Comments on: Eisenhower was a Republican!

By: ben macwhinnie

ben macwhinnie — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:26:13 +0000

i live in england so i cant really talk about america much :(

By: David

David — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:30:22 +0000

God, the old republicans seem fantastic right about now! Even Nixon would be refreshingly liberal. Hell, I might even wax nostalgic about living in the age of ye ol’ Gipper…

I hope poor Andrew doesn’t go away mad.

Living in a tech-world isolates us from certain realities. My father is/was a pro-military, NASA loving, tech-inspired guy. That steeped me in a certain illusory frame of mind. We were lured by visions of progress and a dream-like American future. Star Trek comes to mind for some reason.

It’s painful waking from this coma. It took all my 20’s just to get a grip on how we got duped.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:26:56 +0000

The farewell speech was written by Malcolm Moos, a Republican who either was at the time or became president of the University of Minnesota., which is why the speech has a certain acadmic “flavor” .

Ike was considered to be a moderate Republican; the proto-fascists who run the show today would consider him to be unacceptably liberal. They’re not interested in liberty, only in what they perceive to be our “national security”.

They would laugh themselves silly over: “so that security & liberty may prosper together.”

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:21:46 +0000

Chris,
I liked it better when you stuck to tech stuff.

By: Michael Markman

Michael Markman — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 21:39:11 +0000

Well, at least one danger that Ike warned about has been avoided by the current administration:

“Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:34:57 +0000

Don’t forget to put it in context–he knew it was needed.

The paragraph before you quoted him: “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”