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Looking at the shambolic state the Democratic Party is coming into, I am reminded of the successful movement to rescue the American left and the Democratic Party from a Communist takeover in post-WWII America. The Americans for Democratic Action was created to build a progressive but definitively anti-communist mainstream political movement to advance civil rights and social welfare programs.
Hubert Humphrey was one of the founders of the ADA. As mayor of Minneapolis, he was tough on crime, steadfast against rampant antisemitism and racism, proved an outstanding administrator and was re-elected by a huge margin. He was among those leaders who prevented the Minnesota DFL from being taken over by communists.
Humphrey fought for civil rights when it was still purely a moral issue and had not yet deteriorated into the ideological and fiscal atrocity wrought by affirmative action and its mutant offspring DEI.
He fought for food stamps, Medicare and much else even before LBJ came into office—he was also the first to propose the idea for the Peace Corps. All this at a time when the entire social welfare agenda was shiny and new and had not morphed into the fraud-ridden monstrosity and metastatic fiscal tumor we have today. Moynihan’s prescient warning about the effects of dependence and family destruction did not penetrate the optimistic shell.
Despite the bitter resentment of Southern Democrats in the Senate over Humphrey’s leadership on civil rights, he was respected and liked and cordiality prevailed in that august body. [Note: Humphrey stated on the floor of the Senate that the Civil Rights bill eschewed busing (not really).] Mutual respect and comity despite differences would be nice.
Wouldn't it be great to have Democratic Party leaders who were tough on crime, staunchly anti-communist, staunchly opposed to antisemitism and racism and possessed of the requisite character, intellect and genuine compassion to take a morally grounded, fresh new look at the disasters wrought by past social welfare initiatives?
Discussion (15)
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LBJ certainly handed his loyal VP Humphrey the proverbial S sandwich at the chaotic and violent 1968 Democrat convention, condemning his run for the White House to be a defense of the Vietnam War against Nixon with his secret plan to end it.
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Hillary Clinton and her White House high jinx. Is there anyone she likes or is willing to put up with?
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"The Democrat Party" is a thing long gone.
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An oxymoron, perhaps?
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