Franklin Roosevelt is Alive and Well
. By Richard Colman Four-score and five (not seven) years ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt became president of the United States. The date was March 4, 1933. (By 1937, inauguration day was moved to January 20.) The importance of Roosevelt’s election has implications for the current era. And the current era may bode ill for Republicans. At […]
The Folly of Tariffs
. By Richard Colman Tariffs on imported goods only prop up inefficient firms. Simply put, a tariff is a tax. And the money from that tax goes to government. Tariffs also raise prices on consumers. If the Japanese can make better and cheaper cars than the Americans, let the American auto manufacturers figure out how to […]
There are too many people in California.
. By Richard Colman The state is starting to resemble Calcutta (Kolkata), India. California, at least most of it, should not even be inhabited. There are too many earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, floods, and mudslides. Housing is too expensive. Taxes are much too high. Hugh traffic jams exist in every metropolitan area. With 39.25 million people, California, […]
Labor Unions Should Reinvent Themselves
By Richard Colman, California Political News and Views, Venal, backwards, and unimaginative are words that can be applied to the American labor movement. Sixty years ago, organized labor was powerful and feared by businesses. Today, organized labor, except in the public sector, is a ghost of its former self. In the mid-1950’s, about one-third of […]
Tyranny is Back: Its Time for Change
By Richard Colman, California Political News and Views Tyranny — not the kind that tortures or kills people — is back. The tyranny is not coming from business. The problem is not Wall Street or Hollywood moguls, annoying as these entities can be. The tyranny, as Thomas Jefferson would have predicted, is coming from government — […]
Tax Bill Will Bankrupt America
By Richard Colman Government cannot manage money. The Republican tax bill that President Donald Trump is expected to sign at any time will add about $2 trillion to the current national debt of $20 trillion. The highest priority for the survival of the United States is to stop increasing the national debt. Trump and […]
Is the Republican Party Brain Dead
By Richard Colman, California Political News and Views, In his masterful book about American elections, Theodore H. White, described, in the “The Making of the President 1960,” the major differences between America’s two political parties. The Republicans, White said, believe that the individual American citizen has an obligation to himself and his community […]
The Democratic Party is Brain Dead
By Richard Colman, The Democratic Party needs a new brain. Despite some victories in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey on Nov. 7, 2017, the party that once couldn’t lose now can’t seem to win. From 1933 to 1953, Democratic presidents — Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman — controlled the White House. […]
Commentary: 50 Years of Rage; The White Working Class
. By Richard Colman, California Political News and Views, If one has to pick a date for the collapse of the Franklin Roosevelt coalition, that date should be Nov. 5, 1968, the date on which Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States. The Roosevelt coalition consisted of laborers, big-city bosses, the South, ethnic […]
