Rancor is not new to US politics

Rancor is not new to US politics

As an American citizen, tax- payer, and voter, I agree with the U.S. Constitution, and the 1st Amendment and the freedom of speech. But I truly believe that name calling by some Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party members, right wing conservatives, and radical fringe groups of President Barack Obama being a “socialist or Communist” etc. in the debate over health care is truly unAmerican, just as the name calling was during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863 and was called a radical, etc. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law Aug. 14, 1935, the Social Security Act and was called a fascist, Communist and socialist, etc. Truman signed and issued and executive order forbidding segregation in the U.S. armed services, and this outraged and created turmoil with southerners and their political leaders in Congress when the executive order was signed July 30, 1948. Eisenhower, on Sept. 25, 1957, sent U.S. troops to help integrate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., and this outraged southern bigots and racist against Eisenhower and black Americans. President Eisenhower commented on the events by saying “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts and federal government.” On June 19, 1963, President Kennedy, speaking to help the passage of his new civil and equal rights bill noted, “No one American has been barred on the account of his race from fighting or dying for America, and that there is no white or black signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.” Kennedy’s bill would guarantee equal rights in public facilities, especially in the South. This incited fringe groups in the South against Kennedy, MLK and President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act July 3, 1964, and the Medicare Act July 30, 1964, into law. This outraged radical fringe groups across the country against “big government.”

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863 and was called a radical, etc. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law Aug. 14, 1935, the Social Security Act and was called a fascist, Communist and socialist, etc. Truman signed and issued and executive order forbidding segregation in the U.S. armed services, and this outraged and created turmoil with southerners and their political leaders in Congress when the executive order was signed July 30, 1948. Eisenhower, on Sept. 25, 1957, sent U.S. troops to help integrate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., and this outraged southern bigots and racist against Eisenhower and black Americans. President Eisenhower commented on the events by saying “Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts and federal government.” On June 19, 1963, President Kennedy, speaking to help the passage of his new civil and equal rights bill noted, “No one American has been barred on the account of his race from fighting or dying for America, and that there is no white or black signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.” Kennedy’s bill would guarantee equal rights in public facilities, especially in the South. This incited fringe groups in the South against Kennedy, MLK and President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act July 3, 1964, and the Medicare Act July 30, 1964, into law. This outraged radical fringe groups across the country against “big government.”

The new health-care bill signed by President Obama will be good for all Americans and good for our country — just like the Emancipation Proclamation, the Social Security Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Medicare Act. All have benefited the American people. And all of the rancor will be forgotten, just like in our past.