The last great Republican....

[Playinghardball]

Found on the The Pragmatic Progressive Page facebook page

[samsingh]

1. maybe

[Vox Moi]

2. I like Ike.

Yes, a great Republican.
A man from the days when were all Americans first.

[BigDemVoter]

4. True

Ike would never be a Republican in today's world. Too sensible.

[riverbendviewgal]

3. He was a prophet

K & R

[Cirque du So-What]

5. I'm growing weary of creeping 'Ike worship' on DU

Despite his prescient warning about the MIC on the eve of his departure from public office, Eisenhower bears great responsibility for nurturing that monster during his two terms.

Sure, he was less obviously conservative than modern-day repugs, but he played a major role in getting the 'cold war' rolling along - and so did his predecessor, Truman, for that matter.

Sorry, I'm under the influence of Oliver Stone's Untold American History, so I'm lamenting the election of 1944, in which true progressive Henry Wallace was edged out as FDR's VP in favor of Truman.

[Jenoch]

6. It's easy to be critical of the cold war now.

Do you think we should have been 'friendly' with the Soviets?

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I refuse to be so simplistic in my analysis

Let me pose a REAL question: do YOU think it was a good thing to have squandered our national resources on nuclear arms proliferation under the guise of closing the so-called 'missile gap?'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_gap

All fucking lies! Note that I do not even consider JFK blameless in this virtual coup against democracy, although he did give signs of reconsidering escalation of US involvement in Vietnam...and I'll leave it at that.

[patrice]

11. It's that whole fucking idea that you're going to have a war, without killing soldiers, whom you

don't want to be killing, btw, 'cause if you get 'em killed, above and beyond whatever the SOPs are for creating "heroes", they're going to turn against you and your wars, or break and off themselves and others by more or less direct means of murder-suicide.

So what you need is a machine to make wars for you from a distance. Point & pull the trigger. High kill rate, low human resource investment, problem solved. "We" can make war, wherever, whenever, whyever "we" want. Just be sure the "right machines" are being produced for WHOEVER wants them and that's how we got to where we are today.

* Rhetorical "you" of course.

[Leontius]

17. Your REAL question is also quite simplistic.

As is your "analysis" of the "fucking lies".

[Cirque du So-What]

18. Do tell

[patrice]

9. People MUST remember, Military IS different from you and me, in an extremely important way. nt

[Cirque du So-What]

10. I daresay fundamental way

and I fear that our elected officials are held hostage to the whims of war profiteers.

[patrice]

12. Whims easily communicated well enough through our "psychology" driven toxic financial sector. nt

[patrice]

8. You know Democrats tried to draft him in'48, don't you? Ended up with Truman v. Henry Wallace

in the Democratic primaries instead. HENRY WALLACE, a Progressive Party candidate, who expressed progressive ideas and concerns about the coming MIC, very similar to this statement from Eisenhower.

I think Eisenhower listened very carefully to the whole Democratic primary and, of course, the Republicans were quite interested in how a bunch of Democrats, Strom Thurmond et al, walked out of the convention over the Civil Rights plank. It happens, something else that Wallace very likely had an influence on during that time, as he was known, amongst other things, for his "Third Wayish" ideas about what do about Racism in the South.

[patrice]

15. AND, btw, that convention was a squeeeeeeker for Truman. nt

[SummerSnow]

13. wow..and here we are right now :(

[patrice]

14. Creepy isn't it? I saw some ALEC templates several months ago for "Juvenile Justice" LaPierre style.

No kidding.

[pipewrench]

16. words of wisdom

thanks Playinghardball

[adieu]

19. Ike was never really a Republicans

He was more Democratic than Republican, even for his era, not for our era. The Republican asked him to be part of their party in order to have him run for president. As it were, the whole Republican party of that era was much more sensible and pragmatic than this era's GOP. Heck, more sensible than the Democratic party of this era. Certainly more liberal than this era's Democratic party.

[Recursion]

20. Umm... that was his excuse for dragging his feet on Integration, I think (nt)

[JDPriestly]

21. Makes me want to cry again as I did when I first saw the picture of the children in Little Rock

on the front page of our newspaper.

[mckara]

22. Nowadays, It Sounds Like an Oxymoron!

But I agree, 100%!!!!