Six Republican Myths

The Republican Party has won 7 of the last 10 presidential elections due to a consistent message which has crafted a winning reputation in the public mind. But that message is more mythology than reality, slick packaging with shoddy merchandise inside. Here are six of the most prominent of these myths.

Myth #1: Republicans are for small government. This is demonstrably false. The federal government grew substantially under Reagan, the elder Bush and the current Bush. Republicans are for smaller government only when it pertains to things they don't like. For instance they have time and again fought to cut Social Security, health care, public schools, environmental and worker protection, veterans benefits, and programs in general that help everyday people. They consistently expand government for things they do like. This includes such things as prisons, the military, corporate welfare, immigration enforcement, private schooling, religious organizations, spying on citizens and attempts to control people's sexual behavior and choices.

Myth #2: Republicans are prudent fiscal managers. The record shows precisely the opposite. Republican Administrations have been the most fiscally irresponsible in American history. The deficit Reagan inherited from Carter's last year was $59 billion. He increased it to $200 billion. The first Bush increased it to $300 billion. After the Democrat Clinton achieved a $230 billion surplus, the second Bush turned that back around to $480 billion in red ink. This happens because Republicans do not feel they need to collect taxes to pay for all the expensive initiatvies they undertake. Instead, they borrow. Over 70% of the entire $10 trillion in national debt amassed since the inception of the country was compiled in just the last three Republican administrations.

Myth #3: Republicans are better on national security. After Iraq, this contention would be laughable were it not for the thousands killed uselessly in an unnecessary war. The national security of the United States was not furthered when only a half- hearted effort was mounted to eliminate the enemies who attacked us on 9-11. The national security of the United States was not furthered when America broke its longstanding tradition, initiated a war and exhausted its army fighting against a nation that posed no threat. Ignoring sound military advice, the Republican president and his congressional majorities then persisted in following a failing strategy for four years before finally changing. The 9-11 Commission's recommendations on terrorism were not followed or funded until Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.

Nor was the nation's security enhanced by denigrating allies and treating them with contempt, thus losing their support. Arousing the world against us through unilateralism does not make us safer. Resorting to posturing and saber-rattling rather than opening negotiations with rival states only ensures their continued enmity. Engaging in torture against suspected enemies does little but multiply those enemies and increase their determination against us. Hiring a horde of private contractors at 7 times the pay of our soldiers damages morale, wastes our defense dollars and leaves our actual armed forces less prepared. Refusing to encourage alternative energy to break our dependence on some of the most odious, unstable, and in some cases, even hostile nations is another way Republican policies have made us less secure. In a host of ways, the basic defense posture of this party makes us less safe, not more.

Myth #4: Republicans are better for business. Republicans have proven better only for big business, whose profits are up 85%, and for millionaires and billionaires, whose ranks have quadrupled. For small business and the rest of the economy, their policies have been failing since 1980. The typical standard of living has not improved in over 30 years other than the 1990s during a Democratic Administration. The stock market gained 8,000 points that decade, but has been flat for the past eight years. The wealthiest 5% of Americans have the greatest proportion of the national wealth since the verge of the Great Depression, when figures were first kept.

Myth 5: Republicans believe in free enterprise. Basing policy on handing out no-bid, unaccountable, cost-plus contracts to favored corporations is not free enterprise. Devising energy, water, highway and commercial policy based on secret meetings with industry representatives, and allowing lobbyists to write preferential regulatory and tax legislation in exchange for hiring party staffers and making campaign contributions is hardly free enterprise. These practices are instead among the defining characteristics of fascism.

Myth #6: Republicans stand for freedom. Not lately, they don't. By suspending habeas corpus, the basis of legal freedoms in Western Civilization for 800 years, refusing to testify before congress, initiating unwarranted surveillance of citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the FISA law, similarly violating the ban on torture and turning suspects over to nations to torture for us, refusing to provide documents for congressional investigations and stifling scientific reports that disagree with their preconceived ideologies, the current Republican Administration and its loyal supporters in congress have shown the greatest contempt for the real freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. This short list is but the tip of the iceberg, as anyone who has kept informed well knows.

If you can be spied on without probable cause, arrested without charges, held without trial and tortured until you confess, how free are you? The fact that such practices exist in the United States of America and are tolerated for one day throws into stark relief the tenuous nature of liberties and the ease with which a government that appeals to fear can take them away.