Posts Tagged ‘grover cleveland’

The last Democrat

Posted: March 15, 2022 by chrisharper in politics
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By Christopher Harper

For the past few months, I’ve been reading biographies of U.S. presidents, starting in chronological order. I’ve made it to Nos. 22 and 24: Grover Cleveland.

That’s right! Cleveland served two terms, but they were interrupted by the election loss in 1888 to his opponent, Benjamin Harrison.

Cleveland, the last conservative Democrat, was a particularly interesting leader. Unfortunately, the Democrats turned toward progressive politics after Cleveland left the White House.

Cleveland served two terms, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. He won that election in the popular vote in 1888, but he lost in the Electoral College because he angered the corrupt politicians in New York and lost the state. Therefore, Cleveland was the only president to serve two terms that were not consecutive. Furthermore, he and Woodrow Wilson were the only Democrats elected between 1861 and 1933.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was known for his honesty and integrity. In 1881, Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo and later governor of New York. He opposed high taxes, imperialism, and government subsidies to businesses, farmers, and veterans. He fought corruption in New York and elsewhere, implementing civil service examinations rather than political patronage.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Cleveland in 1932, historian Allan Nevins wrote, “[I]n Grover Cleveland, the greatness lies in typical rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of men do not have. He possessed honesty, courage, firmness, independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree other men do not.”

After being elected president in 1884, he faced a distinctly partisan Republican Congress. Keep in mind that the Republicans were much more progressive than the Democrats back then.

Cleveland vetoed dozens of bills passed by Congress; his supporters sustained them. Perhaps his most famous veto occurred when he refused to support $100,000—today’s equivalent of $2.9 million—to buy seed grain for Texas farmers, who had lost their crops during a drought.

In his veto message, he outlined his desire for limited government. “I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering …. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character.”

Cleveland nailed it. Look at how dependent so many people have become on federal money!

Cleveland often ranks outside of the top 10 of American presidents despite his many accomplishments. To me, he deserves to be near the top of the list right behind Washington and Lincoln.

Bristol Palin, Grover Cleveland and the Civil Service

Posted: November 26, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, oddities, opinion/news
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I’ve never much card for American Idol, or Dancing with the stars, at game night over Dave’s house its on so I do my best to ignore it but neither one are anything that I care to watch. Unfortunately the convergence of the show with the Palin wars forced it into the news. I didn’t want to write about it at the time but now that it’s over there are some valuable lessons for everyone here.

Once Bristol Palin started to advance in the show the left started getting into a huff because better dancers were being eliminated and complained comically about the “integrity” of a vote in popularity show. It was admittedly a lot of fun watching them have a cow as she made it into the finals. This show was nothing significant but they had made it so as a way to hit the Palin’s who were simply having fun. This is and was a great example of Palin Derangement Syndrome

It was at this point that many on the right made a fatal mistake. They decided that because the left had invested themselves into this TV show emotionally that they would have to as well. This was a huge mistake and an example of the same idolatry that elected Barack Obama.

Gone was the principle of advancement by merit, that conservatives prize, gone was the opposition of special preference, we preferred Sarah Palin and by Extension Bristol Palin plus we could upset the left so many people invested themselves in an attempt to gain a victory that would feel good for a day but prove Pyrrhic. In the end the mirror image of Obama worship gave the left a talking point and a cause to smile as Bristol Palin came in 3rd. It was frankly a meaningless victory but one that got some small meaning because Palin fans made it so.

In 1884 Grover Cleveland was election becoming the first Democratic president since before the Civil war. Democrats who had been in the wilderness for a long time looked forward to the fruits of the spoils system but unfortunately for them President Cleveland’s reputation for honesty was well-earned. He was studious in replacing only the unqualified and when pressed by the party over this replied “A Democratic Thief is as bad as a Republican one.” (It is the lack of such democrats today that helped push me into the GOP). When people blindly voted for Bristol they made that same mistake that Cleveland scolded the party insiders for.

I like Sarah Palin a lot, of the candidates I believe are running only the very qualified Haley Barbour has a shot of getting my vote. Palin combines the practicality of an authentic life and a common sense approach to most issues, with the courage to stand up for things she believes in even if there is a political cost (as Lincoln said of Grant, he Fights!) when others hide in the shadows. She is however a person, I am going to disagree with her on occasion, she will get things wrong and/or make mistakes on occasion as we all do, and if we blindly follow, we are doing both her and ourselves a disservice.

Sarah Palin isn’t “the one”, nor is her family, I like them both and think she is the best choice for 2012 but I refuse to be caught up in the same throes of passion that drove the election of President Obama or the frenzy concerning Bristol Palin and neither should you.

We are conservatives for a reason, lets act as such.

Mr. O’Keefe should have remembered the words of President Cleveland… Award Retracted

Posted: January 27, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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He said:

A Democratic Thief is as bad as a republican one.

One doesn’t want to pre-judge a case but to say the least it doesn’t look good. There is no question that if they were trying to bug a Senator’s office that would be a federal offense.

One should not get the idea that you can violate law with impunity. Of course it’s not the organized corruption of ACORN. We seem to be dealing with a bunch of 20 somethings who are too full of themselves. Unlike the ACORN films this is one story involving Mr. O’Keefe that will not be ignored by the MSM.

As Ann Althouse’s commentator says O’Keefe deserves the gratitude of the nation for his Acorn expose, but lets be frank, if this had been a democrat breaking in to a republican’s office we would be all over him. A reasonable person would conclude that this stinks and stinks badly.

Of course a reasonable person given the early evidence would have concluded a certain gentleman was murdered in Kentucky so if people want to withhold judgment that’s up to them. For me I gotta call ’em as I seem em and from what I’m currently seeing O’Keefe joins John Edwards in the as a winner of the “Wheel of Fish” award.

If subsequent facts prove me wrong then I’ll retract it.

Update: Breitbart comes out swinging

Update 2 : I think the egg is on my face in 35 days or so of this story O’Keefe has been looking better and better and the MSM has looked like a bunch of fools. Consider the Wheel of Fish award retracted.