The Republican Party I Knew

 

The present crop of Republicans is bereft of responsible leadership, as reflected by their probable new Majority Leader’s early indication that his single most important thing to achieve was to make our new President a one term president. The Republican Speaker of the House, in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, said that the United States possessed the best health delivery system in the world. One might view the former Minority Leader’s comments as a prelude to dereliction of duty, and that of the speaker as simply either stupid or a purposeful lie.

How did it happen that the Republican Party became so inadequate, so miserable and pathetic? I can’t help wondering whether my generation, the generation dubbed by Tom Brokaw as The Greatest Generation, neglected to participate adequately in government in favor of chasing the “American Dream”. Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in Politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. Those of us of this greatest generation, Republicans and Democrats alike, must bear a large amount of blame for the present superficiality of our political leaders. We let it happen! 

At other times the Republican Party stood for Civil Rights and was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment. The 1964 Civil Rights legislation would probably not have passed if it had not been for Republican Senator Everett Dirksen. Robert Taft, Mr. Republican, stood in the Senate and denounced our internment of the Japanese – the only one to have the courage to do so at a time of national fear of invasion and hatred of the enemy. An example of statesmanship was President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning of the military- industrial complex; a warning unheeded by subsequent national leaders. And Gerald Ford brought dignity and compromise to the office of the President after the tragedy of the Nixon scandal. These men were politicians practicing the honorable art of politics as committed leaders of our country. They were not just leaders of the Republican Party seeking political power, although they were that, too, but they recognized that the art of politics is compromise. These are the kind of leaders needed to “take Control” of the Republican Party and work for the best interests of the country. Unfortunately, they’re dead.