by Mitch Cook | March 22nd, 2010
History proves them wrong on so many occasions that it is hard for me to feel any sort of agreement with the Republicans today. This insistent repeating that the Democrats have ignored the American public and pushed a bill down their throats against their will blah, blah, blah, has me gurgling with bile. What do they know about the will of the people? NADA. A couple very big election cycles showed them the door and they claim to know what the people want? Somehow I doubt that given the evidence.
That being said, the American people are getting what they wished for. American voters demanded changes. They elected a sweeping change in Congress and the White House DEMANDING fresh blood to address a few HUGE issues. Voters wanted an end to two wars, salvage the economy, and health care for all Americans. Those were THE issues during those elections.
It happened just the way they wanted and the Republicans, the same group who were handed their walking papers have been trying to tell us that the group we elected doesn’t care about us and wants to run every aspect of our lives. They have been pretty effective with their message too. The American voter is pretty fragile and easily swayed by passion. The GOP has had a lot of help too. Conservative media has carried the torch and stirred up the pot and muddied the waters so well that the fomented disposition of the American fabric has seen a significant shift towards dissidence. The ringing in our ears was a deliberate attempt to make us question ourselves to the point that distrust of ANY government, even the one we just worked so hard to install, is suspect.
History has always been the great adjudicator. Those who fall on either side of History, right or wrong, have shown us just how messy and replete with consequence politics can be. I am reminded of two instances that illustrate just how bad some decisions have been in the name of the American Public that Republican politicians seem to “know so well.”
1) The League of Nations.
- The staunch refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War One by the United States Congress set the table and allowed the German people and a failed Austrian artist to defy the treaty and millions upon millions paid for it with blood. The Republican controlled Congress at that time wanted to see President Wilson ousted from the White House. So, against the wishes of the International Community, and only to shoot arrows at a political opponent, the GOP failed to protect the fragile peace that millions fought so hard for in the Trenches of France.
2) Prohibition.
- In 1919, after many years of struggle, the Temperance Movement finally got their wish. An Amendment to the US Constitution banning the production, sale and consumption of alcohol. Yet another bill passed against a veto by Woodrow Wilson by the Republican Party. It may have sounded like a good idea considering all the problems associated with alcohol. But the consequences of the Amendment created chaos, violence, and crime at a level never before seen. In 1933, FDR had to repeal the Amendment which stopped the violence and helped bring an end to The Great depression.
Some politicians today would like to think that the American mind is easily distracted and just as easily manipulated. But our memories are NOT that short. I wasn’t even alive during either World War or Prohibition but the decisions made by those conservatives who had “our best interest” in mind are still reverberating in our society and affect our global presence to this day.
Can you understand why I have so much trouble trusting a conservative politician today?
