Thoughts of an old California Democratic woman on Sanders vs. Clinton

[Peace Patriot]

11. Thanks for the praise! I want to say a word for Dwight Eisenhower.

I mentioned above that my mother thought our country needed saving by Adlai Stevenson from the clutches of Dwight Eisenhower and the Republicans. She believed it so fervently that she had us all pray for Adlai on election night. Adlai would have made a great president, no doubt about it. And Ike (as he was called) made--or couldn't stop the CIA from making--some very grave mistakes, such as overthrowing the first democratic government of Iran, and installing the horrible Shah who inflicted 25 years of torture and repression on the Iranian people...which led to the Iranian Islamic revolution. Interesting that even then, it was all about the oil. Iran's first president nationalized their oil (um, like Norway) and for that crime was deposed by us and the Brits.

Anyway, some bad mistakes, yes. But, given Ike's final speech, which gave us the phrase "military-industrial complex" and his grave warning against it, you gotta wonder with hindsight how much control he had over the shadow government.

Anyway, it was Dwight Eisenhower who said that "Anybody who opposes the New Deal doesn't belong in American politics." Also, during his tenure as president, taxes on the rich were as high as 90+%!!!

90+%--the proper tax level for the uber-rich! Now they pay nothing or next to nothing. Eisenhower would be appalled. And the schemes of the rich to privatize Social Security--schemed by the same 1%-ers who are funding Hillary Clinton--would further appall this old war hero, as would the war on Iraq and other horrors supported by, among others, Hillary Clinton, who has even personally engineered some of our horrors.

I'm not saying I'd be tempted by an Eisenhower-type Republican. I wouldn't want my poor old mother to roll over in her grave. I'm just thinking about history tonight and what it teaches. It teaches perspective. Tomorrow I'm going to start re-reading the Illiad, which gives us a really long perspective on stupid fucking wars.