As a Democratic voter reaching back to the John F. Kennedy election this writer cares about the same things as did JFK. The most urgent two issues being absolute independent American sovereignty, and returning control of our national economy to the people, as designed by the framers of our Constitution.
JFK did not flinch in exercising the right of our nation to independently decide our own policy. He would not allow some international cabal to make our decisions for us. He did not plead with the United Nations when the Soviets were on the verge of launching nuclear warheads into the USA from Cuba. Unilaterally he took the necessary responsibility of forcing Khrushchev to back down and to remove the dozens of ICBM's aimed at several major American cities and US military installations. In 1963 the Soviets were well on their way toward world conquest, already effectively in control of all of eastern Europe, most Asian countries, several South American nations, and had strong influence in many parts of Africa such as the former Belgian Congo colony, and some puppet administrations in the Caribbean, such as Cuba. The Vietnam struggle began under the Eisenhower Administration when US "foreign aid" sent to (Soviet controlled) Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia was transshipped to Ho Chi Minh's Soviet controlled forces attempting to dominate the entire ("French IndoChinese") peninsula.
Why did the Soviets back down on their intent to destroy the USA, the major obstacle in the Soviet agenda to rule the entire planet? Although we now know that the Soviets did have superiority in nuclear and air power, the Soviets were not certain of this. The Soviets suspected that America had secret weapons that even their multitudes of spies, that had infiltrated into every facet of our government, could not verify. Soviet agents were rampant right up to the level of presidential advisors, including Alger Hiss, Harry Hopkins and Harry Dexter White, among many others in highly prominent and powerful positions. JFK's courageous daring in the USSR/Cuban Missile Crisis prevented nuclear war and worldwide devastation. Most experts of the era declared that we were minutes away from planetary nuclear destruction. Thank you, John F. Kennedy.
On the economic front, 04 June 1963, JFK attempted to return control of the American economic system to our government by bypassing the charter of the Federal Reserve Corporation. He began by issuing $4.3 Billion in United States Notes, and he had the intention to replace all Federal Reserve Notes over time, thus eradicating the private central bankers profits acquired through use of the "fractional reserve" banking that has devalued our US Dollar by more than 90% since they were given control of our economy in 1913. In the 1920s a new Ford could be purchased for under $500. Today the most basic Ford would cost over $10,000 (do the arithmetic).
American taxes pay more than 50% of all United Nations expenses* although approximately 140 of the 192 member "states" of the UN are adamantly anti-American, and worse, fervently anti-democratic. That leaves less than 50 authentic democratic member "states" of the UN; meaning that the USA is among a tiny minority influence in the UN. *Much of US "foreign aid" is earmarked to pay the UN dues of recipient nations. This is why Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Bush bypassed the UN in national security circumstances; these Presidents were well aware that the UN would never support any truly democratic efforts of the USA as witnessed by their ignoring freedom fighters of Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and UN military action in Katanga (1960-63) to destroy the newly formed democratic government of President Moise Tshombe; although Bush-2 did repeatedly attempt to obtain UN action in Iraq.
JFK would not have agreed to the treaty after treaty, by which politicians of the USA have been gradually surrendering American sovereignty, curtailing the independence our forebears so valiantly fought for, to the foreign politicians/bureaucrats of the United Nations. Some of the latest treaties under consideration being the intent to provide for (un-elected) UN officials to determine American environmental policy (Kyoto, etc.). Already Americans have lost millions of jobs to foreign industry. The ratification of environmental treaties would give the UN bureaucrats the power to unilaterally decide American environmental policy, thus the ability to shut down America by curtailing all our heavy industry, sending more millions of higher paid US jobs overseas, under the pretense of "saving the environment".
We would be well served if the United Nations were moved to another country, preferably across either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, and all nations were made equal in both the amount of dues assessed and voting power; thus limiting US "donations" to only to those UN dues. Unlike Truman's naiveté, his failing to understand what was going on around him, JFK's bypassing of the UN in various instances very certainly demonstrated his understanding that the UN would never promote authentic democratic purposes.
CONCLUSION: As an older Democrat with a better clarity of history than my younger colleagues, the only circumstances under which I will consider voting for the present Democrat Party nominee, Barack Obama, is if he were to loudly, continually and vociferously mimic the above noted intentions of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. As witness to the eras both Kennedy and Obama, I see them as the antithesis of one another, not in any way similar. Realistically I do not expect Barack Obama to become an imitator of John Kennedy, therefore I will be voting for the American Independent Party candidate for president, or for Congress Member Ron Paul, perhaps as a "write-in", in November 2008. I urge all Democrats who are concerned about the future of American independence, the sovereignty of this nation, the rights/freedoms/responsibilities of the American people to be decided by Constitutional limitations on elected officials of our own nation, to do the same.
On the most urgent of matters, our national sovereignty, both Obama and McCain have endorsed increasing surrender of American independence to the foreign bureaucrats of the UN. Seeing the continuous corrupt history of the UN, let's not be so naïve as to expect the UN cabal to treat us fairly.
A Benton Edmons, editorialist, WCN
