Conservatives v. Progressives

First of all, it really should be Conservatives V. Progressives.  Indeed, they are two forces that pull and push the society to stay put or move forward. Yester year’s progressives are today’s conservatives.  In social terms, it means the acceptance of un-married couples “living together” by an average conservative was a liberal idea 50 years ago, and 10 years from now acceptance of GLBT community without reluctance would be a conservative ideal.  

Both are essential to maintain a continuous equilibrium in a given society.  |

If conservatives had won the full battle – we would still be thinking the world would be flat; we would not have allowed modern medicine to save lives; we would not have allowed newer delicious foods that we enjoy today or even allowed the movies to flourish and would have lived in caves.  

On the other hand if Liberals had won the full battle – we would have fallen out of the orbit of the earth; individualism (me, me and me) would have taken over to the detriment of family, community and societies;  and we would have had a society that goes nuts with no regulations.

Neither of them will ever win the full battle, there is always going to be a give and take to accommodate the overwhelming majority of moderates, who see the value in both conservatism and progressivism.

What has been short in supply is the voice of moderates and the peace makers.

I have chosen to be a passionate moderate, who would assert the values that work for all of us; the conservatives, progressives and the rest of us, who make up 90% of the society, any society. Where do you stand?

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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Should I remain a Republican?

This is has been one of most difficult decisions for me. I was hoping to find anchors to hang on to the Republican Party – it is a good party, but sadly taken over by extremists. I did not take the time to become active in the party machinery to make a point and do my share of work in fixing the rogue elements or at least speak out against the bad guys and go on the record.

I have been a Republican since 1984, but since 2006, I have not heard any republican who can talk peace, all they want to do is bomb, kill and destroy – they are not builders anymore. They always hate someone or the other. You rarely find them in interfaith gathering… or peace meetings. They have voted against equal pay for women – and how can women vote for these guys? They are anti-many things… is there a hope that we will have some sensible guy among them to lead?

I am the kind who believes in freedom of speech, you mind your own business, let me mind my own, but let's be responsible for keeping the societal balance in tact, I believe in responsible capitalism, where we do not take advantage of things for our gains at the cost of others and the environment. Let me not be a pain in the butt for you, nor should you be one to me. I am against Republican prejudices towards others.

Can a Republican share what is good about the current GOP? I have written over two dozen pieces how good it “was” or “is” in theory, but is it good and practical now? Is the party in sync with the public sentiment of inclusiveness?

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

Are Republicans really conservative?

Are Republicans conservative?

Thanks to the Supreme Court for upholding women's rights

Thanks to the SC for upholding the rights of women to make their personal health care decision with the guidance from family and Doctors. Government has no Goddamn business in interfering in personal liberties, the SC is the only hope for America and it has usually supported the conservative values of liberty and one's right to eat, wear and believe whatever the hell one wants to, as long as he or she does not mess others' space, food and loved ones..

Conservatism is about holding on dearly to the values enshrined in our constitution - that of liberty and justice for all. Many a Republicans pose themselves as conservatives, but are hell bent on restricting freedom of women, freedom of speech (even Hannity) against equal pay for women, they are against freedom of religion, against glbt communities right to marry each other, and liberty of Citizens, they are against abortion even in the case of incest and rape.
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Republicans voted against equal pay for women

Rolling Stones | Obama, one of the most successful Presidents

Once again, as a nation, we need to be rational, and acknowledge the greateness of our President and not cheapen ourselves because we are Republican, or something else. Let's be honest and give credit to the man.

Mike Ghouse

President Obama graces the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone.
 http://www.lovebscott.com/news/rolling-stone-names-president-obama-one-of-the-most-successful-presidents-in-american-history


In the mag, Nobel Prize- winning economist Paul Krugman wrote an amazing piece in defense of President Obama’s presidency.

Mainstream media is often quick to point out President Obama’s perceived failures during his tenure, so it’s refreshing to see a publication highlight his many accomplishments — especially because President Obama’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s ever been (according to CNBC).

Krugman declares President Obama as one of the “one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history” and acknowledges the harsh and often unfair criticism he endures.

Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn’t deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it’s working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it’s much more effective than you’d think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.

I’ll go through those achievements shortly. First, however, let’s take a moment to talk about the current wave of Obama-bashing. All Obama-bashing can be divided into three types. One, a constant of his time in office, is the onslaught from the right, which has never stopped portraying him as an Islamic atheist Marxist Kenyan. Nothing has changed on that front, and nothing will.

There’s a different story on the left, where you now find a significant number of critics decrying Obama as, to quote Cornel West, someone who ”posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit.” They’re outraged that Wall Street hasn’t been punished, that income inequality remains so high, that ”neoliberal” economic policies are still in place. All of this seems to rest on the belief that if only Obama had put his eloquence behind a radical economic agenda, he could somehow have gotten that agenda past all the political barriers that have con- strained even his much more modest efforts. It’s hard to take such claims seriously.

Finally, there’s the constant belittling of Obama from mainstream pundits and talking heads. Turn on cable news (although I wouldn’t advise it) and you’ll hear endless talk about a rudderless, stalled administration, maybe even about a failed presidency. Such talk is often buttressed by polls showing that Obama does, indeed, have an approval rating that is very low by historical standards.

But this bashing is misguided even in its own terms – and in any case, it’s focused on the wrong thing.

As far as that low approval rating is concerned, Krugman attributes most of it to the President’s accomplishments and efforts towards the betterment of the American people.

Yes, Obama has a low approval rating compared with earlier presidents. But there are a number of reasons to believe that presidential approval doesn’t mean the same thing that it used to: There is much more party-sorting (in which Republicans never, ever have a good word for a Democratic president, and vice versa), the public is negative on politicians in general, and so on. Obviously the midterm election hasn’t happened yet, but in a year when Republicans have a huge structural advantage – Democrats are defending a disproportionate number of Senate seats in deep-red states – most analyses suggest that control of the Senate is in doubt, with Democrats doing considerably better than they were supposed to. This isn’t what you’d expect to see if a failing president were dragging his party down.

More important, however, polls – or even elections – are not the measure of a president. High office shouldn’t be about putting points on the electoral scoreboard, it should be about changing the country for the better. Has Obama done that? Do his achievements look likely to endure? The answer to both questions is yes.

Paul goes on to discuss President Obama’s impact on the economy, healthcare reform, national security, financial reform, and the environment. It’s a lengthy read, but it really helps shift things into perspective.
[via The YBF]

President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times

My fellow Republicans are irrational people, their dishonesty will prevent them from giving credit to the president - which is giving credit to Americans who have jobs and doing well. Shame on them.
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http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times/

mage Credit: kids4barackobama.com

A new economic report, published by Forbes.com on September 6, 2014, clearly shows that President Obama is the best economic president in modern times. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact, based on all of typical the economic indicators, including jobs, investments, growth and expansion, even the rate of inflation. In all of these areas President Obama’s record outperforms that of every other modern president, including conservative idol, Ronald Reagan.

Under President Obama’s leadership, the unemployment rate has now decreased to 6.1 percent, the lowest it’s been since 2007, when the economy began gushing jobs under the failed leadership of then president George W. Bush.

Typically, republicans have tried to detract from the president’s accomplishments. When it comes to the falling unemployment rate, they claim that it is somehow related to large numbers of people just dropping out of the workforce. This would almost be believable if the economy wasn’t creating new jobs at a rate that coincides perfectly with the falling employment rate, but it is. There have been six consecutive months with more than 200,000 new jobs created, with only a slight dip in that number in August. Additionally, there have been 63 straight months of economic expansion and more than two solid years of manufacturing expansion.
In order to satisfy Obama’s conservative critics, Forbes compared the economy under President Obama to that of Ronald Reagan, who the GOP often touts as the best economic president of our times. It’s no surprise to discover that even with many additional obstacles in his path, Forbes concluded that:

“President Obama’s administration has outperformed President Reagan’s in all commonly watched categories.”

In order to complete the analysis, Forbes interviewed Bob Deitrick, CEO of Polaris Financial Partners. The company’s newsletter is reported to be one of the most reliable authorities on economic performance in the country. Here’s what Deitrick had to say about President Obama’s job creation record, when compared to that of President Reagan.

“President Reagan has long been considered the best modern economic President. So we compared his performance dealing with the oil-induced recession of the 1980s with that of President Obama and his performance during this ‘Great Recession.’
As this unemployment chart shows, President Obama’s job creation kept unemployment from peaking at as high a level as President Reagan, and promoted people into the workforce faster than President Reagan.
President Obama has achieved a 6.1% unemployment rate in his 6th year, fully one year faster than President Reagan did. At this point in his presidency, President Reagan was still struggling with 7.1% unemployment, and he did not reach into the mid-low 6% range for another full year. So, despite today’s number, the Obama administration has still done considerably better at job creating and reducing unemployment than did the Reagan administration.
We forecast unemployment will fall to around 5.4% by summer, 2015. A rate President Reagan was unable to achieve during his two terms.”

According to Forbes, this is not only the best private sector job growth in modern history:

“This is the best private sector jobs creation performance in American History.”

Deitrick also made it clear that President Obama has not achieved this reduction in unemployment because of a shrinking workforce, but in spite of it.

“What’s now clear is that the Obama administration policies have outperformed the Reagan administration policies for job creation and unemployment reduction. Even though Reagan had the benefit of a growing Boomer class to ignite economic growth, while Obama has been forced to deal with a retiring workforce developing special needs. During the 8 years preceding Obama there was a net reduction in jobs in America. We now are rapidly moving toward higher, sustainable jobs growth.”

As a final note, President Obama has managed to outperform Ronald Reagan in all of these areas, while at the same time, reducing the national debt. On the other hand, Reagan greatly expanded the debt, and still failed to achieve in eight years, what President Obama has achieved in only six.

Jon Stewart blasts right-wing cruelty towards immigrant kids

Jon Stewart blasts right-wing cruelty towards immigrant kids

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/16/1314308/-Jon-Stewart-blasts-right-wing-cruelty-towards-immigrant-kids

How stupid can the right wing be?