Politics Elevated

Ironically, especially for those who have not been keeping score, liberal Democrat administrations committed the United States to every major conflict in the 20th century except one. That one exception, George H.W. Bush’s foray into Iraq, along with his son’s clean up project to kick off the 21st century, convinced America that the Republican party is the perpetual party of war. For many Americans, history seems to have started on the morning of September 11, 2001. For all they know, Republicans do start all the wars. But the reality is that war-starting has very little to do with political party affiliation. Conservative leaders have consistently opposed the vulgarity of American empire, while progressives of either major party have been the ones to push us into empire, with those needless and messy wars.

The actions of both Bush administrations have convinced many Americans that only Republicans have never met a war they didn’t like. This Red vs. Blue is a worthless comparison. Republican vs. Democrat is, too. Instead, we need to find out how a politician feels about American empire. That tells us all we need to know.is a weak caricature of history, however. Here’s what really happened.

The Monroe Doctrine was only ever meant as a defensive doctrine. Progressive American politicians latched onto their convenient misinterpretation of the Doctrine as justification for building an American Empire around the globe. What began as attempts at colonizing Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba and other unfortunate elsewheres reached designs of full-scale empire as the 20th century gathered steam.

The president who got us into World War I–right after praising himself for having kept us out of war–was a progressive Democrat.

The president who embroiled the United States in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II was a progressive Democrat.

The president who declared a police action in Korea, without the consent of Congress, was a progressive Democrat.

The president who sent our troops to Vietnam, and the president who fabricated an attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, were, to varying degrees, progressive Democrats.

The president who fanned the false flames of American Limited, Constitutional government and empire are incompatible.hatred, and who sent our troops to Iraq to maim and kill thousands of Iraqi soldiers, whom, it was incorrectly rumored, were supposedly bashing Kuwaiti babies’ heads out on hospital floors, was a progressive …er…Republican.

His son, who created a more fantastic and outlandish pretext for finishing the job of pounding Iraq back into the stone age, was also a progressive Republican.

The Democratic party seemed for nearly 100 years to be the party of empire. With the Bushes that seemed to change. In reality, we were looking at a progressive shell game the whole time. The Establishment wing of each party has taken its turn embroiling us in wars that only enrich the elite. At the same time, conservatives of both parties have most wanted to conserve federalism over the years, or in other words, a weak national government balanced by strong state and local governments.

Limited, Constitutional government and empire are incompatible. In their lust for power, progressives from both major parties have regularly sought U. S. involvement in war. Empire building has always been much more about the stealing away of American liberties through regimentation and control on the home front than it ever was about bringing “democracy” to the rest of the world.

Conservatives have always understood this concept. Progressives…want to rule the world.

Republican Robert Taft strongly opposed U.S. involvement in World War II. Said he:

Every war in which the United States has engaged since 1815 was waged in the name of democracy. [Yet] each has contributed to that centralization of power which tends to destroy…local self-government…

A preponderant majority of today’s so-called “conservative Republicans” are, the antithesis of Robert Taft. Since 2001, most Republicans have religiously supported forcing democracy down the throat of the rest of the world, never giving thought to what democracy at the point of a gun must look like to the ones at the business end of that gun. Their blind allegiance Empire building has always been much more about the stealing away of American liberties through regimentation and control on the home front than it ever was about bringing “democracy” to the rest of the world.to the mis-named Patriot Act numbs them to the reality that the only real statesmen left are those who can no longer be called “patriots”. Incapable of engaging in intelligent debate when such inconvenient realities are pointed out to them, faux conservatives resort to the Giulianian tactic of name calling.

George Washington would be branded an Islamo-fascist sympathizer by the Republican neo-cons if he were alive today. So would conservative Democrat George McGovern if he were still politically active. McGovern, once a Democrat candidate for president of the United States, revered Republican Charles Lindbergh, for the reason that Lindbergh had opposed America’s entry into World War II.

Red vs. Blue is a worthless comparison. Republican vs. Democrat is, too. Instead, we need to find out how a politician feels about American empire. That tells us all we need to know.

Conservatives have never been warmongers, but Progressives always have been.