Aren't Republicans Really Talking
About Themselves When They Claim Democrats Haven't Had Any Good Ideas in 60
Years?
August 30, 2001
It's an elementary principle of
psychology that we criticize in others that which we most don't want to
recognize in ourselves.
This seems to apply perfectly
to Republicans.
Lately they've been saying
that the Democrats "have no new ideas," or better yet, that the
Democrats "haven't had a good idea in 60 years."
Aren't the Republicans
talking about themselves? When was the last time they had a
good idea?
Virtually all the pieces of
legislation in the past 60 years that have made our society more just and
humane have been Democratic initiatives, and opposed by most Republicans.
Just to mention some of the
highlights, the Democrats were behind the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and
1991, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Medicare
in 1965, the Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 -- not to mention being in the forefront to update
and adequately fund and enforce these Acts every one of the last 60 years
right up through the year 2001.
It could well be argued that
the only idea Republicans ever have is to oppose all programs that move us
away from Darwinian survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle (and
to sometimes offer in their stead ersatz solutions which those supposedly
being helped invariably oppose).
Republicans don't have useful
ideas; they only offer mean-spirited vehicles to exercise the
fundamental lack of compassion afflicting that political party. |
