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Remember
Reagan’s second term? Remember that “trickle-down”
economic theory? Simplistically, we were told that if
the government enacted programs that benefited the wealthy,
the wealthy would in turn “trickle down” their
largesse to the middle class; more businesses would
expand, more jobs would be created, and everyone would
benefit.
I
bought into that theory. Card-carrying Democrat that
I am, I decided maybe it was time to listen to rich
conservatives. “What the hell,” I said, “The
important thing is jobs, and if giving tax incentives
and other economic breaks to big business results in
benefits for everybody, who am I to fault the plan?
So what if the rich get richer? They can’t get
any snobbier and exclusionary than they are, can they?”
Every
time I try to compromise my liberal ethic, every time
I listen to the economic doubletalk of somebody living
on a fake farm in Somerset County, I get burned big
time. Reagan got my vote, we got trickle-down, and the
only problem was the money for the middle class somehow
disappeared. The business “expansion” turned
out to be Caribbean resorts and cruise lines, and the
jobs became entry-level burger flippers for fast-food
consortiums. Franchises that were once a great opportunity
for the middle class to get a leg up into the Hamptons
have now become the purview of stock brokers and bankers.
McDonald’s is one of the few successful franchise
operations that still cater to individuals (not partnerships
and passive investors), but the average franchise buy-in
starts at $175,000! Trickle down, indeed. Money just
went from one pocket to another in the same pair of
trousers.
But
I digress. The real reason for this column is to point
out an essential difference between Republicans and
Democrats. Democrats like the two-party system.
They think of elections as honorable combat; sometimes
they even listen to the opposition, and on rare occasion
compromise in their favor. Republicans, on the other
hand, appear to want all Democrats dead. In my own little
mini survey, I have found several dozen Democrats who,
at one time or another, voted for a Republican—Tom
Kean, Millicent Fenwick, Rodney Frelinghuysen come to
mind—but not a single one of my GOP friends (yes,
I do have some!) will admit to ever having cast a Democratic
vote. Ever. Compromise with liberals is just not in
their play book.
Take
George W. for example. Here’s a guy the GOP elected
with a minority of the popular vote; you’d think
common sense would dictate some kind of amicable coming
together, some attempt at bi-partisan government, but
after a few words in that direction the Bush Administration
has marched to the right as if it had a landslide mandate,
and it’s using the war on terrorism as an axe to
cut off any criticism.
I
never learn. Like Reagan’s second term, I listened
to W’s inaugural address, and he seemed to make
sense. “I’m gonna give this guy a chance,”
I said. I tried to make sense out of oil drilling in
the Arctic, I tried to see Enron as just some fluke,
but last week I gave up on the guy. When he refused
to acknowledge a global warming report—and a lukewarm
report at that—by the EPA, he showed just what
an inferior education can foster. Up until the Industrial
Revolution, the most toxic gas emitted on Earth came
from sheep, but since the 1800s we have fouled our atmosphere
at an exponential rate. Anyone who thinks 200 years
of non-stop aerial bombardment of the atmosphere is
not worthy of a front burner on the governmental stove
just shouldn’t be in the kitchen. Harry Truman
was right. The next time I start to think a Republican
has a good idea, that they have something in mind besides
their own account balances, somebody please kick me.
June
6, 2002
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