The Online Reflector

“It’s Socialism!”  “It’s government takeover!”

Those are basically the brain dead arguments we’ve been hearing for over a year now concerning the debate over health care reform. Many love to say it’s because the proposal by the Democrats is apparently fiscally irresponsible.  However, it may as well be the arguments Americans have been hearing for years from the Party of Lincoln. Time and again throughout the 20th and 21st century, the GOP blocked the doorway to major social change in the name of things like liberty and states rights. When it came to such divisive issues as civil rights and Social Security, there were always robust debates, but always, the side that advocated for major change (usually Dems) won out in the end, both in terms of passing such change and the results. History is always on their side. Let’s break it down:

On Civil Rights—The Party of Lincoln, ironically, were the ones using the rhetoric of states rights to keep integration at bay.  They wanted to leave it up to states to decide when black Americans could have their God-given rights, meaning Mississippi and Alabama would probably have segregation laws even to this day. Of course, back then, there existed a rare species known as Southern Democrats, but it was a majority made up of Democrats that got the Civil Rights Act into law.

On Environmental Regulation —Believe it or not, there was a time when there was no such thing as the Clean Air Act. It was as recently as the 1970s when Nixon was in office. Many Republicans felt it wasn’t at all the job of the government to ensure the very air and water we need should be regulated for pollution and contamination. Nixon signed the Clean Air Act in 1970, and since then, environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act, have had to jump political hurdles set up mostly by Republicans. Because as Glenn Beck says: having government make sure our air and water is safe is a slippery slope to Communist China, who put lead in our children’s toys.

On Consumer Regulation—Get ready for the battle over financial reform and consumer protection. Republicans are already positioning themselves, not on the side of the American people who bore the worst of the economic meltdown the GOP oversaw, but with the poor, helpless bankers. ‘Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you’ is what Rep. John Boehner, the GOP’s House minority leader recently told a horde of defenseless, rich bankers. He was referring to the staffers of Democratic congressman, but he may as well have been referring to the majority of Americans who support financial and Wall Street reform.

It was lack of regulation that allowed the economic meltdown to occur, and thus the bailouts of major Wall Street banks. So-called fiscally conservative Republicans derided the bailouts, but seldom let their disgust be known until Barack Obama took office.

On Campaign Finance—Campaign finance reform was enacted after the Watergate scandal in 1974 which limited contributions. Thirty years later came the –McCain-Feingold bill, put in place to further restrict contributions before elections. Amidst those votes, Democrats have long been pushing for more of a little something called Democracy, while Republicans adopted the idiotic rhetoric that money is apparently free speech and corporations are people. It’s a ridiculous notion, but one that was upheld by the Supreme Court in the recent Citizens United case–decided by a conservative-led court, appointed by Republican presidents.

On Gay Rights—Do I even have to explain this one? During his administration, W. trotted out tired anti-gay rhetoric just about every time his numbers were slipping or he needed a good distraction. Thanks to Karl Rove, the exploitation of many Americans’ anti-gay sentiments practically handed Bush his second term.

John McCain vowed that he’d support repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ if the military leaders came out in favor of it. The Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff have done so, and McCain flipped-flopped. Then there’s the Matthew Shepard Act, which Republicans stupidly tried to paint as an affront on free speech. It sounded stupid then, it’s sounds stupid now, it’ll sound stupid years from now.

On Taxes—If there’s one thing Republicans love to talk about it is taxes. During the Bush years we got major tax cuts that only benefited the wealthiest Americans. They cut taxes, but, being the fiscally responsible officials they are, increased spending. You know, on things like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The stimulus bill included the largest middle-class tax cut in history, and seldom a Republican voted for it. When President Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy, not a single Republican voted for it. The economy ended up booming.

Then there’s the deficit. Most of Obama’s first two years of deficits can be traced back to the gap between Reagan and Bush tax cuts, which again, cut taxes without cutting spending.

On Health care—When President Johnson was working tirelessly to pass Medicare, the idea was derided as a government takeover. Four decades later, Republicans were trying to scare old people into thinking their Medicare will be taken away, even though Republicans have been trying to do so since its inception. The rhetoric became ‘we can’t allow a government takeover of health care to take away your government-run health care’. Make sense much? If you put it on a chalkboard conservatives seem to get it.

Republicans were the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. What the heck happened? Roosevelt fought tooth and nail for regulation on things like food, monopolies and child labor, but Roosevelt is dismissed as a progressive by conservative poster-child Glenn Beck, who touts the unfounded idea the Progressivism is Nazism/Marxism/communism/socialism/fascism in disguise.

The Democratic Party is hardly perfect, and has its share of pains (Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh). However, after examining each party’s actions over the last century, I’ll stick with my side. I’m liberal, and I like being on the right side of history.