Republicans: The Party of Less Government - NOT!
Many of my conservative friends are of the opinion that the Republicans stand for smaller, less intrusive government. They think that if it were not for those damn Democrats, taxes would be low, business would flourish, and we would live in a much freer nation.
I used to believe this myself. I knew the Republicans were not perfect, but they had to be better than the socialist Democrats! However, the complete failure of the Republicans to actually reduce the size of government after their capture of Congress in 1994 made me realize they are all talk and no action.
A while back a fellow Libertarian, Scott Kjar, posted a very good article about the Republicans in response to another posting on the Libertarian Party of Alabama mailing list. I've included the original post and Scott's response below with permision:
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Message text written by INTERNET:lpa-discuss@al.lp.org
"Hello,
Mike, it seems that the word republican is a bad thing. Although the republican party has forgotten what they are supposed to do in Washington, they have always been better for America then the socialist democrats. "
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This shows an odd lack of understanding of the Republican Party throughout history.
When Abe Lincoln was elected President as the first Republican, he did so on a platform of high tariffs, inflation, protectionism, wealth transfer, xenophobia, and centralized federal government. Of course, there was also that whole war thing.... (His predecessor, Democrat James Buchanan, believed that as bad as losing the Union was, a war would be worse. The warlike Republicans clearly disagreed with the anti-war Democrats.)
As we look at the Republicans who followed him (Andrew Johnson, U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Warren G Harding, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush), we see that despite whatever rhetoric they may have employed, they have ALWAYS been for the same things.
"Read my lips, America. No new taxes." Lest y'all forgot, that line was by the most recent Republican President, George Bush. He raised our taxes, increased our regulation, engaged in monetary inflation, passed protectionist legislation, waved the flag against foreigners, stepped up the war on drugs, and increased the size and scope of government. Yep, George Bush is certainly a member of the Party of Abe Lincoln.
Going back a little farther, I hope that we can all remember that it was that staunch Republican Richard Nixon who gave us Wage and Price Controls. Yep, not the Democrats, it was Nixon. No Democrat in history -- not even Bill and Hillary Clinton -- could have gotten away with such a blatantly fascist proposal, but with the Republicans, it was possible to effectively nationalize every single industry in the entire nation at one stroke. This was FAR MORE ODIOUS than Hillary's attempt to nationalize health care. Nixon nationalized EVERYTHING! It was the Democrats in Congress who made him un-do this activity -- the Republicans had become too socialist even for the Democrats!
Of course, Nixon was the Republican President who completed Lincoln's dream of getting the U.S. off of the gold standard completely. While Lincoln issued paper money and argued for the elimination of gold backing from the U.S. dollar, it was Nixon who eventually succeeded. That's right, boys and girls, there was Gold "officially" (although not "practically") backing the U.S. dollar until Nixon severed the link in 1971! Our current monetary system is less than 30 years old.
When we go back to Hoover, we realize that it was his protectionism and federal meddling that exacerbated the problems that led to the Great Depression. He was defeated by Franklin Roosevelt because Roosevelt campaigned on a platform of ENDING the Republican interventions in the economy. It was only the fact that Roosevelt was a liar (gasp!) that led him to become more of a Republican than his Republican predecessor. It was at that time that the Democrats gave up their free market, hard-money, small government views and became the Republican-type Democrats that we see today.
As for such protectionists and imperialists as William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, very little need be said, since everyone knows how bad they were. (Remember the Spanish-American War? It turned the U.S. -- a small friendly free-trading nation -- into its opponent, Spain -- a global imperialist military-industrial complex. Thanks, Republicans!)
Going back to Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant, every Southernor knows the stories of the war and of reconstruction, and they need not be repeated here.
So what was the claim? The Republicans are better than the Democrats? What kind of warped fantasy is that?
Give me the Democrats every day. At least they are honest when they say "New Taxes!" The Republicans tell us "No New Taxes" but they lie about it.
The Democrats are just thieves. The Republicans are thieves and liars.