40 Years Ago Black Americans Won The Right To Vote -- Now They Must Win The Right To Be President
40 Years Ago Black Americans Won The Right To Vote -- Now They Must Win The Right To Be President
By January 2009, after Barack Obama had occupied the office of the US Presidency for less than 30 days, a rowdy group of white Americans sponsoring a message of hate unveiled a billboard featuring the President's image next to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. They later became know as the "tea party" and vowed to "take back" their country.
Politicians and political pundits who said Barack Obama could never become president, were the same ones who later said he as president was trying to do too much, too fast. Shock radio host Rush Limbaugh called the president a "racist," and challenged him to a debate; Limbaugh's TV counterpart, Glenn Beck, questioned the President's citizenship and said Obama hates white people.
The Republican Party out of its need to create an air of legitimacy changed from racial slurs to attacks on the President's policies. The Tea Party movement, which was in part founded by a major news network and funded by Wall Street interests, held rallies, took over town hall meetings echoing the GOP's pro Wall Street agenda as economic remedies.
Despite ongoing media attacks and GOP obstructionist tactics to disrupt efforts of the Democratic Party to rescue the economy and address some of the causes that led to its near demise, President Obama went on to pass several pieces of major legislation including healthcare reform which emphasized early prevention by providing free preventive care -- mammograms, colonoscopies, immunizations, and pre-natal.
Previous House Speaker, John Boehner, who had lost his seat to Nancy Pelosi, vowed to get it back during the midterm elections. The GOP was not only talking about repealing the new health reform, but phasing out fundamental programs like Social Security and Medicarefor being too costly. They were said to have put all their chips in the basket of one man: Congressman John Boehner.
Nevada Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle, seeking to unseat Senate Speaker Harry Reid, likewise called for phasing out Social Security and Medicare, and also promised an end to maternity coverage. She even made veiled threats against Reid, saying that the work of the Democratic Congress might require "Second Amendment remedies," an obvious reference to the Constitutional Right for a citizen to bare arms and overthrow a government they felt was not representative of their interests.
Tea Party candidate Pat Toomey, running for Senate in Pennsylvania on the pro business ticket, wanted to de-regulate Big Oil and open up our national parks and the Great Lakes for drilling after Obamahad called for less dependency on oil and greater development of green energy technology.
Christine O'Donnell, vying for Delaware Senate seat wasn't just an opponent of health reform -- she even helped spread the "death panels" lies -- that the health care reform bill was a ruse to murder-off elder citizens. The Wall Street owned media took the false information and ran with it, many supporters of the healthcare legislation became suspicious of and wavered in their support.
GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann said President Obama is turning America into "a nation of slaves." GOP candidate Rand Paul vowed that if elected he would tie up funds for Obama's programs. Some Republican leaders had even threatened to shut down the government to get their way -- a heartless move that would hold Social Security checks hostage and shut down veterans' hospitals across the country.
Unidentified special interests and foreign organizations poured hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to help Republicans take over both Houses and make Boehner Speaker. Millions more came from anonymous GOP "donors" in the form of vicious TV ads and shadowy robo-calls. Boehner called an emergency measure by the President to save police, fire fighter and teacher jobs a "bailout" and a "handout." He referred to the "government jobs" as "special interests."
Every House Republican voted no in a futile attempt to veto it -- not because it wasn't the right thing to do, but because it would have made the president "look good." In all the Republican Senate suppressed 424 bills from consideration by that body after they had been passed by the Democratic Congress, it also upheld other job creating legislation by sustaining 128 filibusters.
It's easy to see why these special interests picked John Boehner. He teamed up with financial lobbyists to do everything he could to stall the Wall Street Reform Act and even took time before the vote on health reform to scream "Hell no!" over and over again from the podium. Boehner is the congressman who first made national news 14 years ago when he was caught handing out checks from influence-buying tobacco lobbyists on the House floor. At the time, Boehner said he did nothing wrong -- he was simply helping out his lobbyist friends.
Perhaps today Boehner will tell you he's merely helping out his Wall Street friends. 4 Wheeling In The Outback, Not For The Beginner 4 Ways to Make Money as a Travel Writer 4 Ways Walking Holidays Will Enhance Your Life 4 Ways To See More Of Your Beach Holiday Destination 4 Ways To Find The Right Florida Beachfront Condo 4 Ways Dream Holidays Can Go Wrong 4 Unmissable Tours on Stradbroke Island 4 Top Ways To Burn Calories At Christmas 4 Tips on How to Realize the Dream of Travelling Across the World! 4 Tips To Traveling With Your Dog 4 Tips To Travel Safely In Cambodia 4 Tips To Travel Safely In Cambodia 4 Things You Should Do To Get The Most Out Of Your Holiday