Eisenhower: The Last Legitimate Republican President
The Past 5 Elected GOP Presidents (except for Ford) have used unethical, unscrupulous tactics to obtain the Presidency
People are wondering about the parallels between today’s Republican Party, organized crime, and whether “Teflon Don” Trump will remain unscathed through his many scandals, ranging from interactions with foreign oligarchs to killing tens of thousands of Americans by denying them healthcare to stepping up the destruction of our environment and public lands.
History suggests, even if treason can be demonstrated that, as long as he holds onto the Republican Party (and Fox News), he’ll survive it intact. And he won’t be the first Republican president to commit high crimes to get and stay in office.
In fact, Eisenhower was the last legitimately elected Republican president we’ve had in this country.
Since Dwight Eisenhower left the presidency in 1961, six different Republicans have occupied the Oval Office.
As explained in the info & videos on this page, every one of them (except for Ford) from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump used unethical, unscrupulous tactics to obtain the presidency.
Nixon records show that in 1968, as a presidential candidate, he used Anna Chennault as his liaison in Vietnam, to persuade them to refuse a cease-fire being brokered by President Lyndon Johnson. This was done to hurt Democratic Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and help Nixon.
Johnson was livid. He even called the Republican Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen to complain that “they oughtn’t be doing this. This is treason.” “I know,” was Dirksen’s feeble reply.
This treason cost the lives of many service men. To him, getting re-elected was more important. I’ll never understand why Johnson (who I’m no fan of) didn’t out Nixon as he should of for his treason and costing the lives of our troops.
We Haven’t Had a Legitimate Republican President Since Eisenhower in the 50s, Here’s Why
Thom talks about the past several republican presidents who have all essentially cheated to get into office. Also Thom covers some of the news stories of the day.
The Corruption of the Republican Party
Updated at 1:44 p.m. ET on December 14, 2018. Why has the Republican Party become so thoroughly corrupt? The reason is historical-it goes back many decades-and, in a way, philosophical. The party is best understood as an insurgency that carried the seeds of its own corruption from the start.
Per the above article; Why has the Republican Party become so thoroughly corrupt? The reason is historical—it goes back many decades—and, in a way, philosophical. The party is best understood as an insurgency that carried the seeds of its own corruption from the start.
The corruption I mean has less to do with individual perfidy than institutional depravity. It isn’t an occasional failure to uphold norms, but a consistent repudiation of them. It isn’t about dirty money so much as the pursuit and abuse of power—power as an end in itself, justifying almost any means. Political corruption usually trails financial scandals in its wake—the foam is scummy with self-dealing—but it’s far more dangerous than graft. There are legal remedies for Duncan Hunter, a representative from California, who will stand trial next year for using campaign funds to pay for family luxuries.* But there’s no obvious remedy for what the state legislatures of Wisconsin and Michigan, following the example of North Carolina in 2016, are now doing.
Republican majorities are rushing to pass laws that strip away the legitimate powers of newly elected Democratic governors while defeated or outgoing Republican incumbents are still around to sign the bills. Even if the courts overturn some of these power grabs, as they have in North Carolina, Republicans will remain securely entrenched in the legislative majority through their own hyper-gerrymandering—in Wisconsin last month, 54 percent of the total votes cast for major-party candidates gave Democrats just 36 of 99 assembly seats—so they will go on passing laws to thwart election results. Nothing can stop these abuses short of an electoral landslide. In Wisconsin, a purple state, that means close to 60 percent of the total vote.
The fact that no plausible election outcome can check the abuse of power is what makes political corruption so dangerous. It strikes at the heart of democracy. It destroys the compact between the people and the government. In rendering voters voiceless, it pushes everyone closer to the use of undemocratic means.
Today’s Republican Party has cornered itself with a base of ever older, whiter, more male, more rural, more conservative voters. Demography can take a long time to change—longer than in progressives’ dreams—but it isn’t on the Republicans’ side. They could have tried to expand; instead, they’ve hardened and walled themselves off. This is why, while voter fraud knows no party, only the Republican Party wildly overstates the risk so that it can pass laws (including right now in Wisconsin, with a bill that reduces early voting) to limit the franchise in ways that have a disparate partisan impact. This is why, when some Democrats in the New Jersey legislature proposed to enshrine gerrymandering in the state constitution, other Democrats, in New Jersey and around the country, objected.
Taking away democratic rights—extreme gerrymandering; blocking an elected president from nominating a Supreme Court justice; selectively paring voting rolls and polling places; creating spurious anti-fraud commissions; misusing the census to undercount the opposition; calling lame-duck legislative sessions to pass laws against the will of the voters—is the Republican Party’s main political strategy, and will be for years to come.
Full article at; theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/how-did-republican-party-get-so-corrupt/578095/
