refined to exploit cultural issues of abortion and gay marriage. LBJ gave one of the best descriptions in a quote to Bill Moyers and Lee Atwater was recorded explaining the "Southern Strategy" in stark detail.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best-colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." —Lyndon Johnson
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What a Real President [LBJ] Was Like | WAPO
Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy | Youtube
The Southern Strategy | Wikipedia
1964: Dixiecrats Join the GOP
The Southern white Dixiecrats (KKK) left the Democratic party over the passage and signing of the Civil Rights Act. They eventually joined the Republican party.
"I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. —Lyndon Johnson after signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964
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Civil Rights Act Leaves Deep Mark On the American Political Landscape | NYT
Dixiecrats and the GOP | The Nation
Dixie's Long Journey From Democrats To Republicans | NPR
The GOP’s Dixiecrat Problem | Newyorker
1963: LBJ and The Great Society
LBJ's Great Society was a set of domestic programs designed to help the most people who needed help and they were passed in the wake of JFK's assassination. They had the added benefit of creating a stronger, more stable economy that worked better for everyone. As usual, Republicans opposed the policies because they made it more difficult for them to rig the system for the rich, which is why they are still trying to dismantle these policies today.
Great Society | Wikipedia
"The VOTE is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men." —Lyndon B. Johnson
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"You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered." —Lyndon B. Johnson
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"This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty." —Lyndon B. Johnson
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1963: John F. Kennedy Assassinated
One thing that gets lost in the many conspiracy theories around the assassination of JFK is that despite many credible and serious threats, which prompted significant increases in security on trips to Chicago, Miami, and Tampa, days and weeks before November 22, 1963, the president's security nearly disappeared in Dallas.
JFK's Dual Chicago Assassination Plots Revealed | ABC News
A Miami police informant, and fresh questions about JFK’s death | Miami Herald
Intriguing Mystery - The Secret Service and the JFK Assassination | U of GA
JFK Death Threat In Miami Revealed For 1st Time | CBS News
The Secret Service chose to not inspect the buildings along the motorcade route in Dallas, even though it was standard procedure. They reduced the number and placement of Dallas police officers that would escort the motorcade. The two dog-leg turns into Dealey Plaza caused the limo to slow down to 11 mph. After the first shots rang out, the 54-year old Secret Service agent, driving the limo, put his foot on the brake and came to a near stop, before the fatal shot was fired. According to witnesses and the Zapruder film, only one agent, Clint Hill, who was assigned to the First Lady, made an effort to get to the presidential limo. In contrast, the agent riding in the car with Vice President Johnson jumped over the front seat and threw his body over the vice president as soon as the first shot was fired.
Could the Secret Service Have Saved JFK? | Vanity Fair
In a 1972 Oval Office, tape-recorded conversation with his chief of staff, President Nixon referred to the Warren Commission as "the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetrated."
Revelations and gaps on Nixon tapes | BBC
1961: The Kennedy Legacy
Kennedy proposed a civil rights bill that he hoped would end racial segregation. He proposed a voting-rights bill and federal programs to provide health care to the elderly and the poor. Kennedy also proposed that we send a man to the moon and back. Most of all, JFK made people believe all of these things were possible, and eventually they did all come true.
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win."
—John F. Kennedy
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"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." —John F. Kennedy
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"We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last." —John F. Kennedy
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"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." —John F. Kennedy
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The Legacy of John F. Kennedy | Atlantic
1956: Adlai Stevenson’s 2nd Campaign Against Eisenhower
Popular WWII Supreme Allied Commander and war hero, General Dwight Eisenhower easily beat Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1952. In his first term, Republicans were upset that Eisenhower left most of FDR's New Deal policies in place, continued Truman's policy to integrate the military, and expanded on the Democratic approach to invest in the middle class by building the national interstate highway system. Eisenhower ended the Korean War and enjoyed economic growth during the post-war recovery and easily won a second term as president. During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: "Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!" Stevenson replied: "That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority"
"I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." —Adlai Stevenson
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"Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time." —Harry S. Truman
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"I never give the Republicans hell. I just tell the truth on them and they think it's hell.” —Harry S. Truman
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"The Democratic Party is the people's party, not the labor party, not the farmer's party, not the employers' party—It is the party of no one because it is the party of everyone."
—Adlai Stevenson
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"We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and the love we give our fragile craft."
—Adlai Stevenson
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1948: The Buck Stops Here - Truman Integrates Military
Hubert Humphrey's 1948 Democratic convention speech to nominate Harry Truman, began to push right-wing conservatives out of the Democratic Party and led to the Republican "Southern Strategy," which appealed to southern white racists and with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, led to majority Republican control of the south.
"I ask this convention, to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight for civil rights in America!" —Hubert Humphrey
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Red states and blue states
Truman Integrates the Military
1945: Truman Proposes National Health Care
Seven months into a presidency inherited from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman proposed a "universal" national health insurance program. In his remarks to Congress, he declared, "Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection." Republicans blocked it, but Medicare and Medicaid were the eventual results of this early effort to help the American people. Republicans continue to try to starve these programs to shut them down so they can give more tax cuts to the rich.
Truman Pitches National Health Care - PBS
1942: Republicans Bankroll Hitler
Seizure of Union Banking Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act revealed that George Bush's Grandfather, Prescott Bush bankrolled Adolf Hitler. When UBC was liquidated in 1951, the Bush family walked away with $1.5 million, which launched the Bush family fortunes.
Republicans Bankrolled Hitler
1933: Attempted Coup against FDR
Few Americans know that during the Great Depression, some of America's wealthiest families including the Morgans and DuPonts fearful of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies conspired to overthrow the government of the United States and install a fascist dictatorship.
In 1933 Major General Smedley Darlington Butler reported to Congress a plot against President Franklin Roosevelt, sponsored by corporate interests. Alarmed by Roosevelt's Democratic "New Deal" which would redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, Grayson Murphy, William Doyle, John Davis, and representatives of J.P. Morgan banks, Dupont, Goodyear, Remington Arms, and Bethlehem Steel sought to overthrow the U.S. government with a military coup and replace it with a fascist state, based on the recent success of Mussolini and Hitler in Italy and Germany.
General Butler was immensely popular with veterans and active troops. As a war hero, twice awarded the Medal of Honor, General Butler was known as "The Fighting Quaker" and a man of unimpeachable honesty and integrity. The conspirators tried to recruit Butler by promising him an army of 500,000 veterans, unlimited financial backing, and generous media spin control. The plot was foiled when Butler reported it to Congress.
To prevent a panic, Congress whitewashed the public version of its final report, deleting the names of the powerful businessmen whose reputations they sought to protect. The corporate-owned media managed to spin the story as rumors and hearsay and the plot was generally covered up for many years. As a result of a 1967 FOIA request, journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report which confirmed Butler's story.
Business Plot Against FDR
When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR - NPR
1933: FDR and The New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt took office while the United States was in the midst of the Republican Great Depression. Despite being crippled by polio, FDR renewed the national spirit with his persistent optimism, broadcast on the radio in the form of fireside chats. During his first 100 days in office, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and executive orders known as "the New Deal." Programs designed to produce relief (government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (economic growth), and reform (through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation). Below are a few of the programs that survived persistent Republican opposition and sabotage.
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Banking and Wall Street reform
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Government jobs for unemployed
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Building new infrastructure
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Social Security
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Collective bargaining
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National minimum wage
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30-year mortgages
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Child labor protection
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Forty hour work week
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Eight-hour workdays
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Overtime pay
All of the above were investments that created the middle and a stronger, more stable economy that works better for everyone, rich and poor. All of which Republicans opposed and are now trying to dismantle.
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power." — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little." — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward." — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Franklin D. Roosevelt | Wikipedia
1929: The Republican Crash and Great Depression
12 years of Republican corruption and Trickle Down Economics was more than any economy could take. Herbert Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce through both Harding and Coolidge administrations. He and Sec. of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon were the architects of the "trickle-down" economics that caused the Great Depression of the 1930s. Handing tax cuts, loopholes and exemptions to the rich is nothing more than bribes to get the rich to donate to Republican election campaigns, to keep them in power to give them more bribes. It’s also taking from the poor to give to the rich, which creates a bubble that seems to work until the economy crashes and the Democrats are left to clean up the mess.
Great Depression | Wikipedia
Herbert Hoover - March 1929 > March 1933 | Wikipedia
Trickle-Down Economics of Hoover, Reagan, and W. Bush
1920: Republicans: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
The Republican administration of Warren G. Harding is considered to be the most corrupt in history. The Teapot Dome Scandal and the "Ohio Gang" became famous. One assistant to the Attorney General was caught carrying bribes to and from the Attorney General's office in a paper bag. The head of the Veterans Bureau was convicted of taking at least $250 million dollars in kickbacks and bribes. The head of the Office of Alien Property was convicted of fraud. Harding died of a heart attack and only Calvin Coolidge and a few members of the Cabinet escaped jail. Herbert Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce through both Harding and Coolidge administrations. He and Sec. of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon were the architects of the "trickle-down" economics that caused the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Calvin Coolidge - August 1923 – March 1929 | Wikipedia
Warren G. Harding - March 1921 – August 1923 | Wikipedia
1920: Republicans Sabotaged the League of Nations
Toward the end of World War I, Democratic president Woodrow Wilson fought for a League of Nations, designed to settle international disputes through negotiation and arbitration, to prevent future wars and maintain world peace. The Republican leader of the Senate, Henry Cabot Lodge, sabotaged the U.S. legislation with poison pills, which crippled the League and led to the second world war. The United Nations was formed as a result.
Senate Rejects League of Nations | Politico
1919: Votes For Women
After learning the suffragists, who had picketed outside the White House, were arrested, force-fed and mistreated, Woodrow Wilson finally stepped in to champion their cause. Wilson first spoke to Congress in 1918 to endorse women’s right to vote and continued to appeal to members of Congress until passage on June 4, 1919.
President Wilson Speaks in Favor of Female Suffrage | History
"The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." —Woodrow Wilson
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1912: The Progressive Bull Moose
Teddy Roosevelt strengthened regulations on big business, bringing 44 lawsuits against corporate monopolies (including: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Schwab and J.P. Morgan) and established a new federal Department of Labor and Commerce, all of which earned Roosevelt the nickname "Trustbuster." As a result of his actions, Republicans rejected Roosevelt in 1912, and he ran on the Progressive Bull Moose ticket, where he split the conservative vote and ensured a win for Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Progressive "Bull Moose" Party | Wikipedia
Democrats believe science works, gravity exists, the earth is round, climate change is real, health care is a right, love is love, black lives matter, immigrants make America great, equal justice and opportunity for all people, not just the rich. It's time to rebuild our middle class and the only way to do that is to stop putting Republicans in charge. Don't Be Fooled by Russian Fake News, Republican Alt Facts or Nazi Propaganda, VOTE DEMOCRATIC in every election.