REPUBLICANS WOULD PREFER THE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE ERA OF "CHARLES DICKENS"
Gary Ater
October 22, 2009
...Because Presodent Ronald Reagan thought government "was the problem", he sponsored the dismantling of many government regulations, including those on imports and the US banks.
As it does happen, I have once again received an anonymous e-mail from a reader wondering why I have such a negative attitude toward the conservative Republicans and the GOP in general. (Actually, he or she didn´t say it quite that nicely.)
Well, as far as I´m concerned, what has been happening within the Republican Party over the past thirty years is a growing malignancy that if the founding fathers were around today, they would probably be calling for another American Revolution.
The GOP today has forgotten that America is not a nation that became so well respected in the past for just becoming a "Super Power". Over the past ten plus years, I have been devouring multiple history books written by and about our American forefathers. What I have learned is that our founders knew that this democratic republic was a very risky political experiment. But it was originally a grand "idea" for devising a kingdom or a nation that was like nothing that had ever been experienced before. The basis of their concept for a different government was for some kind of political organization that would not only allow for the freedoms that they had not had in England or Europe, but one that would, as they wrote; "insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty and our prosperity" for everyone. They wanted this "idea", not just for a select few, as it was for the rich aristocracy in the far away European kingdoms, but for every American colonist.
If one looks at how this idea had manifested itself over the past two centuries, it becomes obvious how this "idea" has shown itself to be very successful and very different from the previous great world empires of the past.
As an example, after the great wars of this past century, it was the United States that led the rest of the world in the major programs that financed the efforts for rebuilding those nations that had lost the wars. Over history, no other nations had ever taken the position of bringing a concurred nation back to a normal state of affairs. Previous conquerors had taken the conquered countries as their "spoils of war" to rape and pillage at will.
In fact, it was the Democratic US President, Woodrow Wilson who attempted the first "United Nations" type of world organization for trying to prevent future world wars. This organization, then called the League of Nations, eventually failed US Congressional approval when the then Republican 66th Congress, which was full of isolationist conservatives, refused to support the Democratic President´s idea of a world organization of nations.
Years later, this lack of having a world organization for political discussion and negotiation, plus the decision of European nations to severely punish Germany, (the loser of the World War I), spawned the negative environment that eventually developed into a second World War.
It was America, after World War II, that instead of punishing the losers, America developed, supported and financed reconstruction programs and "life-line" programs like the Marshall Plan that kept West Berlin alive and from becoming part of the then communist Soviet Union. This approach was totally in-line with the basics of America´s "idea" for helping all the citizens of a nation, any nation, not just the wealthy and the well-to-do.
If you follow the focus of today´s conservative Republicans, their idea is very much in line with the "ideas" of the past European aristocracies that America´s founders fought a revolutionary war to escape in the late 1700´s.
Here are just a few of my reasons for my attitude against today´s GOP Republican conservatives:
TRADE & JOBS:
The Republicans continually scream about supporting "Capitalism" and having "free-trade". Well, it has been generally agreed that there is only one way that Capitalism and free-trade can work, and that is when there is a level playing field. When our nation was founded, it protected this country´s "manufacturing and trade" with tariffs for equalizing the cost of an American manufactured item with a similar item made in another country. (This was the "level" playing field.) When the Republican´s came to power in the 1980´s, they dropped the idea of trade tariffs for their "free trade" approach. America´s trade then continued on that basis well after Ronald Reagan became president. Now you know why WAL-MART, America´s largest retailer, initially had said that they would only sell American-made products whenever possible. However, today most of their products are manufactured in China, India or S.E. Asia, which uses lower-cost adult and child labor.
BUSINESS & JOBS:
It has been the Republicans that have introduced and supported the ability for companies to move their businesses, as well as their headquarters (and tax-free investments) off-shore. They have also introduced the majority of the bills that sponsored tax-incentives for sending US manufacturing jobs to those lower, labor-cost nations.
HEALTH CARE:
The conservatives have voted against universal healthcare since 1906, when their own GOP President Teddy Roosevelt first introduced the idea. Some European countries have had public health care since the 1930´s. Today, the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world and is the only industrialized nation without a national health care plan. Sixty percent of the people that go bankrupt in the US, do so due to medical bills from a catastrophic illness that they cannot pay. And millions of Americans today are without any health care coverage..
IMPORT INSPECTORS:
Starting with President Reagan, for decreasing the size of government, he began authorizing the reduction of the inspectors of the imported products coming into the US. (This policy was also continued by both Bush administrations.) Those reductions, along with all of the new increases of imported foods and manufactured products, have allowed for the lead-paint, poisoned baby and pet food and e-coli infested foods that have come into the US. In the US, where there may have been at one time 100 import / duty inspectors, there are now only 10 inspectors, all the while many US imports (mostly imported foods) have increased by as much as 1000%.
WALL STREET & BANKS:
The latest debacles on Wall Street and the bank and mortgage problems were mainly due to the de-regulations brought on by the previous Republican Senators and Congresses. Most of the original Wall Street and bank regulations were from changes that were made back in the 1930´s and 40´s by FDR and Truman to prevent another 1930´s Great Depression.
I could go on for many reasons in many other areas, but the point of all of this is that the founders wanted that so called "level playing field" for everyone. But today the conservatives, especially the wealthy ones, only want the "what´s mine is mine" approach. In other words, "playing fields" designed only for the benefit of the wealthy.
I have no problem with people becoming rich. But as has been shown by some interesting statistics, if we continue following the current path, the financial distance between the "haves and the have-nots" by the year 2023 will become catastrophic. It is now estimated that by that time, relativity speaking, the disparity between the rich and the poor in America will be at about the same level as it was in England in 1843. In other words, the same as it was when Charles Dickens wrote, The Christmas Carol. Yes, by the decade of 2020, if America continues on its current path, the "middle-class" as we know it, will be no more. There will only be "rich" Americans and "poor" Americans, just as it was in the Europe of the 1800´s and before.
I truly believe that the founder´s "idea" was for America to develop the most equal and successful and free nation in the world. I do not believe that their concept was for there to be a total loss of what became from the 1940´s through most of the 1970´s, the largest, most successful and greatest middle-class of any nation....ever.
So, for the anonymous writer of the not-so-nice e-mail question, this is my response about my attitude today toward the current GOP.
Copyright G.Ater 2009
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