"I hate to rain on the Republicans’
parade, but a brief look at Republican political history shows that we
have no reason to be optimistic about a Republican majority in the House
or anywhere else."
"The Republican record is a dismal failure. They can neither be
trusted nor taken seriously. The history of the Republican Party is one
of compromise after compromise and sellout after sellout. On the night of
the recent election, Wolf Blitzer of CNN twice asked House Republican
Minority Whip Eric Cantor to name one specific program that the
Republicans in the House are going to cut now that they have a majority.
Cantor twice couldn’t name one."
What a Republican Majority Will Not Mean for
Liberty, the Constitution, and Limited Government
Written by Laurence Vance
Thursday, 04 November 2010 11:30
So, the Republicans regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives
with a margin of victory that made it the largest shift in power since
the Democrats won a 91-seat House majority in 1948. Republicans are
understandably ecstatic, but because they didn’t win control of the
Senate, and since we are stuck with a Democratic president for two more
years, they seem a little too confident for a party that only controls
one-third of the government.
House Republicans have only been this ecstatic three times in recent
history. The first time was in 1994 when Republicans gained control of
the Congress for the first time in 40 years. The second time was when
George Bush was inaugurated in 2001 with a Republican-controlled
Congress. And the third time was when Republicans regained control of the
Senate in the 2002 midterm election. This was made necessary because
Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords switched from Republican to Independent a
few months after Bush was sworn in and upset the Republicans’ precarious
50/50 Senate majority (Vice-president Cheney could break ties,
effectively giving the Republicans a majority).
Only once in history have Republicans controlled the House with a
Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, but that was back before
the Civil War under President James Buchanan. Republicans controlled both
the House and Senate under a Democratic president for two years during
the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, and Harry Truman,
for four years during the presidency of Andrew Johnson, and for the last
six years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
I hate to rain on the Republicans’ parade, but a brief look at Republican
political history shows that we have no reason to be optimistic about a
Republican majority in the House or anywhere else.
A Republican majority in the House will not mean any more than it did
when the Republicans controlled both the Congress and the presidency
under Dwight Eisenhower. With a Republican in the White House and a
Republican majority in the Congress, one would think that the entire New
Deal could have been repealed and the government restored to at least its
pre-New Deal levels. Yet, we are still stuck with New Deal programs
today, including the largest entitlement program in the federal budget
--Social Security.
A Republican majority in the House will also not mean any more than it
did when the Republicans controlled both the Congress and the presidency
under George W. Bush. The damage done by Republicans when they were in
total control of the government is incalculable: the arcane
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
federal bailouts, free-speech zones and other infringements on civil
liberties, the draconian PATRIOT ACT, the repulsive TSA, wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, skyrocketing congressional spending, doubling of the
national debt, assassinations, torture, and illegal surveillance. And
then there is the No Child Left Behind Act, which further federalized
local public schools; and the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, the
largest expansion of the welfare state since Lyndon Johnson; and the
Department of Homeland Security, precursor of the police state.
A Republican majority in the House will not mean anything different from
the last time a Republican Congress had to contend with a Democratic
president during the last six years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Republicans overwhelming supported the Iraq Liberation Act that declared
it was U.S. policy to support “regime change” in Iraq. George W. Bush
later cited this act in his desperate attempt to justify launching an
invasion of Iraq in 2003. Also passed was unconstitutional legislation
that strengthened gun control laws and further regulated health
insurance.
A Republican majority in the House will not mean something dissimilar
from a Democratic majority with a Republican president. Every Republican
president since Eisenhower has had the misfortune of serving with a
Democratic majority in Congress for at least part of his term, and
usually for the entire duration. The last Republican president to preside
over a Democratic Congress for his entire term was George H. W. Bush.
Under these circumstances, one would expect that a Republican president
would at least make an attempt to block Democratic legislation. But when
some clearly unconstitutional bills passed Congress -- with the help of
Republicans in the House and Senate -- Bush signed them instead of using
his veto power. I am speaking of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the
Clean Air Act, and the Civil Rights Act. And then there is Bush’s
intervention in Iraq in 1991 that laid the foundation for a decade of
brutal sanctions and his son’s full-scale invasion in 2003.
A Republican majority in the House will not mean anything different from
when Republicans held a majority in the Senate under a Republican
president. Throughout Ronald Reagan’s first term, and for the first half
of his second one, the Republicans had a majority in the Senate under a
Republican president. With the most conservative president since Calvin
Coolidge, the repeal of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society seemed within
reach. But not only was this never attempted, the budget increased, the
deficit exploded, the national debt expanded, Sandra Day O’Connor was
installed on the Supreme Court, and Social Security and Medicare tax
rates were raised.
A Republican majority in the House will not mean anything more than
business as usual with a complete Democratic majority. The total
Democratic control of the government, such as that that existed during
the entire tenure of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,
and part of the presidencies of Harry Truman and Bill Clinton violated
the Constitution in a myriad of ways. Yet, many of the increases in
taxes, spending, federal agencies, federal regulations, and assaults on
liberty and property were passed with the help of Republicans at the time
they were supposed to be the opposition party.
The Republican record is a dismal failure. They can neither be trusted
nor taken seriously. The history of the Republican Party is one of
compromise after compromise and sellout after sellout. On the night of
the recent election, Wolf Blitzer of CNN twice asked House Republican
Minority Whip Eric Cantor to name one specific program that the
Republicans in the House are going to cut now that they have a majority.
Cantor twice couldn’t name one.
Republicans have no intention of dismantling the welfare, warfare,
regulatory, interventionist state. Foreign aid will continue. Farm
subsidies will continue. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will
continue. The war on drugs will continue. The U.S. global empire of
troops and bases will remain intact. The occupations of Iraq and
Afghanistan will continue. The destruction of civil liberties because of
the war on terror will continue. The building of a fascist police state
in the name of national security will continue. The Constitution will
continue to be ignored and violated.
Oh, Republicans will have their alibis and excuses. They will claim their
hands are tied because they don’t control the Senate. Then they will
insist that they need a large enough majority in the Senate to avoid a
filibuster. Next will be the cry that they need a veto-proof majority. If
we just had another Republican president, they will say, we could really
do something to reduce the size and scope of government. And then when
they get one the result will be the disastrous presidency of George W.
Bush all over again.
What will a Republican majority in the House mean when it comes to
restoring liberty, strictly following the Constitution, and returning to
the limited government of the Founders? Until Republicans all vote like
Ron Paul, a Republican majority in the House, the Senate, or even the
whole government will mean absolutely nothing.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/5086-what-a-republican-majority-will-not-mean-for-liberty-the-constitution-and-limited-government
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