Beware of Liberals Waxing Reaganesque

New Common Sense:  Applying First Principles to the Issues of Today

Beware of Liberals Waxing Reaganesque

The buzz word to praise Barack Obama’s second State of the Union address is “Reaganesque.” Time magazine gushed that Obama’s emphasis on innovation, nod to American Exceptionalism, and deft use of storytelling places him “squarely — with Reagan — on the side of sunshine and enterprise.” As one conservative commentator remarked, “ever so slowly, liberals are attempting a subtle revisionism” of our 40th president. Though Reagan was portrayed as a simpleton B-movie actor (lacking compassion for the little man or good sense about policy) while president, liberals now reinterpret his legacy in order to bludgeon conservatives with it.

What defines Ronald Reagan?

Reagan’s greatest accomplishments were undoubtedly  in foreign policy. He demonstrated great courage in challenging and defeating the Soviet Union. Reagan assisted pro-freedom anti-communist forces in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, and Cambodia. Some estimate that the cash-strapped Soviets spent $8 billion a year on counterinsurgency operations against U.S.-backed guerrillas. The accelerating Soviet losses in Afghanistan demoralized the Kremlin and the Red Army, hastening the collapse of the Soviet empire.  There was vehement opposition to his Strategic Defense Initiative (even within his administration), but Reagan continued to push SDI and to persuade the Soviets to stop waging a Cold War they could not win.

At home, liberal intellectuals lauded the economic accomplishments of the Soviet Union. Reagan was not so easily seduced. In late 1981 and all of 1982, when his tax cuts had not yet kicked in and the U.S. economy still lagged, President Reagan reassured his worried aides and counseled them to stay the course. He had faith in the American people who, if they could be “liberated from the restraints imposed on them by government,” would pull “the country out of its tailspin.” Reagan told the British Parliament that a “global campaign for freedom” would prevail over the forces of tyranny and that “the Soviet Union itself is not immune to this reality.” By the end of the decade, as he predicted, Marxism-Leninism was dumped on the ash heap of history. America, though, experienced the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history, with 17 million new jobs created during the Reagan years.
Reagan was indeed a gifted politician. He knew when to bend a little (in order to get what he wanted later on) and when to stand firm. In either case, his principles guided his actions. Ronald Reagan’s principles were rooted in two documents—the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. From his very first national speech supporting Barry Goldwater’s presidential bid in October 1964 to his farewell address to the nation in January 1989, Reagan turned again and again to the wisdom of the Founders.  Under Reagan's leadership, his Attorney General Edwin Meese III reopened a fundamental debate about the meaning of the Constitution that liberals had thought to be settled long ago. An open discussion of the Constitution’s meaning was essential, because “Reagan understood that many of our problems descended from the decay of the Constitution's restraints on the centralization of power in Washington.”

Considering that Reagan’s policies were grounded in the principles and documents of the American founding, it is more than passing strange to watch liberals twist Reagan’s legacy and declare Barack Obama heir to this new liberalized version of Reagan. Reagan’s understanding of America remained anchored in our country's core documents. Obama’s vision of America requires us to shed our allegiance to these documents and build a new progressive foundation for America. Reagan unabashedly embraced American exceptionalism, declaring the Soviet Union to be an Evil Empire. Obama begrudgingly tips his hat towards American exceptionalism, spending his time abroad groveling before foreign dignitaries and apologizing for America’s sins. Reagan’s economic policies led to years of American prosperity.  Obama’s health care bill sucked the life out of the economy (and the bill has not yet gone into full effect). As we celebrate the Gipper’s 100th birthday, let us honor the Reagan’s true legacy anchored in America’s First Principles, lest we be fooled by liberals waxing Reaganesque.

Keep Reading about Reagan Reclaimed

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Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Matthew 7:20
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Mark Rudd, a former Weather Underground Terrorist [and unrepentant Marxist to this day] exposed, in 2008, what we all believed; to have it confirmed by one of Obama's fellow travelers is incredibly useful! I love the fact that this guy wanted to feel relevant enough to confirm (over at theragblog.blogspot.com) our understanding! This information makes it easier to make the case to the masses who do not pay attention to the news, and who get their information from CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post, and other corrupted national news sources.

Enjoy this confirmation of the truth we all knew was there; despite being published on a blog in 2008, it was recently brought to my attention by New Zeal:
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When Obama Talks like Reagan, Remember Mark Rudd's Warning Words

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | Posted By TREVOR LOUDON
It is clear that [White House Resident] Barack Obama is going to move his rhetoric to the center, even to the right, as he positions himself for 2012. After all he can hardly talk further left can he?
But as the beguiling one talks like Ronald Reagan, we should all keep an eye on his actions.

We should also remember this analysis from former Weather Underground terrorist Mark Rudd [photo at right from 1968], written just after the 2008 elections:

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Obama is a very strategic thinker. He knew precisely what it would take to get elected and didn't blow it. He used community organizing methods to mobilize a base consisting of many people who had never voted before or who regularly don't vote....But he also knew that what he said had to basically play to the center to not be run over by the press, the Republicans, scare centrist and cross-over voters away. He made it.

So he has a narrow mandate for change, without any direction specified. What he's doing now is moving on the most popular issues -- the environment, health care, and the economy. He'll be progressive on the environment because that has broad popular support; health care will be extended to children, then made universal, but the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance corporations will stay in place, perhaps yielding some power; the economic agenda will stress stimulation from the bottom sometimes and handouts to the top at other times. It will be pragmatic...

And I agree with this strategy. Anything else will court sure defeat. Move on the stuff you can to a small but significant extent, gain support and confidence. Leave the military alone because they're way too powerful. For now, until enough momentum is raised. By the second or third year of this recession, when stimulus is needed at the bottom, people may begin to discuss cutting the military budget if security is being increased through diplomacy and application of nascent international law.

Obama plays basketball. I'm not much of an athlete, barely know the game, but one thing I do know is that you have to be able to look like you're doing one thing but do another. That's why all these conservative appointments are important: the strategy is feint to the right, move left. Any other strategy invites sure defeat. It would be stupid to do otherwise in this environment...
Read Obama's first book, "Dreams from My Father." The second section is the story of his three years doing community organizing in Chicago. It's some of the best writing on organizing I've ever seen. That's all it's about, the core of the book. Obama learned many lessons of strategy and patience...

This is no stupid guy... Had any of the stupid Republicans read his books, they never could have said, "We don't know who this guy is." You know every thought he's ever had.

Rudd, an unrepentant Marxist to this day, works closely with at three people who have been close to Obama in the recent past - Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Carl Davidson.

This is as honest an evaluation of Obama's strategy and tactics as you are likely to get.

The Socialist Solution to the Crisis

Thatcherism and Reaganism have failed on a momentous scale.

The job losses, repossessions, uncertainty, fear and misery faced by the people of Europe, the United States and Japan are a terrible stain on the consciences of those bankers and politicians whose doctrine of neo-liberal markets plunged us all into this crash. But the effect of the crisis on the Third World is of an entirely different magnitude. While developed countries scramble to save their economies, half of humanity languishes. For many, this means hunger, disease and death.

In Europe, we have been protected from the worst effects of the crisis thanks to welfare states built up over the past 60 years to cushion citizens from the threats posed by the free market. We can all count on state health care, social housing, education, unemployment support and other universal, tax-funded services.

The task facing us is to extend and adapt this unique recipe for prosperity and solidarity to the developing world, where according to the World Health Organization between 200,000 and 400,000 additional children will die each year due to the global economic downturn. Prices for natural resources are falling, the stream of earnings sent back to developing countries by migrant workers is drying up, government debts are being called in, and spending slashed.

In Asia, Africa and Latin America this will mean job losses in industry and strains on agriculture. Children are being pulled out of school to work in fields or to provide an extra income, livestock are being sold, and unscrupulous employers are extracting even more from overworked and underpaid sweatshop laborers. Political instability has already claimed governments in Guinea Bissau and Madagascar, and unrest is building elsewhere.

It is vitally important that we fight the global financial and economic crisis, but we must remember that this crisis comes on top of a number of crises in the developing world. It adds further misery to the food crisis, the migration crisis, the climate and energy crisis, and the environmental crisis.

So now, as we react to the near-collapse of the international financial system, and as people recognize the fundamental flaws in the neo-liberal recipe of deregulated, market-led globalization, we have a unique opportunity to develop a new approach.

The simplistic dictum of more markets and less government -- championed by Reagan, Thatcher and their ideological heirs -- has failed on a momentous scale. In the White House, President Hope has replaced President Tax Cuts for the Rich. As we go into the G-20 meeting in London, even European conservatives such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are calling for a new global financial architecture, better financial regulation and a crackdown on tax havens. The previously unimaginable idea of a "Global New Deal" is suddenly on many people's lips.

We must press harder than ever for the implementation of the eight Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the United Nations in 2000, which include halving extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS. A global crackdown on tax havens and tax avoidance could provide the funds to take the fight against such scourges as infectious diseases, maternal mortality and poverty to a whole new level. We could base our stimulus spending on smart green growth, making real progress in protecting the environment. Would that not be an inspiring way to combat the recession?

We must press for the strongest possible international agreement on climate change, and make it politically impossible for conservatives to argue that we cannot afford this. We must show that the costs of doing nothing far outweigh the costs of switching to a carbon-free economy, not least because the actions required have the potential to create millions of jobs.

We must also renew our faith in diplomacy as a means to achieve peace. The West now has no excuses for failing to establish dialogue with countries like Iran, countries whose aggressive strength is only augmented if we do not engage all players in peaceful conflict resolution.

I am hopeful that the G-20 will make progress on these areas. But we cannot just leave it to them. We must keep up the pressure by demanding a globalization that works for everyone, and forge new alliances and new lines of communication across national boundaries. We must develop new, progressive ways to achieve global justice.

That's why, as the G-20 meets in London, an even larger group will meet in Brussels -- a group of progressive politicians, trade unionists, NGOs, academics and figures from major international institutions. This is the world conference of the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), which will bring together speakers from five continents to develop a new vision of a globalized world which benefits all. The GPF will take place in the European Parliament and will be opened by Bill Clinton. It will feature debates and discussions on the issues of global governance, trade, financial markets, decent work, migration and climate change, all aimed at coordinating global answers to what are global crises. It shows that the world's progressives are serious about making a solidaristic social model a reality for all.

In ancient Greek drama, the word "krisis" refers to the pivot on which the plot turns, the point at which its resolution, the moment of death or triumph, is decided. How will our crises be resolved? The systemic failings brought to light by the economic crisis offer us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a proactive new start on all fronts. Now is the time to ensure that this pivotal moment is not wasted. Now is the time for change.

Mr. Rasmussen is president of the Party of European Socialists and a former prime minister of Denmark (1993-2001).

By POUL NYRUP RASMUSSEN - For the Wall Street Journal

• Karl Marx could not have said it better...
• The UN back globalism a new global currency...
• The world is upside down when France and Germany are lecturing us about spending too much and too much government involvement.
• And all signs lead to the end of capitalism and the march to socialism within the United States if Americans don't stand up for their country and what they believe in... and do it quickly.