Posted on 10/26/2006 2:02:03 PM PDT by rob777
Dispirited conservatives and Republicans rightfully appalled at the Cunningham, Abramoff, and Foley scandals should remember history as they contemplate not voting in the 2006 elections because of disillusionment.
In early 1973, the Dow approached new highs in a booming economy. In the 1972 election, the new left was rejected in almost every state. The Paris Peace Treaty was concluded with North Vietnam memorializing its pledge not to interfere militarily in the affairs of South Vietnam. The nation was prosperous and at peace.
Worst President
Within a short time, the mainstream media were able to dismember and destroy the Nixon Administration, using as their sword the Watergate affair. In the congressional elections of 1974, Republican candidates were pounded, losing 48 House seats and five Senate seats.
Until the 1990s, the so-called Watergate Babies (i.e. left-wing Democrats) ruled Congress. As its first act after the 1974 election, the new Congress cut off all aid to South Vietnam. Within a short period of time, this led to Communist conquest of all of Indochina, the massacre of at least 4 million of our friends in the killing fields of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and the displacement of millions of boat people.
In 1976, the left wing captured the White House with the worst President of modern timesJimmy Carter. By 1979, the U.S. economy was in shambles with 12% inflation, 11% unemployment, and vast deficits. Our military was reduced to a shadow. With even our embassy officials held hostage in Tehran, the United States became a powerless joke to the world. It may be fairly said that but for Ronald Reagan the days of our democracy might well have been numbered by the consequences of the 1974 election.
It is not clear why the voters of 1974 thought it wise or just to indirectly cause the destruction of millions of allies in Southeast Asia because of the cover-up of a minor burglary at the Watergate. They certainly did not know that by their votes they would punish themselves severely, leaving, by the end of the Carter years, a U.S. economy that was a burned-out hulk and a nation that was humiliated.
I wonder whether history will repeat itself this year. Despite mainstream media distortion, the economy is in its strongest condition since the Reagan years with low unemployment and inflation rates and diminishing fiscal deficits. We have recovered from the implosion of the Clinton Internet bubble and the shock of Sept. 11, 2001. We have crippled al Qaeda, assembled an international coalition to deal with North Korea and made reasonable progress in defeating at least the foreign insurgency in Iraq. We have seen no terrorist attack on our heartland in more than five years.
Despite the second-guessing by Democrats who have no military experience and by a few veterans who question the Iraq policy, an overwhelming majority of active-duty personnel support the Bush policies and the Republican administration. For example, in 2004, an Army Times poll of active-duty military personnel showed less than 15% voting for Kerry and more than 80% voting for Bush. Despite the token military veterans trotted out by the Democratic Party as Trojan horses in Republican areas, it is clear that a large majority of veterans and active-duty personnel reject the cut-and-run policies of the fringe element now in control of the Democratic Party.
In the spring of 1975, I watched in horror our refusal to aid our South Vietnamese friends and their collapse. I watched our friends die by the millions in the gulags of Cambodia and Laos and in frenzied attempts to escape on the high seas, and I remembered my friends, who died in Vietnam, and whose sacrifice was so casually discarded by the Watergate Babies. I lost faith in the United States for many years.
I wonder now if we are so blind and ignorant of history to actually allow a new crop of Watergate Babies to install clearly unfit leaders such as Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.), John Conyers (D.-Mich.), and impeached Alcee Hastings (D.-Fla.) as the guiding force in our nation. Considering that a Democratic win could mean the rise of John Murtha (D.-Pa.) from Abscam to majority leader, and Hastings from impeached federal judge to House Intelligence chairman, it is no exaggeration to say both parties have bad actors. The distinction is that the Democrats promote them and the Republicans fire them.
Finally, I wonder if voters (like those in 1974) are going to actually vote for the betrayal of our Iraqi and Afghan allies and the sacrifices of our troops. I wonder if our Iraq War veterans will watch the mass execution or flight of those who fought with them and believed in us. If so, history teaches us that in the end we will suffer terribly ourselves. This is particularly true here, where we face adversaries who have said they will not stop at the waters edge but have already reached across the ocean to destroy our nations largest buildings and thousands of our people.
"It may be fairly said that but for Ronald Reagan the days of our democracy might well have been numbered by the consequences of the 1974 election." Can we afford to take the chance that another Ronald Reagan will come along and "rescue" us again?
Amen!
John O'Neill for President. Why doesn't he run?
This time around, the mistake made by the sheeple will probably cost our nation tens of thousands of lives. We will see terrorists strike again and this time around it will be more devastating than we can imagine. I really wonder if our days are numbered as a nation. I think that the Democrats and others on the Left have given us to the enemy, and the end will come.
We need to get the Pubbies back in office and hopefully the rank and file in the House and Senate will change the leadership. Frist is gone and hopefully someone with some testciles will take his place like a re-elected Santoruium or even Mitch McConnel.
"We need to get the Pubbies back in office and hopefully the rank and file in the House and Senate will change the leadership."
That is my take as well.
"Within a short time, the mainstream media were able to dismember and destroy the Nixon Administration . . ."
Crap.
Nixon and his thugs destroyed themselves and gave us Carter and all the joy of his administration. Loyalty is admirable, but not when it blinds us to reality.
Unlike Nixon, Bush is an honorable man doing his best under extremely difficult circumstances. He's ducking bullets from every direction. Shame on those pouty rightwingers who choose to join the dark side when they don't get their way.
The disaffected among his party can't understand why they can't have everything their way. It's selfishness, not pragmatism that drives them.
Conservative whiners will be to blame if they tie the hands of a good man during his final two years in office and hand Congress to the democrats.
Baytown, wow, it's a small world...I went to Baytown Sterling for HS.
And you are correct, sir, Jimmy Carter is 100% responsible for the Iran we have now...worst POTUS ever.
I know what you mean. The first presidential vote I cast was for Ford and against Carter. Ironically, it was Ayn Rand, a poor judge of a person's character, who set me on the path to oppose Jimmy Carter when she said at the Ford Hall Forum (Boston) that Carter was infected with power lust.
I'm glad I was just a kid back in 1974.
I would have been livid as a conservative to have lived
through those dark years.
I hope we've learned that lesson never to give power, during wartime, to the democrats.
I'm with you all the way rob777 !!!
Victory For Liddy and Silent Coup
By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid | February 20, 2001
On February 1, a Baltimore jury gave radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy a victory over Maxie Wells, regarded by some as a surrogate for former White House Counsel John Dean, who was expected to testify for her but did not show. Seven of the nine jurors agreed that Liddy had not libeled Wells. The judge declared a mistrial and dismissed the case, saying that no reasonable jury could find Mr. Liddy negligent in making the statements at issue in this case.
Wells sued over statements Liddy had made that the Watergate burglars were sent into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to find photos of call girls believed to be kept in Wells' desk to show to visitors who were looking for a date. Ms. Wells, a secretary at the time, denied that she had such photos, or any connection with prostitution.She sought damages of $5.1 million dollars.
Ten years ago, Silent Coup, a bestseller by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, challenged the accepted version of the Watergate story. They claimed they had found the real reason for the Watergate break-in. Liddy was one of those directing the operation, but on the 20th anniversary of Watergate, he said he didn't know the real reason for the break-in until he read Silent Coup.
He said the book convinced him that John Dean, who has been given credit for exposing it, was actually the one who ordered it. He said that Dean did so because the name of his girl friend, Maureen Biner, had been was on a list of call girls being used by the DNC that had fallen into the hands of the police. Dean, he claimed, wanted to find out if her photo was among those believed to have been kept in Maxie Wells' desk because he feared the Democrats might have information harmful to him.
Silent Coup built on the foundation laid by Jim Hougan, whose book, Secret Agenda, published in 1984, charged that Wells was arranging dates for Democratic dignitaries, who were the real targets of the break-in. Hougan's testimony was very helpful to Liddy. Colodny and Gettlin had found support for their theory in several contradictory things that Dean had written. Dean had tried to explain some of them by claiming that he didn't write or even read his own book, Blind Ambition. Nevertheless, the media have treated Dean as a respected figure. Liddy called Dean a liar and virtually dared him to sue, which Dean did in 1992. Dean settled out of court with Colodny and Gettlin, but not with Liddy. Last June he dropped the charges against Liddy without prejudice.
Liddy declared victory and again called Dean a liar. That left Maxie Wells' suit against Liddy as the last chance to test the credibility of Dean and Silent Coup in court. Liddy's victory was as much a victory for Silent Coup as for himself. The Washington Post, which has guarded its theory of Watergate by never mentioning Silent Coup, began its report on the end of the Wells' libel suit saying, "The wildcat notion that the Watergate burglary was intended to cover up a call-girl ring was catapulted today out of the realm of fringe conspiracy theories by a deadlocked jury that leaned heavily toward siding with the scenario's leading proponent, G. Gordon Liddy."
http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A1064_0_2_0_C/
How did Nixon destroy himself? With the third rate burglary? Kennedy bugged more people than Nixon ever considered bugging. Including the ultimate PC Saint, MLK Jr.
Amen.
Please see my post #16.
Nixon never knew what hit him at the time...
The only thing that appalls me is the slimy demonrats who are totally ignored by the MSM.
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