What remains now of a great party is vestigial and hardly recognizable to the naked eye. Painstaking forensic examination might identify it but that is a nasty business, looking at what is left.
Teddy Roosevelt
What follow are some of the thoughts and actions of men who have represented the Republican Party. Would they be tolerated in the Tea Party era?
On the role of the Government
Abraham Lincoln
“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves – in their separate, and individual capacities.”
Dwight D Eisehower
Acknowledging the need for public and private initiatives:
“But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs—balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage—balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.”
On the Environment
Theodore Roosevelt
“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Here in the U.S. we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy our forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals–not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at best it looks as if our people were awakening.”
Richard Nixon (creator of the EPA)
“… the 1970s a historic period when, by conscious choice, [we] transform our land into what we want it to become.”
On the Military
Dwight D Eisehower
Eisenhower
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
The War on Drugs
William F. Buckley
“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
On Cap and Trade
Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush
The Reagan White House conceived the first cap-and-trade program to reduce pollution. It was used in the 1980s to phase out lead in gasoline at a lower cost. An EPA analysis shows:
…estimated savings from the lead trading program of approximately 20 percent over alternative programs that did not provide for lead banking, a cost savings of about $250 million per year.
President Reagan also signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to slash the production and use of chemicals that deplete the upper ozone layer essential to screen out cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. His administration established a cap-and-trade system to implement the chemical reductions the protocol required. A 2006 scientific assessment concluded that “the Montreal Protocol is working” to reduce chemicals and protect the ozone layer.
President George H W Bush, Reagan’s successor, was the first president to propose the employment of a cap-and-trade system in an environmental law. The Clean Air Act of 1990 includes his proposed cap-and-trade system to reduce the sulfur pollution from power plants responsible for acid rain.
By Daniel J. Weiss | October 22, 2010 Center for American Progress
On Corporate Power
Theodore Roosevelt
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”
On Evolution
Ronald Reagan
In Reagan’s famous “A Time for Choosing” speech in 1964, while lambasting Communism he let slip, “we’re at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars …”
Presumably, he was speaking of the ‘primordial’ swamp.
On Taxation
Theodore Roosevelt
“The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the States gives him.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. … The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and … a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.”
On Health Care
Bob Dole
On Bill Clinton’s health care plan:
His motivation comes partly from experience. After his body was shattered during World War II, he underwent seven operations in veterans hospitals and three years of rehabilitation. “I had good treatment and it’s probably why I’m still around,” he said in an interview. He has been working on the issue since the 1970s, and admits now that “we probably should have passed the Clinton bill, but it got so politicized.”
On the Obama health care plan:
By Sam Stein| October 7, 2009 Huffington Post
On Conservatism
Abraham Lincoln
Admonishing pro-secessionist southern Conservatives:
Lincoln
“But you say you are conservative—eminently conservative—while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by “our fathers who framed the Government under which we live;” while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new … “
What to make of this party now. A party fixated on flag pins and birth certificates, on coupons for grandma’s health care and tax bonuses to the privileged class, on creationism and the flat earth, on war profiteering and corporate monopolies.
You might call that party a lot of things, but ‘grand’ is not among them.
By “Brian Boru”
creesa
June 11, 2011
People always point out that if Reagan were around today he’d be more liberal than conservative, but they definitely don’t point it out enough. I keep seeing these interviews with Ann Coulter and how she says liberals create messiahs, and naturally the interviewer will point out conservatives’ absolute devotion to Reagan, though as his son has cleverly pointed out, “Who else have they got?” But the interviewer never keeps pushing it, and pointing just how different Reagan was from the way the GOP is now, and how they’d never vote for him in a million years if he was running now. Sometimes I feel like jumping through the television. Sigh…
Very surprised by and love that Bob Dole quote! Though ya know he’d never say that if he was still in politics. That’s what’s so sad! I’d say one thing Repubs have over Dems, but it’s both a good and bad thing, is that they’re always eerily unified like a cult. Like right now with this Weiner thing, some (well most) Dems in office are saying he should resign, with a few publicly saying he should stay put. If this was a Republican scandal, it’s as if they’d meet in a dark room somewhere, decide for the whole party, then everyone sticks to the story without flinching, like organized crime or something. They’re very unified, whereas Dems try to be a little more free. Like I said, both a good and bad thing.
Humanist
June 11, 2011
@creesa
great observations. and yes, party unity and ‘messaging’ are real weak points for the democrats … inexplicable!
peanut9000
June 27, 2011
Not at all inexplicable: democrats think for themselves, republicans do as they’re told. Its the difference between atheism and religion, often times. The atheist has thought things out. The religious person has been told what to think. A democrat wouldn’t dream of telling others what to think. They provide the facts and expect you to come up with the right conclusion. Republicans don’t have the intellectual tools to do this, and therefore require instruction.
cynsha
June 27, 2011
@peanut9000
I really like your comments, especially that “democrats think for themselves while republicans do as they’re told.” Very true. I do want to say, though, that we democrats are not all atheists. While some from both party may be atheists, as a democrat I’m a very religious person. I believe in a quiet, personal way–not as someone who goes to church regularly (like I should), but someone who still believes. I just don’t thrust my beliefs down other peoples’ throats. With all the flag-wearing, cross-carrying republicans I see, I wonder if they are really honestly religious, because if they truly were they would not play vanity with their creator’s name. One of the commandments is to not use the Lord’s name in vain, and yet republicans do it all the time. Don’t people see the hypocrisy in that? Bottom line is, yes, democrats provide the facts and expect people to come up with the right conclusion. The problem is the republicans refuse to think for themselves, and simply follow the bully pulpit.
Bob
June 12, 2011
@Humanist
Both creesa and “Brian Boru” make excellent points. Republican strategists decided to get votes by appealing to some fringe types over the past 30 years or so, and now they’ve taken over. Conservative loyalty to the party line can be explained, though. It’s part of their psychological makeup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
Note there doesn’t seem to be equivalency on the left (see the section headed “Right and left”).
Humanist
June 12, 2011
@Bob
The psychology angle is fascinating. If only there were a pill they could take!
creesa
June 12, 2011
I could see there being a tiny bit of leftiness authoritarianism, but definitely not an equivalency like this article says. Like full-on RWA would likely ban Islam from the U.S. or something crazy, but hardcore LWA would maybe just ban certain sects of religious groups who were exhibiting bigoted beliefs. The crazy-ass Southern Baptists would need some work – let’s just put it that way.
moi
July 24, 2011
I’m just surprised that the more moderate, educated, reasonable types of Republicans (are there any? Didn’t there used to be? What happened to them??) aren’t standing up to call a spade a spade and saying don’t lump me in with the psychos…