“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” - Dwight Eisenhower
Posted : September 29, 2004 at 10:24 am [America/Los_Angeles]
..and he was a Republican! And a General! Hard to imagine, especially for someone like me who started following American politics during the late nineties.
To me the word “Republican” brings out the images of Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Dick Cheney, Orrin Hatch and, last but not the least, President George W. Bush. I would like to believe that Rudy Guiliani or John McCain are the “true” representatives of the Republican Party today. However, I am pretty sure they’re not and are at best a minority.
I can’t even imagine a Republican leader say some of the quotes that are attributed to President D. Eisenhower. Quotes like:
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
“With the people’s finance, be conservative. With the people’s welfare, be liberal.”
“If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.”
Hmm…seems like somewhere along the way the Republican party lost its message. Or maybe I am just so disenchanted by the barrage of political chicanery unleashed upon us by the alleged Republicans (along with their friends in the Media) that it is sometimes hard for me to see things clearly. And I am not even an American, let alone a Democrat or a Republican.
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004