JFK vs Trump

[Paul May]

It occurs to this writer Richard Smith is an angry old man not unlike the current POTUS. Defeated and disillusioned. Simple observation.

[Bill Chapman]

Well said, Mr. May. Happy Fourth!  : )

My choice for the most important song ever for July 4th in America

'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'  Dolly Parton

[John Tonkovich]

My choice for the most important song ever for July 4th

'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'  Dolly Parton

You do realize this is a song cheering Johnny Reb?
Or am I  missing  something?

[Tom Scully]

It occurs to this writer Richard Smith is an angry old man not unlike the current POTUS. Defeated and disillusioned. Simple observation.

Do not sell Richard short, anymore than you would if he was bleeding profusely from a compound fracture. His posts are symptoms of mental and emotional health issues. He is caught up in a cult of personality, an involuntary result of his developmentally damaged upbringing, driving his abnormal attraction to the authoritarian.

The "narrowcast" of the deplorable BS posted in this thread by the few posters readily revealing their Trumpian orientation, seems to completely escape their ken.
Fingerprints of Trump, Trump family, Hannity, smear in advance, the bulk of what these deplorables have been posting. Perish the thought of any of these posters ever even considering pursuing mental and emotional health evaluation, not when there is an authoritarian psych case in the WH for them to "high five" and "cult out" on !



Richard parrots Trump messaging and is simply aghast that MSM is somehow "plotting" with the FDA to make Trump "look bad" !

…. The media on the other hand has concluded that it doesn't work.  In fact, they don't want it to work because the more folks that die the better.  That extends the crisis to the election and enhances the chances of putting the establishment back in power.  And that means all the failed politicians, lobbyists, and media pundits will have their influence restored.  Trump is an outsider.  He threatens the established power base that views itself as an elite cadre that plays by its own rules.  Trump is a dangerous precedent from their perspective.  He is not one of them.  He doesn't follow their rules.  He doesn't automatically assume they are smarter or better positioned to make decisions than everyone else.  He doesn't recognize their inherent right to rule and tell others what they should think.  So he has to be undermined before everyone else wakes up to the con they have been pulling for most of the last century.

In fact, they don't want it to work because the more folks that die the better. 

You really are one sick puppy. There isn't anybody in the country who want people to die.
…..

VS

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/07/04/still-dreaming-of-the-american-dream/
Still Dreaming of the American Dream
July 4, 2020/7 Comments/in Culture /by Rayne

After the wholly repugnant speech Donald Trump gave in South Dakota — on lands stolen from Lakota and Dakota nations because there was gold alleged to be in the Black Hills — it’s important to remember this one point.
Donald J. Trump is not this country. He may be a product of it, but he is not this nation. He may believe L’etat, c’est moi, but this premise is not this country’s past and will not be its future.
We are the United States of America, including the many citizens he denigrated in his white-nationalist-written speech.
Trump may speak for and to a minority of people who voted for him in 2016, those whose rights were given preference by an electoral system designed to ensure white slave owners would not lose their grip on power to the Black people they once enslaved.
But Trump is not this country, nor are his base alone. We the people are collectively the United States of America.
This country’s origins, though flawed by slavery and oppression of indigenous people, began with the right intentions. The founders sought to overthrow autocratic monarchic government and its oppression for the right of individual self-determination, fairness, and collective effort toward a more perfect union. It is this spirit we should recall and re-embrace each Fourth of July, disregarding the crackpot fulminations of the fascist criminal who would rather see this nation divided. He seeks to defer history’s looming punishment meted out to those who have abused the trust of this nation for their own personal gain under Trump’s administration.
History doesn’t wait, however, not even for a bloviating white man with access to monied and powerful friends.
History doesn’t wait for us, either. Like this nation’s founders we have choices to make and action to take if we wish to ensure the future is kinder and our history more forgiving.
In an 1858 debate with his opponent, Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln spoke of the Declaration of Independence:
..........

[Paul May]

JFK, like us all was skin, blood and bones. A human being. Flawed. Yet, he believed in public service. Once his brother Joe died in WW2 it was up to JFK to assume the family mantle. As a young boy, my parents felt it time that I learned how America works and I joined “Young Democrats for Kennedy”. My father was a somewhat influential Democrat in N.Y. at the time although I didn’t know what that meant. He, my mother and my sister and I attended a campaign dinner on Long Island during a 1960 campaign event. Our family was photographed with JFK. That black and white photo sat on my parents fireplace throughout the years until their passing. My sister now possesses that photo which not coincidentally now sits on her fireplace mantle. I’ve walked amongst giants in America. Those who truly cared about our country and made a difference. Public service. Military. Men and women who on July 4, 2020 get a shout out: thank you...thank you. God bless you and America.

[Tom Scully]

JFK was a decorated WWII combat veteran.

He used his family's influence to get assigned to the PT Boat in the Pacific war zone.

His older brother Joe was killed in Europe. He volunteered for a dangerous mission over Europe.

The plane he was flying blew up killing all on board.

Gary, look a little deeper. Joe Jr. died as a result of a top secret, remote television camera piloted "drone bomber" project. It is possible, although the odds are intensely slim, that Hugh Downs, despite a career in broadcast journalism that lasted from 1945 until he retired at age 79, just did not know who his wife's brother, John Shaheen, really was?

.....
https://fair.org/extra/debunking-the-debunkers-of-october-surprise/
Debunking the Debunkers of October Surprise |
Mar 1, 2013 - Unbeknownst to the Carter administration, Cyrus Hashemi had ties to William Casey through a longtime Casey associate, John Shaheen.

During WWII, John Shaheen and Elroy McCaw of OSS Special Projects were the "brains" behind:

https://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-cia-and-wins.html
Dec 31, 2014 - John Elroy McCaw, worked on OSS Special Projects known as operations Aphrodite, Simmons, and Javaman. He worked with OSSers John  Shaheen and Jim Rand...

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/remembering-death-lt-joe-kennedy-jr-and-america’s-first-combat-drones
Remembering the Death of Lt. Joe Kennedy Jr. and America’s First Combat Drones

Aug 19, 2014 - Ensign Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., USN about two years before his death. ... Doolittle's Project Aphrodite (Army) and Anvil (Navy) represented the ...

Reagan and John Shaheen were both born in:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan#Early_life
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois. ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampico,_Illinois
Tampico /ˈtæm.pɪ.koʊ/ is a village located in Tampico Township, Whiteside County, Illinois, United States next to Rock Falls and Sterling IL. As of the 2010 census the village had a total population of 790, up from 772 at the 2000 census.

Barbara Walters' longtime ABC 20/20 partner, Hugh Downs, was married to John Shaheen's sister, Ruth.....

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=ruth-downs&pid=184794130
Downs, Ruth Shaheen
The beloved wife of broadcaster, Hugh Downs, passed away on Tuesday March 28, 2017 at the age of 95, at their home in Scottsdale, AZ. Her husband was by her side as she peacefully embarked on the "next great adventure," as she referred to Death. Ruth Downs was born in Illinois in the autumn of 1921 to Mike and Sadie Shaheen, who taught their only daughter she could do anything her three brothers could do if she was willing to work for it; .....and to annually bring together her own descendants and those of her beloved brothers John, Raymond, and Richard Shaheen.

Hugh Downs died at age 99, this week.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Downs

Hugh Downs reported on the October Surprise controversy (see below), interviewed RFK on the today show, reported on the Assassination of JFK, without, to my knowledge, ever publicly disclosing that John Shaheen was his wife's brother.

The "three amigos", Shaheen, McGaw, and defector Robert E. Webster's employer, H. James Rand, were, putting it mildly, real pieces of work!

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=marion-o-mccaw-garrison&pid=158287753
Jul 1, 2012 - On March 21, 1942, she married John Elroy McCaw from Aberdeen. ... Assistant to General McClelland, head of USAAF communications.

JFK Facts » Curtis LeMay to JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis
https://jfkfacts.org/curtis-lemay-to-jfk-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/#comment-441710

Apr 28, 2014 - General McClelland began with a typical military base system and then let ... John Elroy McCaw, worked on OSS Special Projects known as

During WWII, John Elroy McCaw was USAAF liason to O.S.S., reporting directly to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_M._McClelland
Harold Mark McClelland (November 4, 1893 – November 19, 1965) was a United States Air Force (USAF) major general who is considered the father of Air Force communications. ... A greater volume of communications required a stronger system, and CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith hired McClelland as chief of CIA ...

https://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-cia-and-wins.html
The Spy Who Loved Radio - ARCANE RADIO TRIVIA
tenwatts.blogspot.com › 2014/12 › the-cia-and-wins

Dec 31, 2014 - John Elroy McCaw was from from Aberdeen, WA. ... John Elroy McCaw, worked on OSS Special Projects known as operations Aphrodite, Simmons, and Javaman. He worked with OSSers John Shaheen and Jim Rand and is ...

Shaheen and Ronald Reagan were born just a couple of years apart, in "Tiny Town, IL.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161103035644/http://tomscully.com/node/10

My Response to Robert Parry's April 9, 2014 Report on Bi-Parisan Hypocrisy in Congress Suppressing Truth of 1980 October Surprise
https://web.archive.org/web/20161103035644/http://newspaperarchive.com/us/illinois/sterling/sterling-daily-gazette/1951/05-01/page-9
"...while H James Rand of Cleveland, Ohio was best man."


http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/09/reagan-bush-ties-to-iran-hostage-crisis/
Reagan-Bush Ties to Iran-Hostage Crisis
April 9, 2014

Exclusive: The Senate wants to block Iran’s new UN ambassador because he was linked to the Iran hostage crisis 35 years ago, but that standard would strip honors from Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, implicated in extending the hostage crisis to win the 1980 election, reports Robert Parry........

My response to Parry, in the comments section of the article linked above,:

Tom Scully on April 10, 2014 at 4:20 am said:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Thank you, Mr. Parry. I have quoted and linked your reporting on The October Surprise with research I posted yesterday. My focus is on the connection between
Casey’s friend John M Shaheen and 1958 defector to the Soviet Union, Robert Webster’s employer, H James Rand. Shaheen married in May, 1951. His best man was Rand. Shaheen’s sister Ruth was the wife of Hugh Downs. Shaheen and his bride honeymooned on Marathon Key in FL in a group organized by a Cleveland neighbor of Shaheen’s and Rand’s OSS friend, Dan T. Moore, brother of Drew Pearson’s wife, Luvie Moore Abell Pearson. Dan Moore’s next door neighbor was Yale Bonesman, Dr. George W. Crile, Jr., the father of the George Crile who worked as a journalist for Pearson and Jack Anderson and then for 31 years at CBS TV network and 60 Minutes. A CIA document. in Bill Simpich’s new book describes a plan in 1960 by Moore to go to Moscow with Rand to attempt to smuggle Robert Webster out in a car left in Moscow by Rand Development Co. Coincidence that all of these journalists, save the deceased Pearson, neglected to report on their own familiarity with John M Shaheen, or grave ethics breech? Was Shaheen involved in a defector program with H James Rand?
http://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,10365.msg304167.html

Given the familiarity of John Shaheen with the influential broadcast and syndicated journalists I named above, how could this be true, unless
it was deliberately contrived? Who did this manipulation and journalistic omission most benefit? Certainly not the American people!

{the khashoggi connection} {segment with barbara walters} (tv)
http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=the&p=244&item=T:19394
Museum of Television & Radio
Host Hugh Downs opens by questioning how the Iran-Contra arms deal got started, before offering some background information on Khashoggi.
Then, Walters ...
 Chilton's Oil & Gas Energy - Volume 2, Issues 1-2 - Page 27
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=mystery+john+sh...
1976 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
The only problem for Sha- heen-watchers, and his creditors, is figuring out how much Shaheen is worth,
and in precisely which assets at what time. It's been popular to characterize John Shaheen as yet another "man of mystery"
in a part of the ...

Quote:
https://archive.org/stream/reportofcongress11unit/reportofcongress11unit_djvu.txt
Report of the congressional committees investigating the Iran- Contra Affair :....
Washington, D. C. Wednesday, July 22, 1987 Deposition of ROY FURMARK, called for examination at the offices of the Senate Select Committee, Suite 901, the Hart Senate Office Building, at 10:00 a.m.
.....
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:00 p.m.) Whereupon, ROY FURMARK resumed the stand and, having been previously duly sworn, was examined and testified further as follows: EXAMINATION (Continued) BY MR. KERR:
........
4 Q Let's shift gears a little bit. In terms of 5 Mr. Shaheen's relationship with William Casey, there was a 6 relationship? A Yes. 8 Q Can you describe what that relationship was? 9 A They were extremely close personal friends.- They 10 were both very much involved in Republican politics. They 11 were very much involved in the William J. Donovan Foundation 12 or the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, which is an 13 all members who were in that service, and they would meet and I 14 have dinners and present awards out. They presented awards 15 to Thatcher, Willy Mountbatton, the three astronauts that 16 landed on the moon. They presented awards to President 17 Reagan, and so that was a focal point for them to get 18 together, I think, and in addition, they were involved with, 19 you know, doing legal work. He was in his own firm and then 20 he became a counsel to Rogers & Wells, and Jack Wells and 21 John, I think, were great pals as well as Casey, you know, 22 was involved in it, in New York City. Q Was Casey counsel to Shaheen during the time you were employed by Shaheen? A He did special things like when the company got into financial trouble, Newfoundland Refining Company, Casey and Shaheen and I went to Kuwait for about a week or 10 days trying to interest KNPC, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, owned by the government, to become a partner in Newfoundland Refinery, to invest funds to revamp the refinery so that we could use 100 percent Kuwaiti crude. .... He was an advisor when Shaheen had problems, and you know, but that was my longest involvement with Casey on that trip. Q Place that time for me, will you please? A 1975 or 1976, let's say. Q So this would be just before the time that you left? A Yes. Q Coming back, Shaheen had been in OSS at the same time Casey was in OSS and that's how they got to know one another? 2 A Yes . 3 Q Casey thereafter acted as legal counsel for 4 special projects for Shaheen; is that correct? 5 A Basically, yes. 6 Q Did Casey and Shaheen have business relationships 7 together to your knowledge? 8 A To my knowledge, I have never heard of any 9 business relationship. 10 Q So you don't know of any partnerships, joint 11 ventures, joint projects? 12 A No . I don't believe so. Shaheen just never did 13 things like that. 14 Q Shaheen, I believe, from a conversation you and I 15 had sometime ago, you characterized him as being a man who 16 didn't work well with partners?

(article image inserted below by Tom Scully to contrast the sentence immediately above)




17 A He wanted to do everything himself, you know, and 18 like, we got shares in the Newfoundland Refining Company, but 19 we had to sign an agreement that he could buy it back at any 20 time, so he wanted to be the -- he didn't want any, like you 21 say, he didn't want somebody to die and have the wife get a 22 lawyer and start poking around in his company. He didn't 1 mind the employees making lots of money, you know, as long as 2 he could control it. 3 Q With regard to the relationship between Shaheen 4 and Casey after you left, you were aware that they continued 5 to maintain a friendship? 6 A Oh, yes. 7 Q You were aware of that because of, among other 8 things, you saw them at the OSS dinners each year; correct? 9 A Sure. 10 Q The reason you were going to the dinners was not 11 because you were a member of the OSS -- 12 A No, I was invited to fill out the table, and it 13 was an a honor, really. I met lots of people because if it 14 was in New York, Shaheen would have a party back at his 15 apartment. I met the astronauts, lots of important people at 16 the apartment, so it was 17 Q You were aware, though, that the relationship 18 between Casey and Shaheen continued, that they continued to 19 be friends? 20 A Yes. 21 Q Let's move on now to your relationship with 22 Casey. You got to know Casey best, I guess, on the trip to Kuwait; is that correct? A Well, I knew him all these years through Shaheen, you know, and you got to know more and more, and of course I J was- Shaheen 's heir apparent, okay, and so I would see Casey a lot and lots of times I wouldn't see him, you know. Q Let me move you into the period 1984, 1985. To ^ what extent were you in contact with Casey in '84-85? .....

(Roy Furmark's 1987 testimony excerpted above reminds me of the WC testimony of Nancy Perrin Rich, but she was less vague. Furmark stated that Shaheen spent $16 million on his failed NYC newspaper start up,The New York Press.



IN 1972 Shaheen was quoted in the NY Times saying the purpose of the newspaper was to support president Nixon.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=elroy%20mcgaw%20site:news.google.com/newspapers&source=newspapers#q=%22around+to+O%27Brien%2C%22+Chotiner+said%2C+%22don%27t+worry+about+that.%22+rand&tbm=bks
The President's private eye: the journey of Detective Tony ... - Page 184
books.google.com/books?id=ToRLAAAAYAAJ
Tony Ulasewicz, ‎Stuart A. McKeever - 1990 - ‎Snippet view
if my existence as Nixon's private eye wasn't going to receive any support from the White House if my identity was disclosed. But as Caulfield explained, Chotiner had files on people which
I had to take a look at so I'd know the type of information the President was looking for when I got the call to go to work.
When I met with Chotiner, the first thing he did was to hand me a file he had been keeping on the Rand Development Corporation and its officers. He made it clear that he kept exhaustive records on everyone who played the political power game. He told me that if, instead of Nixon, I had gone to work for the Democrats, I'd probably be meeting with Larry O'Brien instead of him. "We'll get around to O'Brien," Chotiner said, "don't worry about that." Chotiner said that O'Brien, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1968, still had some dues to pay from the 1960 election that Nixon had lost to Jack Kennedy......

Bookbinder NY Times 15 Nov 1959


https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/BISHOP%2C%20ROBERT_0064.pdf

Shaheen's apprentice, Roy Furmark, entirely fooled his adoring son and also former CIA's and DOD's Robert Gates, unless Gates perjured himself.:

Page 18:

https://16eparis.com/2016/01/04/what-a-life-ive-had-said-my-father-as-he-was-dying/

Jan 4, 2016 - That's my father in the middle, Roy M Furmark. {Take note to my father's tie he is wearing. It's the one and only 'classic' “Shaheen Tie” with the

[Bill Chapman]

You do realize this is a song cheering Johnny Reb?
Or am I  missing  something?

Individual soldiers are my point
Pretty sure Dolly was cheering on every 'Johnny' that went to war for America

[Tom Scully]

BTW, from the moment JFK or Obama settled upon the make up of their cabinets, neither democrat stood a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding in what amounts to an American, right wing, nuthouse.

https://www.cato.org/blog/hadley-gates-iraq
February 4, 2014 11:14AM
Hadley and Gates on Iraq
By Christopher A. Preble
Former Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley took to the Wall Street Journal's op Edward pages last week to try to make the case that the Iraq war was worth fighting.

The particulars of Saddam Hussein's tyranny are familiar:
......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

...Gates was nominated to become the Director of Central Intelligence (head of the CIA) in early 1987. He withdrew his name after it became clear the Senate would reject the nomination due to controversy about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.[24]

Gates was nominated, for the second time, for the position of Director of Central Intelligence by President George H. W. Bush on May 14, 1991, confirmed by the Senate on November 5, and sworn in on November 6.[25]

During a Senate committee hearing on his nomination, former division chief Melvin Goodman testified that the agency was the most corrupt and slanted during the tenure of William Casey with Gates serving as Deputy. According to Goodman, Gates was part of an agency leadership that proliferated false information and ignored 'reality'. National Intelligence Council chairman Harold P. Ford testified that during his tenure, Gates had transgressed professional boundaries.[26]...

Obama won the 2008 primary contest against Hillary by distancing himself from her senate vote authorizing the Bush AUMF, only to keep a perjurer, admirer of Oliver North and unapologetic Iraq invasion and occupation neocon on at DOD, who shafted Obama in print soon after exiting the Obama White House.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-gates-former-defense-secretary-offers-harsh-critique-of-obamas-leadership-in-duty/2014/01/07/6a6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html
National Security
Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique of Obama’s leadership in ‘Duty’
By Bob Woodward
anuary 7, 2014

.....Gates wanted to quit at the end of 2010 but agreed to stay at Obama’s urging, finally leaving in mid-2011. He later joined a consulting firm with two of Bush’s closest foreign policy advisers — former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser during Bush’s second term. The firm is called RiceHadleyGates. In October, he became president-elect of the Boy Scouts of America.....

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/washington/30hadley.html

....Mr. Hadley is interviewing candidates, including military generals, for a new high-profile job that people in Washington are calling the war czar. The official (Mr. Hadley, ever cautious, prefers “implementation and execution manager”) would brief Mr. Bush every morning on Iraq and Afghanistan, then prod cabinet secretaries into carrying out White House orders.

It is the kind of task — a little bit of internal diplomacy and a lot of head-knocking, fortified by direct access to the president — that would ordinarily fall to Mr. Hadley himself. After all, he oversaw the review that produced Mr. Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq. But his responsibilities encompass issues around the globe, and he has concluded that he needs someone “up close to the president” to work “full time, 24/7” to put the policy into effect. He hopes to fill the job soon....

https://archive.org/stream/LundbergFerdinandTheRichAndTheSuperRich/Lundberg_Ferdinand_-_The_rich_and_the_super-rich_djvu.txt
THE RICH AND THE SUPER-RICH
A Study in the Power of Money Today

BY FERDINAND LUNDBERG

.....After two Republican Administrations from 1952 to 1960, gained by using a clearly
apolitical war hero as a stalking horse, the country again went Democratic under John F.
Kennedy, himself a wealthy heir although basically a political man from a political
family. Kennedy, even with no war providing an excuse for a coalition, awarded his
chief Cabinet posts to Republicans from the camp of big wealth. Douglas Dillon,
Republican and very wealthy heir of the founder of Dillon Read and Company,
Forrestal's old firm, was made Secretary of the Treasury. Robert S. McNamara,
Republican president of the Ford Motor Company, was made Secretary of Defense.
McGeorge Bundy, Republican, was made liaison man to the CIA. Dean Rusk, a
Democrat, but president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1952 to 1960, was made
Secretary of State.
The basic government posts, in other words, went to men deep in the camp of big
wealth. But those posts that required dealings with the hoi polloi in social contexts went
to party men versed in the rhetoric of inspirational ambiguity.
Dillon resigned under Johnson and was replaced by Henry H. Fowler, a career
Democrat; but most of the rest of the Kennedy team continued, with the distant goal a
mirage: the Great Society. The laudable stated ends of this Great Society are the end of
want and of inequalities of opportunity.
As Princeton University political sociologist Richard F. Hamilton remarks,
In an affluent society, a liberal, welfare-oriented party can go a long way toward
satisfying the wishes of its followers. Rather than preside over a drawn-out struggle
between the people and the interests, as if it were an either/or game, the new style is to
give both what they want and pay for it out of the returns from a stable and rapidly
growing economy. In essence this is the Galbraithian solution--not to struggle over the
"take" but to increase its size. Thus, the typical new figure on the political scene is the
liberal demagogue--one who can cater to the masses because he is willing to pay them
off and can do so without depriving the interests of what they want. He can be for civil
rights, for improved housing, for urban renewal, for a poverty program, and at the same
time can vote against a reduction of the depletion allowance. The Great Society
synthesis overcomes that age-old problem of liberal politics: how to reward the
clientele. Before affluence, the result was a long, hard and usually indecisive fight with
the interests or it was capitulation. The new liberal, however, does not have to fight or
switch. 60
The attraction of the Great Society for the wealthy, however, is the new opportunities
it creates for making money on huge government contracts. In the area of defense there
is a huge tax-supported military establishment making constant highly profitable
demands--up to 40 and 50 per cent profit--on industry for complex new weapons. In
urban renewal there is the vast profitable enterprise, replete with windfalls, of
rehabilitating the commercial heart of the big cities. In slum clearance and school
buildings there are vast slushy construction projects of low quality in the offing. And in
the antipoverty program itself there is vast roadbuilding, as in Appalachia (which needs
few roads), as well as opportunities for the local political machines.
As Dr. Hamilton remarks, "Large numbers of entrepreneurial types have recently
discovered that 'there's money in poverty.'"
We have, then, as he notes, now developed "liberals of convenience" as contrasted
with "liberals of conviction," and staunch Republicanism is no longer to be taken for....