Reds pledge

[jambo101]

Posted this on 2 American political forums earlier this morning so far not a single response:-?
Hey dudes this is what your country is all about, wish we had a Canadian equivalent , guess it meant more 40yrs ago than it does today.YouTube - Red & The Pledge

 

[Ron in Regina]

Wow....that was moving and prophetic. Spoken forty years ago by a Comedian.
Very Trippy.

 

[lone wolf]

I wonder if Red and George play golf?

 

[jambo101]

Wow....that was moving and prophetic. Spoken forty years ago by a Comedian.
Very Trippy.

By the lack of response on several forums i suspect Ron and I are part of a very small group of people who remember how great America was going to be.
I think over that 40 years America has lost the dream and is basically now all about me and how much money i got and which little country can i bully next, basically a me attitude rather than a we attitude.Todays America just doesnt get the passion for country that Reds generation had ,I think Red Skeltons America has unfortunately come and gone.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

I remember how great USA used to be. It was at the forefront of promoting human rights, promoting equality. It used to be a compassionate society. It was the home of Martin Luther King. It made substantial advances toward racial equality in the 60s. 60s was the seminal decade.


I remember I was living in USA when issues such as gay rights, abortion came to surface. Abortion was legalized in 1973, with Roe vs. Wade. That is around the time that gay rights, Feminist movement gathered steam.

In those days, USA was definitely the progressive country; Canada was a backwater country by comparison. Long after abortion was legalized in 1973 in USA, Canada was still imprisoning doctors for performing abortions. Canada was slow to come on board when it came to human rights, minority rights.

I think the turnaround came in the 80s. We got the Charter, minorities rights were enshrined in the constitution. With the help of the Charter, minorities were able to make big strides towards equality. Abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, gay rights took off. There was advance on women’s’ rights.

USA on the other hand, began a retrograde march with the advent of Reagan. One of the two major parties, the Republican Party has steadily been moving to the right for the past 20 years. Most Republicans today are much more conservative, more to the right than Reagan or Goldwater. Reagan and Goldwater would be dismissed as RINOs (Republican In Name Only) by most Republicans today.

There is a palpable hostility towards minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, gays in the Republican Party. There is no such hostility in our Conservative Party (though they do have an influential faction of religious right in their party).

Today it can be said categorically that Canada is much more progressive, much more sympathetic towards minority rights, towards human rights than USA.

 

[Colpy]

I remember how great USA used to be. It was at the forefront of promoting human rights, promoting equality. It used to be a compassionate society. It was the home of Martin Luther King. It made substantial advances toward racial equality in the 60s. 60s was the seminal decade.


I remember I was living in USA when issues such as gay rights, abortion came to surface. Abortion was legalized in 1973, with Roe vs. Wade. That is around the time that gay rights, Feminist movement gathered steam.

In those days, USA was definitely the progressive country; Canada was a backwater country by comparison. Long after abortion was legalized in 1973 in USA, Canada was still imprisoning doctors for performing abortions. Canada was slow to come on board when it came to human rights, minority rights.

I think the turnaround came in the 80s. We got the Charter, minorities rights were enshrined in the constitution. With the help of the Charter, minorities were able to make big strides towards equality. Abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, gay rights took off. There was advance on women’s’ rights.

USA on the other hand, began a retrograde march with the advent of Reagan. One of the two major parties, the Republican Party has steadily been moving to the right for the past 20 years. Most Republicans today are much more conservative, more to the right than Reagan or Goldwater. Reagan and Goldwater would be dismissed as RINOs (Republican In Name Only) by most Republicans today.

There is a palpable hostility towards minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, gays in the Republican Party. There is no such hostility in our Conservative Party (though they do have an influential faction of religious right n their party).

Today it can be said categorically that Canada is much more progressive, much more sympathetic towards minority rights, towards human rights than USA.

Yep. Reagan the monster.

The man with a dream of a world without nuclear weapons.

The guy that broke the back of the Evil Empire, and achieved significant reductions in nuclear arsenals.

That was directly responsible for bringing freedom to many tens of millions of people.

Yep. Terrible.......and now, because of Reagan, there is a new antagonism towards African Americans.

Tell me, Oh Pompous One, have you heard of Barack Obama????:roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

 

[Colpy]

And, as long as I'm on a rant, anybody that has looked at Reagan's life knows that he was decades ahead of his time, long before he became a politician, he refused a membership in a Country Club that did not allow Jews....and the man was essentually colour-blind....could not understand nor abide racism.

And no, I'm not a big fan of Ronnie....his actions in South America were beyond the Pale........"Reaganomics" over the edge....etc.

But he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize MUCH more than Obama..........

 

[ironsides]

I remember how great USA used to be. It was at the forefront of promoting human rights, promoting equality. It used to be a compassionate society. It was the home of Martin Luther King. It made substantial advances toward racial equality in the 60s. 60s was the seminal decade.


I remember I was living in USA when issues such as gay rights, abortion came to surface. Abortion was legalized in 1973, with Roe vs. Wade. That is around the time that gay rights, Feminist movement gathered steam.

In those days, USA was definitely the progressive country; Canada was a backwater country by comparison. Long after abortion was legalized in 1973 in USA, Canada was still imprisoning doctors for performing abortions. Canada was slow to come on board when it came to human rights, minority rights.

I think the turnaround came in the 80s. We got the Charter, minorities rights were enshrined in the constitution. With the help of the Charter, minorities were able to make big strides towards equality. Abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, gay rights took off. There was advance on women’s’ rights.

USA on the other hand, began a retrograde march with the advent of Reagan. One of the two major parties, the Republican Party has steadily been moving to the right for the past 20 years. Most Republicans today are much more conservative, more to the right than Reagan or Goldwater. Reagan and Goldwater would be dismissed as RINOs (Republican In Name Only) by most Republicans today.

There is a palpable hostility towards minorities such as blacks, Hispanics, gays in the Republican Party. There is no such hostility in our Conservative Party (though they do have an influential faction of religious right in their party).

Today it can be said categorically that Canada is much more progressive, much more sympathetic towards minority rights, towards human rights than USA.

Again you manage to take a moving piece and turn it into a anti Republican, Anti American statement. We took a retro grade march the day we allowed Eleanor Roosevelt to make policy. Yes Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, thus ending the cold war. (he did that right all by himself) Screwed up in other parts of the world.

Yes Ronald Reagan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize much more than Obama.

 

[#juan]

I am a Canadian. The U.S. Pledge of Allegience doesn't mean much to me. We don't need a pledge. That Canadians would fight for our country is a given. I've watched the U.S. go from one war to another where war wasn't neccesary but the U.S. seems to thrive on war. VietNam is a good example. Nobody was threatening the U.S. but about sixty five thousand Americans died in a war that achieved no objective and gained no ground. Canada was involved in the major wars of the twentieth century. In both the two world wars, Britain and Canada were fighting and dying for over two years before the U.S. decided to lend a hand in the actual fighting. It hardly needs to be said that Canada fought with distinction in Korea. The U.S. is involved at the moment in a war in Iraq that defies all reason. Maybe a pledge of peace would be a good idea for the U.S. right now.

Btw, I don't think Americans need a pledge either. Americans would always fight for their country.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Again you manage to take a moving piece and turn it into a anti Republican, Anti American statement. We took a retro grade march the day we allowed Eleanor Roosevelt to make policy. Yes Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, thus ending the cold war. (he did that right all by himself) Screwed up in other parts of the world.

Yes Ronald Reagan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize much more than Obama.

I think the criticism is justified, ironsides. Republicans used to nominate center right candidates for presidency. Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford they were all centre right presidents. Nixon established EPA, initiated dialog with China. Ford held liberal views on most social issues. Even Goldwater would be considered a moderate today. I remember a religious right leader accused Goldwater of kicking American conservatism one time too many in the ass (this was a few years ago).

All that changed with the nomination of Reagan. Since Reagan, Republicans have nominated conservatives (Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain). They haven’t nominated a single centre right candidate since 1976, that is more than 30 years ago.

Even Reagan won’t be considered a conservative by today’s standards. He appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to Supreme Court, she was a reliable pro choice, pro Roe vs. Wade vote on the Supreme Court. He was on friendly terms with Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the Hose which was a staunch liberal. They got along very well.

If Reagan and Goldwater would be considered moderates today, that tells you how far to the right the Republican Party has moved.

 

[ironsides]

I do not think anyone wants us to be isolationists again. That is why we delayed entering both "World Wars" wars.

 

[ironsides]

I think the criticism is justified, ironsides. Republicans used to nominate center right candidates for presidency. Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford they were all centre right presidents. Nixon established EPA, initiated dialog with China. Ford held liberal views on most social issues. Even Goldwater would be considered a moderate today. I remember a religious right leader accused Goldwater of kicking American conservatism one time too many in the ass (this was a few years ago).

All that changed with the nomination of Reagan. Since Reagan, Republicans have nominated conservatives (Reagan, Bush, Dole, McCain). They haven’t nominated a single centre right candidate since 1976, that is more than 30 years ago.

Even Reagan won’t be considered a conservative by today’s standards. He appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to Supreme Court, she was a reliable pro choice, pro Roe vs. Wade vote on the Supreme Court. He was on friendly terms with Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the Hose which was a staunch liberal. They got along very well.

If Reagan and Goldwater would be considered moderates today, that tells you how far to the right the Republican Party has moved.

Criticism is one thing to keep bringing up the same idea in post after post is going beyond criticism. I and others know how you feel.

 

[lone wolf]

I do not think anyone wants us to be isolationists again. That is why we delayed entering both "World Wars" wars.

That and Daddy Warbucks....

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Criticism is one thing to keep bringing up the same idea in post after post is going beyond criticism. I and others know how you feel.

You challenged my idea, so I had to give more supporting arguments, ironsides.

 

[#juan]

Again you manage to take a moving piece and turn it into a anti Republican, Anti American statement. We took a retro grade march the day we allowed Eleanor Roosevelt to make policy. Yes Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, thus ending the cold war. (he did that right all by himself) Screwed up in other parts of the world.

Do you really think the Berlin wall would have stayed up without Reagan? The Berlin wall was ready to come down. It had become a diplomatic thorn in the side of both the Russians and the East Germans.

Red Skelton's cute little speech was was hardly ground-breaking. He was a better comedian than a politician.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Do you really think the Berlin wall would have stayed up without Reagan? The Berlin wall was ready to come down. It had become a diplomatic thorn in the side of both the Russians and the East Germans.

Red Skelton's cute little speech was was hardly ground-breaking. He was a better comedian than a politician.

I tend to agree. I never did buy the argument by Reagan and the Republicans that Reagan brought down Soviet Empire by embarking on an arms race, with which USSR couldn’t’ compete, that he effectively bankrupted USSR and thus brought down the Soviet regime.

The argument doesn’t hold water. In a dictatorial regime, they don’t care how much money they have to spend on armament, they will starve their citizens and spend money on armaments. There are plenty of examples like that, North Korea for instance.

So if USSR really wanted to I think they could very well have competed with USA in the arms race. If their citizens starve in the process, who cares.

I think it is Gorbachev who deserves most of the credit for ending the Soviet regime. Soviet regime was crumbling anyway; Reagan got the credit because he happened to be around.

 

[gopher]

Reagan has been propped up as the hero who ended communism. But it was actually the Republicans who started the communist revolution. Conservative Anthony Sutton proved that a long time ago:

 

[ironsides]

Of course they helped out, Wall Street made money with the revolution, not the USSR though.

 

[Colpy]

Reagan has been propped up as the hero who ended communism. But it was actually the Republicans who started the communist revolution. Conservative Anthony Sutton proved that a long time ago:

Ahhhhh Ludicrous. On SOOO many levels.

First of all, the USA had nothing to do with the Revolution.

Second of all, in 1917 the reactionary party in the USA was the Democratic Party, not the Republicans.

Thirdly......Wall St and the Republicans are not the same thing....:roll:

Just to scratch the surface.......

But were it even in the realm of reality, what the Hell does it have to do with Reagan??????? In 1917 he was what......6 years old???

I know it hurts that it was a religious, hawk-like, right wing President that actually moved the Doomsday Clock back.....but I'm afraid you'll just have to DEAL with it!

 

[ironsides]

I tend to agree. I never did buy the argument by Reagan and the Republicans that Reagan brought down Soviet Empire by embarking on an arms race, with which USSR couldn’t’ compete, that he effectively bankrupted USSR and thus brought down the Soviet regime.

The argument doesn’t hold water. In a dictatorial regime, they don’t care how much money they have to spend on armament, they will starve their citizens and spend money on armaments. There are plenty of examples like that, North Korea for instance.

So if USSR really wanted to I think they could very well have competed with USA in the arms race. If their citizens starve in the process, who cares.

I think it is Gorbachev who deserves most of the credit for ending the Soviet regime. Soviet regime was crumbling anyway; Reagan got the credit because he happened to be around.

You may not buy the idea about a Republican Reagan breaking the USSR, but that is just what happened plain and simple. The Russian people were getting a taste of Western living and wanted what we had (cars, appliances etc.). Russia just couldn't do both have a arms race and keep the people happy. The "iron fist had softened. So we did break the USSR. Of course they could have dragged the "Cold War" on, but at the cost of possibly another revolution. Gorbachev, saw that possibility and surrendered so to speak.