Why I'm Backing Obama by Susan Eisenhower

[IndianaGreen]

Why I'm Backing Obama

By Susan Eisenhower
Saturday, February 2, 2008; Page A15

Forty-seven years ago, my grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower bid farewell to a nation he had served for more than five decades. In his televised address, Ike famously coined the term "military-industrial complex," and he offered advice that is still relevant today. "As we peer into society's future," he said, we "must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."

Today we are engaged in a debate about these very issues. Deep in America's heart, I believe, is the nagging fear that our best years as a nation may be over. We are disliked overseas and feel insecure at home. We watch as our federal budget hemorrhages red ink and our civil liberties are eroded. Crises in energy, health care and education threaten our way of life and our ability to compete internationally. There are also the issues of a costly, unpopular war; a long-neglected infrastructure; and an aging and increasingly needy population.

I am not alone in worrying that my generation will fail to do what my grandfather's did so well: Leave America a better, stronger place than the one it found.

Given the magnitude of these issues and the cost of addressing them, our next president must be able to bring about a sense of national unity and change. As we no longer have the financial resources to address all these problems comprehensively and simultaneously, setting priorities will be essential. With hard work, much can be done.

The biggest barrier to rolling up our sleeves and preparing for a better future is our own apathy, fear or immobility. We have been living in a zero-sum political environment where all heads have been lowered to avert being lopped off by angry, noisy extremists. I am convinced that Barack Obama is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation. Just as important, Obama can assure the world and Americans that this great nation's impulses are still free, open, fair and broad-minded.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020102621.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

[Harkpark]

1. Smart lady .... clap clap

First Caroline now Susan
WOAHHHHHHH

[Hardrada]

2. Paging Tricia, paging Lynda Bird, paging Amy.......

[Judi Lynn]

3. So unexpected, yet so appreciated. Never would have expected to hear such depth from a Republican.

Hope her comments will be widely read and considered.

http://www.nerdylorrin.net.nyud.net:8090/jerry/politics/WhyWeFight/SusanEisenhower.JPG

http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us.nyud.net:8090/hampton/images/people/eisenhower.jpg

Former President Dwight Eisenhower and his family enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at Lamie's Tavern
and Motor Inn in 1963. Shown clockwise are grandchildren Mary Jean, Anne and David, Mrs.
Mamie Eisenhower, Eisenhower, granddaughter Susan, their daughter-in-law Barbara Eisenhower
and their son, Col. John Eisenhower.
{"A Colt photo"}

[fenriswolf]

4. where is the pic

also republicans used to be a different breed. the name and party hasbecome twisted and perverted now. they used to be a seperate but equal part of the process now they are the "enemy". Anyhoo this is a wonderfull endorsment for obama that might make some republicans pick up their head.

[Judi Lynn]

5. I didn't know the thing wasn't coming through. I'll post it without some extra stuff

I had been advised to use posting photos. It might have screwed this one up.

Here's the group photo of Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, and their son, John and his family:

[Oak2004]

6. Absolutely, and thank you

I constantly read hear posts that describe Republicans as having "always" been as they are now. That's simply not the case.

There has been a corporate wing of the Republican Party since at least the 1870s. The Civil War had enriched Northern industrialists and discredited the Democratic Party (while destroying altogether the Whigs). The industrialists/incipient oligarchs knew which party held power, and bribed, er contributed, accordingly. But at the same time, until recently, the party had moderate and progressive wings. I became a Republican as an unabashed liberal, and I did so knowing I was not alone in the party. The party, left right and center, believed in playing by the rules. It recognized the Democratic Party as its partner in the governance of America, not as The Enemy to be exterminated.

Beginning with the Reagan Reaction (a revolution it was not) the party became openly hostile to liberals. As the new coalition of corporatists and ex-Dixiecrats and right-wing religious cults firmed up, liberals were driven out of the party. Then the radicals went after the moderates, and though the moderates are not entirely gone, they are marginalized. What the media these days calls "moderate" Republicans are in fact conservative Republicans, and they will be driven out of the party or marginalized, too, if the radicals have their way.

This is why it is necessary to drive the current, mutated, Republican Party out of business. They bear the name of a once-great American party, but they have gotten rid of all of the elements of that party which once made it great and repudiated every item of the agenda that contributed to America's greatness. Their politics is fringe, their tactics are criminal, and they need to go join the other extremist third parties on the margins of American politics, or disappear like the Whigs that preceded them

And it's also why it's wrong to claim that Republicans have always been this way. They haven't. I haven't substantially changed my politics since that day I first registered Republican -- in fact, the only change of any note is that I've become more of a realist and a tad more conservative -- yet today I'm a member of the Vermont Progressive Party, a major party in Vermont that runs to the leftof the Democrats and contributes Bernie Sanders to the American dialogue. I moved to the right, yet find myself on the "far" left -- how could that be if the Republicans were "always" as they are now?

Bluntly, 70% or more of the Republican Party of the 1960s and 70s are now, or should be, Democrats (or Progs or Greens or some other party of the left) today. Democrats should be courting these people, not going along with the claims of the extremists that their radical agenda has "always" been mainstream in America.

[fenriswolf]

7. yeah

mainly my dad is one of those staunch repub types, very educated, very informed, but he doesn't take a humanistic approach. My brother expounded on my dad. Me and my brother talk alot of politics and I think we influence each other for the better.

I don't think its to long till he comes to the realization that the repub party leaders to not represent the republican ideals at all and converts. who knows though.

[redbaum21]

8. You gotta see this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLKSItOoUpI
Look at what she told Obama after the debate!
I was going to vote Hillary at one time. Not anymore!

[yurbud]

9. kick