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<div dir="ltr">'Party loyalty is blind...and deaf and dumb...and cruel.'<br><br>I'm about half way through this interview of Jonathan Turley by John Cusack, looking at Obama's repugnant foreign policy:<br><br>http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11264-john-cusack-and-jonathan-turley-on-obamas-constitution<br><br>A s long as we support the people implementing these policies, they will go on. I'm not voting for Obama again, because of this.<br><br>Sunil <br><br><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div>> From: betsyd@turbonet.com<br>> To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:57:13 -0700<br>> Subject: [Vision2020] FW: Party of Strivers<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> -----Original Message-----<br>> From: Betsy Dickow [mailto:betsyd@turbonet.com] <br>> Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 10:57 AM<br>> To: 'Joe Campbell'<br>> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Party of Strivers<br>> <br>> And most of the poor will be poor through not fault of their own...how many<br>> people are working hard and often overtime at the University of Idaho and<br>> not making ends meet...many many many. And here it's no different from the<br>> Wall Street corporate model...administrators win big and everyone else is a<br>> peon, working for peanuts.<br>> This is democracy? No, this is the will of a few billionaires and the<br>> Republican Party...Get your head out of the sand and stop thinking in terms<br>> of party loyalty.<br>> Party loyalty is blind...and deaf and dumb...and cruel.<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> -----Original Message-----<br>> From: vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com]<br>> On Behalf Of Joe Campbell<br>> Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 10:46 AM<br>> To: lfalen<br>> Cc: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Party of Strivers<br>> <br>> How is Ayn Rand's philosophy basically correct? Do you think the poor are<br>> lazy? Do you disagree that some people have a bad lot and without some kind<br>> of outside assistance, they are unlikely to realize the American dream? If<br>> so, then Rand is just plain wrong. Tweaking her view to allow for compassion<br>> is in this case equivalent to rejecting her view. That is what separates<br>> Rand's philosophy from the kind of view that Brooks is suggesting. Brooks'<br>> offers a much better, more realistic take on humanity, as I see it. Joe<br>> <br>> On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:18 AM, lfalen <lfalen@turbonet.com> wrote:<br>> > I am not a big fan of David Brooks, but this is not a bad article. I like<br>> Rice also. I have some problems with Ayn Rand. Her philosophy is basicly<br>> correct, but it need s to be tempered by some compassion, which she seems to<br>> lack.<br>> > Roger<br>> > -----Original message-----<br>> > From: Art Deco art.deco.studios@gmail.com<br>> > Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:51:28 -0700<br>> > To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> > Subject: [Vision2020] Party of Strivers<br>> ><br>> >> [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/><br>> >><br>> >> <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=ww<br>> >> w.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&sn2=336c557e/4f3dd5d2&sn<br>> >> 1=34aeaaa2/80e4ddbc&camp=FSL2012_ArticleTools_120x60_1787508c_nyt5&ad<br>> >> =BOSW_120x60_June13_NoText&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ec<br>> >> om%2Fbeastsofthesouthernwild><br>> >><br>> >> ------------------------------<br>> >> August 30, 2012<br>> >> Party of Strivers By DAVID<br>> >> BROOKS<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/c<br>> >> olumnists/davidbrooks/index.html><br>> >><br>> >> America was built by materialistic and sometimes superficial <br>> >> strivers. It was built by pioneers who voluntarily subjected <br>> >> themselves to stone-age conditions on the frontier fired by dreams of <br>> >> riches. It was built by immigrants who crammed themselves into <br>> >> hellish tenements because they thought it would lead, for their <br>> >> children, to big houses, big cars and big lives.<br>> >><br>> >> America has always been defined by this ferocious commercial energy, <br>> >> this zealotry for self-transformation, which leads its citizens to <br>> >> vacation less, work longer, consume more and invent more.<br>> >><br>> >> Many Americans, and many foreign observers, are ambivalent about or <br>> >> offended by this driving material ambition. Read "The Great Gatsby."<br>> >> Read D.H. Lawrence on Benjamin Franklin.<br>> >><br>> >> But today's Republican Party unabashedly celebrates this ambition and <br>> >> definition of success. Speaker after speaker at the convention in <br>> >> Tampa, Fla., celebrated the striver, who started small, struggled <br>> >> hard, looked within and became wealthy. Speaker after speaker argued <br>> >> that this ideal of success is under assault by Democrats who look <br>> >> down on strivers, who undermine self-reliance with government <br>> >> dependency, who smother ambition under regulations.<br>> >><br>> >> Republicans promised to get government out of the way. Reduce the <br>> >> burden of debt. Offer Americans an open field and a fair chance to <br>> >> let their ambition run.<br>> >><br>> >> If you believe, as I do, that American institutions are hitting a <br>> >> creaky middle age, then you have a lot of time for this argument. If <br>> >> you believe that there has been a hardening of the national arteries <br>> >> caused by a labyrinthine tax code, an unsustainable Medicare program <br>> >> and a suicidal addiction to deficits, then you appreciate this <br>> >> streamlining agenda, even if you don't buy into the whole Ayn<br>> Rand-influenced gospel of wealth.<br>> >><br>> >> On the one hand, you see the Republicans taking the initiative, <br>> >> offering rejuvenating reform. On the other hand, you see an exhausted <br>> >> Democratic Party, which says: We don't have an agenda, but we really <br>> >> don't like theirs. Given these options, the choice is pretty clear.<br>> >><br>> >> But there is a flaw in the vision the Republicans offered in Tampa. <br>> >> It is contained in its rampant hyperindividualism. Speaker after <br>> >> speaker celebrated the solitary and heroic individual. There was <br>> >> almost no talk of community and compassionate conservatism. There was <br>> >> certainly no conservatism as Edmund Burke understood it, in which <br>> >> individuals are embedded in webs of customs, traditions, habits and<br>> governing institutions.<br>> >><br>> >> Today's Republicans strongly believe that individuals determine their <br>> >> own fates. In a Pew Research Center <br>> >> poll<http://www.people-press.org/2012/06/04/partisan-polarization-sur<br>> >> ges-in-bush-obama-years/>, for example, 57 percent of Republicans <br>> >> believe people are poor because they don't work hard. Only 28 percent <br>> >> believe people are poor because of circumstances beyond their <br>> >> control. These Republicans believe that if only government gets out <br>> >> of the way, then people's innate qualities will enable them to <br>> >> flourish.<br>> >><br>> >> But there's a problem. I see what the G.O.P. is offering the <br>> >> engineering major from Purdue or the business major from Arizona <br>> >> State. The party is offering skilled people the freedom to run their <br>> >> race. I don't see what the party is offering the waitress with two <br>> >> kids, or the warehouse worker whose wages have stagnated for a <br>> >> decade, or the factory worker whose skills are now obsolete.<br>> >><br>> >> The fact is our destinies are shaped by social forces much more than <br>> >> the current G.O.P. is willing to admit. The skills that enable people <br>> >> to flourish are not innate but constructed by circumstances.<br>> >><br>> >> Government does not always undermine initiative. Some government <br>> >> programs, like the G.I. Bill, inflame ambition. Others depress it.<br>> >> What matters is not whether a program is public or private but its effect<br>> on character.<br>> >> Today's Republicans, who see every government program as a step on <br>> >> the road to serfdom, are often blind to that. They celebrate the race <br>> >> to success but don't know how to give everyone access to that race.<br>> >><br>> >> The wisest speech departed from the prevailing story line. It was <br>> >> delivered by Condoleezza Rice. It echoed an older, less libertarian <br>> >> conservatism, which harkens back to Washington, Tocqueville and <br>> >> Lincoln. The powerful words in her speech were not "I" and "me" - the <br>> >> heroic individual They were "we" and "us" - citizens who emerge out <br>> >> of and exist as participants in a great national project.<br>> >><br>> >> Rice celebrated material striving but also larger national goals - <br>> >> the long national struggle to extend benefits and mobilize all human <br>> >> potential. She subtly emphasized how our individual destinies are <br>> >> dependent upon the social fabric and upon public institutions like <br>> >> schools, just laws and our mission in the world. She put less <br>> >> emphasis on commerce and more on citizenship.<br>> >><br>> >> Today's Republican Party may be able to perform useful tasks with its <br>> >> current hyperindividualistic mentality. But its commercial soul is <br>> >> too narrow. It won't be a worthy governing party until it treads the <br>> >> course Lincoln trod: starting with individual ambition but ascending <br>> >> to a larger vision and creating a national environment that arouses <br>> >> ambition and nurtures success.<br>> >><br>> >><br>> >> --<br>> >> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br>> >> art.deco.studios@gmail.com<br>> >><br>> >><br>> ><br>> > =======================================================<br>> > List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the <br>> > communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br>> > http://www.fsr.net<br>> > mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com <br>> > =======================================================<br>> <br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the<br>> communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br>> http://www.fsr.net<br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br>> <br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step Internet,<br>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br>> http://www.fsr.net<br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br></div></div>
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