Tex Norman

The Republican Party Is Dead!



Posted: Saturday, November 15, 2008

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The Republican Party is dead!  Won't someone haul the stinking corpse off before the stink gets any worse? 
 
 
OK, yes, this is unfair hyperbole, but it reflects something I am hearing on TV, Radio, and from the printed page.  The pundits and politicians all seem to be talking about how to resuscitate the Republican Party.  They are looking for a fiscally conservative Dr. Frankenstein that can lop of parts of the Body Politic and stitch it all together and reanimate the Republican Party.  Old white guys everywhere are waiting for that bolt of lightening that will raise up the Reaganistic Giant and bring them back to power,  The Religious Right are on one side, and people I would describe as fiscal conservatives with a libertarian lean toward social issues make up another group.  Since each person ends up his or her own group, there are as many opinions as to what to do as there are people.  Being a beating heart liberal I have only the mildest interest in saving the Republican Party.  I would love it if the Democrats had a run as long as the Republicans have had.  But this pro-Demo/anti-Repub-stuff is just my knee jerk reaction.  The truth is, I don't care about either the Republicans, or the Democrats.  Republican is just a word.  It isn't the name of the party that matters to me, it is the effectiveness and protectiveness of government that matters to me, and should matter to all of us.  If the government is effective and protective then call it whatever you want, that's the government I want.


I was raised by Republicans.  Had I been a more pliable child and conditions at home a little more tolerable I might have bought the Party Line and grown up to be a Republican myself.  I remember, back in the 1950s that my father explained why our family voted Republican.



"We vote Republican," my father said to me, "because the Republican's believe in States Rights.  They want to let the states decide what happens in the states and they don't want the Feds to tell us what to do."



When I look back I see that all political parties evolve, (mutate might be a better word) and that the Republicans that just lost the White House are nothing like the early Republicans.  When the GOP (Grand Old Party) was the GNP (Grand New Party) their leader was Abraham Lincoln.  Since Lincoln when to war to prevent the States from separating from the Union, it seems clear that in the beginning the Republicans did not support States Rights, at least not totally.

Lincoln

Lincoln, the most popular of former Republican Presidents, also had some interest in the rights of black people.  The Negro People Lincoln eventual emancipated couldn't even vote.  So Lincoln had some degree of compassion for people who were poor, oppressed and were in no position to be return the favor.  Had you been there when Lincoln was doing his thing, you might have imagined that the Republican Party would be a party that advocated for the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden, those huddled masses yarning to be free and you would have been very, very wrong.



Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt was another popular Republican President.  Teddy Roosevelt saw that the financing of the Federal Government was a chronic problem requiring monthly tweaks of the taxation system and that the only solution was to get some fair and consistent system for bring revenue into the Federal Government to finance the National Work they did for the entire country.  Teddy Roosevelt's solution was to institute via a constitutional amendment, the progressive income tax system.  This Republican President felt that it was fair to have people pay some percentage of their income to the Federal Government, and that the percentage paid would be higher for rich people and lower for poor people.  Had you been a Republican during the Teddy Roosevelt period you would have assumed that the Republican Party supported the concept of having a dependable method for financing the Federal Government, as well as the concept of people paying more if they were rich, and less if they were poor, but you would have been very, very wrong.


Reagan

If you were around when Reagan was President you would have imagined that Republicans wanted low taxes, a strong military, and the smallest possible government.


Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub. ~Grover Norquist



Regan was the one who said government was not the solution, government was the problem.  Had you been around during the hey-day of the Regan Republican Dynasty you would have imagined that by 2008 we would have a small Federal Government, a first rate military, low taxes, and a small, balanced, no-deficit Federal budget and you would be very, very, very wrong.



When I watched the Republican National Convention of 2008 I saw precious few black faces in the crowd.  The Republicans have supporters from every racial, religious, and income class that exists within our citizenry, but when you look at the crowd the Republicans seemed mostly to be a bunch of old white guys, and Palin like white women.



I actually see sins and flaws in all political parties, all politicians, and all through myself, but I think the Republican Party lost its way over the past 30 years.    A party that in the 1950s was seen as sort of  pro-business, and by that I mean they were advocates for American small business, American manufacturing, and American energy production.  Then the Republican Party drifted into becoming a political movement that has been dominated by corporations who cared not about American business, but corporate profits period, end of story.  For example, Exxon Mobil reported staggering earnings of $40.6 billion for 2007.  If Exxon Mobil were a country, its 2007 profit would exceed the gross domestic product of nearly two thirds of the 183 nations in the World Bank's economic rankings.

The Republican Party was eventually under the thumb of these mega international corporations and they were cleaver enough to latch on to some fundamentalist hot button issues.  This was perfect because it got millions of Americans to vote for a political party that did little to nothing for the middle class, who cut social programs to children, the poor, and the elderly, who signed agreements that made it easier for American jobs to be shifted of to other countries, and yet the very people being hurt by these policies were voting for that party because they also advocated overturning Roe, and the elimination of rights for gays (no gay marriage), blacks (no affirmative action), and women (no pay equity).  This was very cleaver, getting a guy to vote for a party that closed down the factory where he worked and shipping his job to China..


Consider the words of ultra-fiscally conservative economist, Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom:

Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.  ~ Milton Friedman

If the Republican Party was advocating for regular Americans, rather than Big Business, then they would be more attractive to regular Amercans.  Pretty profound, huh? 
There was a time when shoes were made in America, when textiles were dominated by American factories.  What do we make in America?  What do we make in America compared to what we made in 1950?  I went to a dress store with my wife recently.  With nothing much to do, I just started reading the labels on the clothing.  The clothing had labels saying they were made in China, Vietnam, Guam, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan, but not one blouse was made in the USA.  There was a time when a kid could get out of high school, get a factory job and support a wife and four kids, and have a comfortable retirement.  There should be a time when a guy, or a gal could get out of high school, get a factory job, and earn enough to have a good life.  Who is advocating for something like that?  NOT Republicans.

Republicans may say they are for small government, and they may claim Democrats are for big government, but the fastest governmental growth spurt took place on the Republican watch.  I am not for small government.  I am not for big government.  I am for efficient government.  I want a government that protects my rights, and functions efficiently to address our needs.  I don't care what party name is slapped on the box; I just want a free, safe, effective government.  I want it for me, and I want it for all of us:  black, white, Native American, Hispanic, Asian, Heinz 57, gay, straight, handicapped, healthy, young, and old.  Any party that advocates for Americans over Corporations, who cares about us, can get our vote, and that includes the Republican Party.

Tex Norman is a social worker, currently working at the Oklahoma DHS Abuse and Neglect hotline. He interviews people reporting abuse and/or neglect of children and vulnerable adults and writes a narrative. The narratives (and demographics) are used to initiate investigations of the allegations. He says it is like writing 8 to 10 stories a day. In August 2012, he will have been married to Kathie for 40 years. He has a son Ryan who earned a PhD from Princeton and he is now a scientist doing research in molecular biology. Tex spends his free time working as an artist and writer. He has one art site, and a blog that might be of interest: http://tex-norman.artistwebsites.com/ and http://collagepoetrybytex.blogspot.com/
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Ronyae
 3 years 79 days ago.
92 fans. Follow Ronyae on twitter!
Tex,
 
I truly enjoyed this article! especially this:
 
"Since each person ends up his or her own group, there are as many opinions as to what to do as there are people"
 
Thanks for writing it!
» left by Tex Norman 3 years 78 days ago.
46 fans.
Thanks so much Ronyae.  I am liberal, and I am a democrat, but all I really want is a government that cares about us, and works to solve our problems.  I'm not against big business, I just want some attention to be paid to the middle class, and the poor, and sick, and the sick.  The more I hear people talk about what they think we should do the surer I am that we are all a conflagration of political parties of ONE.
 
Peace be with you Ronyae.  You keep writing.  tex
» left by Susan Thom
 3 years 78 days ago.
175 fans.
hey tex,
 
this was a very interesting, and from what little i know, truthful depiction.
 
i was given the family home in my divorce settlement (nice of them, i took care of it and raised 3 kids in it for 21 years) however, the taxes are 9,000.00 a year, and i have no idea how to come up with that much money as my crohn's keeps me at home. this is bery disturbing to me. in essence, i was given something i might have to give up. we have no businesses here, so they say, so we homeowners have to pay dearly. a neighor couple who were 78, had to move out of their home across the street because they could not afford the taxes, after both working their whole lives. something very wrong with that.
 
thanks for sharing your thoughts, and allowing me to share mine,
 
my best regards,
 
sue
» left by Tex Norman 3 years 78 days ago.
46 fans.
Dear Sue I wish I had an answer for you.  Your medical condition has placed you in a very difficult situation.  So many millions of us are there, though some have it better, and some have it worse.    I want to thank you for reading my stuff and writing a comment.  I wish we had a country and a world that cared about people more.  Obama gave me hope, but he is not a magic man and I think we have big troubles facing us.
 
I am tired of politics.  Sadly, the politics is really just beginning.  I hope we can continue to find the energy to pester our elected leaders to care about us.
 
Peace be with you Sue.  Get better.  tex
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