Who are the Republicans?

1. First, there are those who say they are Republicans because they are for fiscal responsibility (and some add are moderate on social issues).

This is theoretically the best reason for being a Republican or voting for them. Except it is totally wrong. The single most irresponsible fiscal action took place in 1981, when Reagan cut taxes, mainly for the well-to-do. It was not done to counter the recession, which was yet to come. (And it did little to counter that recession—it was all left to Volcker who raised interest rates to the skies to stop inflation (17-18% mortgage rates and a prime rate that briefly reached 21½ %. These increases eventually brought inflation down from its double digits to a relatively low level. But because astronomical interest rates—and there seemed to be no alternative—led to double digit unemployment, Volcker was rewarded for his efforts by being fired (that is, not being reappointed)!

Reagan’s tax cut, which was not appropriate as a stimulus, was the single most irresponsible fiscal action of any post-war (WWII) president. Occurring at a time of great inflation--just when you should not be cutting taxes--it quadrupled the national debt from $1 trillion to $4 trillion over the eight Reagan years. The second most irresponsible fiscal act was George W Bush’s tax cut in 2001, originally designed to reduce the fiscal surplus which was being used to reduce our national debt—Bush and Alan Greenspan, for reasons never made clear, agreed we should not be reducing our national debt. Then later, in 2001, Bush argued for his cut as a fiscal stimulus. As a stimulus, it was a failure since far too much went into the pockets of the rich who did not spend it. The result: not only an eradication of our fiscal surplus but a huge increase in our national debt. Republicans are NOT the party of fiscal responsibility and those who say they are voting for them for this reason either are (willfully?) ignorant or they have other hidden reasons.

2. Some are Republicans because they are outright racists, although this is not true of the few Republicans I happen to know. In Bob Herbert’s column, as I write this on 9/19/09, he mentions an aide to a Republican state senator in Tennessee showing dignified portraits of the first 43 presidents, then one of Obama “as a spook, a cartoonish pair of white eyes against a black background.” Or a longtime GOP activist referring to a gorilla, which escaped from a Columbia S.C. zoo, “as one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors.” Or dear old Glenn Beck assuring us that Obama” has a deep-seated hatred for white people.” And so on.

3. Arguments lurking near, explaining why some are Republicans, include those who hate Hispanics or immigrants or Muslims or possibly Jews (help me--add to the list.)

4. Perhaps, a semi-legitimate reason to be a Republican is that Democrats, in general, are for abortion. (But so are many Republicans, including their politicians, or they used to be, until they knew they had to face sectarian primary opponents.) The argument is based on a belief I do not share—that abortion is murder. But, c’mon, abortion is just one issue and probably more people die because of Republican opposition to a reasonable health plan which should outweigh this issue, unless somehow abortion is more immoral, in some way—what other way would that be?—than someone who dies because they can’t get medical treatment. And we won’t go into the millions who have died in Iraq because George W. Bush lied us into that war—the non-existent WMD and the nonexistent ties of Saddam with Osama. Probably, even if you included all those aborted as people murdered, which I strenuously disagree with, a case may exist that Republican rule has lead to more deaths. Voting and being Republican because of abortion seems to me a weak reed.

5. Let’s lump together, then, a lot of other nonsense arguments: Democrats are Socialists. Democrats are Fascists! Democrats are for big cities. Democrats are against gun control. Democrats are too intellectual—they’re favored on campuses. One could go on endlessly, but in short all of these are emotional reasons camouflaging real issues (including the hate issues, under 3)

6. Democrats ARE more pro-labor than Republicans. This is true. But I think what’s more important is that Republicans are pro-big-business, either because they ARE big-business or because people admire the rich for some crazy reason. They think the rich made us into a great nation, even as they now offshore their manufacturing jobs, offshore their incomes to avoid taxes, oppose health and other reforms and treat the needs of the poor and middle class despicably.

7. But related to this, and very important, is the view that government is the problem, as Reagan expressed it, and Democrats always seek to expand it (which they don’t). But while government does dumb things and often is inefficient, often it is ultimately our savior. Without the super-dooper actions of the Fed, we’d be in the 2nd Great Depression. Without the stimulus, we’d also be in the 2nd Great Depression, although it is much weaker than it could have been because Barrack Obama tried too hard to make it bi-partisan, when the numbers of Republicans in national office, who are possibly bi-partisan, mostly or totally live in Maine. And meanwhile ignorance is astounding: “keep the government out of my Medicare”! Or “had Stephen Hawking lived in England he would have died,” (except that’s where he does live)! And everyone wants federal tornado relief and hurricane relief. And big business wants farm supports. And more money is always needed for “defense” and foreign adventures. In fact, I think it an almost iron-cast truism that most people want government for many things, but they just don’t want to pay for it.

A side excursion are the libertarians and Ayn Rand-ists. They think everyone is responsible for his or her own condition, bar none. If you’re poor, it’s your own fault. If you’re rich—even if you inherited it all—you deserve it. If you’re unemployed, it’s also your own fault. (Actually, a few Republican economists literally believe there is no unemployment. What we have is more people just choosing not to work. I’m serious. See, on this, Paul Krugman’s recent article in the New York Times Magazine, September 6, 2009, ”How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?,” criticizing an important wing of macro-economics—it’s an eye opener. Also, check Brad DeLong’s blog—he’s a distinguished Berkeley economist.) I suppose Rand-ists might vote Republican as a lesser evil, but I think Republican religiosity would drive most Rand-ists crazy. Personally, I think they’re crazy to begin with!

8. I guess fervid religious belief deserves a separate number. To the extent that one party is closer to being “creationists,” it’s the Republican Party. At least, it tries to act as though they are more appropriately religious. But who knows? It seems there are an awful lot of them conducting extra-marital affairs (or gay affairs), even as they publicly condemn what they themselves are doing. Whether Republicans are legitimately more religious is, I think, an open question. Of course, to the extent they are, it makes me ever more Democratic. I don’t want to live in a Christianized America and it’s possible, if it ever went that far, I wouldn’t be allowed to stay here. But maybe these are unreasonable fears, but ones you inevitably feel after listening to some of the religious fundamentalists.

9. Perhaps people are (and vote) Republican because they believe in more aggressive foreign policies. If so, it would seem they have learned nothing from Vietnam and Iraq. I believe Obama is pursuing the Afghanistan War with such force out of a fear that if he doesn’t he will be perceived as weak in the foreign policy realm. Whatever the appearances, however, unless there is a significant diminishment of the Afghanistan commitment, what is shaping up is a political catastrophe. But this is hardly a reason to vote Republican, or be one, in that Republicans began the Afghanistan adventure and no doubt McCain or any other Republican president would be doing pretty much what Obama is doing, if not worse.

9. There are, I’m sure, other reasons why people are Republicans, but probably the most important is simply tradition. Born Republican, remain Republican. I have a friend whose mother was Republican but she loved the Democratic governor of Connecticut, Ella Grasso. But love cannot transcend tradition. She simply could not vote for a Democrat.

My spouse’s mother is a moderate and by Arkansas standards not a racist. But she can only vote for (what are often racist) Republicans, since that’s the way she was brought up. I find this sad. I wish thought and logic and knowledge played a larger role in America in general and its politics in particular. But, alas, people do not behave as informed citizens, to employ a phrase often used but seldom realized. In short, many Republicans vote Republican simply because they were brought up that way. (I’m sure the same is true of Democrats, although frankly I think Democratic voters can find many more reasons to justify their Democratic votes than Republicans can find to justify their Republican votes.
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Personal Addenda: my father voted for Dewey, one of the only Jews I knew of who did so, although his reasons were not clear. (We were lower middle class—I didn’t learn my tennis at the country club, which many of my friends and opponents did!) My mother voted Democratic in general and for Roosevelt in particular, since that was the Jewish thing to do (and to a considerable degree, still is.) I voted for third parties during my radical phase, but finally (influenced by my spouse at the time) held my nose and voted for Carter because I really didn’t want to see Reagan elected. I once voted for someone I now consider a civil liberties menace, Rudy Giuliani, since I thought Dinkins was so incompetent. That was a major mistake—Giuliani is a dangerous man, although as mayor his harm was limited. And besides, Dinkins did one thing that makes him forever a hero in my eyes. He diverted planes from LaGuardia away from the tennis center so that the games during the Open can be played in peace.