Republican Agenda?

Just what do the republicans want? In Washington DC or anywhere else? They say they want to govern their way. What does that mean? Exactly? What are the rest of us getting involved in if they get their wish? Is this something we can all manage well or is there a disconnect that is impenetrable?

I think it well if we revisited the beginnings of this struggle. And no, it didn’t start with Obama’s election effort nine years ago, or Clinton’s back in the 1990’s. No, the beginning happened in the 1980’s, and I can personally affirm I felt the tremors of change occurring in the 1960’s. That is when I was most active. I know most of you will find that hard to believe, and even a bit assumptive on my part. But in the last half of the 1960’s I was very idealistic, young and filled with purpose and vigor. I just knew I could make a difference and I worked at it.

With the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, my idealism was severely tested but I turned that into a call to the seminary and left the business world. Seminary was not the answer for me, either; I needed to be involved where life was happening and to me that was the world of work, industry and commerce. Culture intersected with business all the time; so did all of us who had to work for a living.

After college but before grad school (three years) I volunteered nearly forty hours per week in republican organization work. In those days we campaigned to provide balance to the democrat machine then in charge of Chicago. We elected a republican as Cook County Sheriff (Richard Olgivie) who went on to become governor and the guy who installed a much needed income tax so the state could pay its bills and enter the modern age.

We also elected Chuck Percy as US Senator. Percy was broadly touted as a potential presidential candidate; that never happened but the dance was fun to watch! Countless other republican candidates were elected via our efforts for congress and the state house as well as some powerful county and municipal elections.

Accompanying these campaign activities were countless banquets and cocktail parties. We schmoozed with the highest and the mightiest. Also the wannabes! But what changed my mind about being involved with republican politics was the mindless conservative chatter that began making its way around all circles of republicans. It was too bad, too, because most of the talk was empty ideology that spouted anti-communism (where no threat was present), deficit spending (which was a miniscule measure compared with today’s), and liberal control over all facets of American life. Keynesian economics was a popular enemy to scourge. For some reason every conservative thought Keynesian theory was akin to communism. It isn’t. They just said it was.

But that doesn’t make it so. Just like today in 2015 (50 years later!). Saying something is so doesn’t make it so, even if they repeat it 1000 times.

So I gave up on the republicans back in the early 1980’s. They allowed religion to be a political topic. They accepted lobbyist donations to write planks in the party platform. Most party members were expected to pass a litmus test of loyalty. It was a party that excluded low income, black, immigrant and brown people. And they were proud of it.  Proud! I couldn’t believe the undemocratic process they used to make policy for the party, and couldn’t accept the discriminatory basis upon which they chose people to mingle with.

In short the republican party became the opposite of what Abraham Lincoln would have wanted it to be. And that I could not abide. So I left the party behind. Many years ago, now. And they have only gotten worse in their party platform.

Let me see if I have their agenda down. If you disagree, by all means say so, but be sure to have citations ready to back up your point.

1. Women don’t get to choose about the outcome of their pregnancy; abortions are strictly rejected. Men and religious belief dictate this policy, not medicine, science or freedom; we won’t discuss caring for an unwanted child born into poverty and chaos; that’s for someone else to worry about, and definitely not the government's business.
2. Government is a distrusted concept. No programs are to be funded by tax collections including these:
1. Public education unless no one wants to do it; and then, private providers get to choose the religion, the science and the ethnic minority/majority they serve
2. Higher education including critical research and development projects, unless of course the defense industry is funding the research, or a private corporation itching to hitch their wagon to public domain discoveries for their own private gain
3. Public infrastructure is off limits unless no one wants to fund it and everyone needs it; but wait, if a private business has enough government guarantees against loss, then they reserve the right to build and own the infrastructure so they can charge for its use to one and all in a monopoly
4. Foreign policy is forbidden that doesn’t exactly conform to our ideology; and for little reason do we fund foreign aid to nations needing help
5. All medical care is to be performed by private parties for those who can pay for it; all others are not to be served for any reason
6. Social welfare programs are a communist plot and must be paid for from voluntary charitable donations or church sponsored programs
3. Law enforcement and the judicial system wouldn’t be necessary if everyone were Christian, wealthy and hard working. Thus no government funds should be used for this function.

The foolishness of this post is obvious. However, what say republicans to these points?

Do they really distrust their local municipal governments, county agencies, state and regional authorities and all of the federal entities they actually rely on day to day without knowing?  Really? If yes, how do they propose to fix what is now so broken in their view? If not, what are they complaining about, and what then do they want done about it?

I’m only asking. And I’m waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting.

October 12, 2015