Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 12, 1994 TAG: 9410200047
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Washington Democrats and their big-media allies are blaming Republicans for derailing the Clinton administration's left-wing agenda for America. Funny how when Republicans oppose legislation by a Democratic president they are called obstructionists, but when Democrats oppose a Republican president their motives are characterized as pure and principled.
The strategy of blaming Republicans won't work this time around, not only because Democrats have been in the majority in both houses of Congress and control the White House, but because growing numbers of people are realizing that what Ronald Reagan said is true. Government isn't the answer to our problems. Government is the problem.
Retiring Oklahoma Democratic Sen. David Boren said on CNN last weekend that President Clinton is to blame for relying only on Democratic congressional votes to pass his programs. Boren said he repeatedly told the president such a strategy would pull him to the left. ``He campaigned as a moderate,'' said Boren, ``but he has governed as a liberal.'' Boren said he thinks this pattern will continue, further polarizing the country.
During this election season, some desperate Democrats even criticize the religion of their Republican opponents. From Republican Senate candidate Mitt Romney in Massachusetts to Arianna Huffington, wife of GOP Senate candidate Rep. Michael Huffington in California, Democrats are questioning the ``strange'' faiths of those they have been unable to stop by debating issues. Just a decade ago some of these same Democrats were critical of ``biblical scorecards'' and other theological litmus papers, reminding us of the constitutional prohibition against a ``religious test'' for office.
So many in the press, who greased the skids to the White House for Bill Clinton, now seek to divert public attention from their grave mistake of two years ago by trashing Republicans for being ``mean-spirited.'' You see, Republicans are said to be mean-spirited when they stand and fight for their beliefs instead of compromising.
Take, for example, the fulminations of syndicated columnist William Raspberry. He now castigates ``a new level of petty partisanship in our national discourse'' and announces he no longer intends to read most conservative columnists because we are ``worthless, except perhaps to those who want reassurance that their anti-Clinton rage is justified.'' Raspberry says when Republicans were in charge, ``much of the opposition then was principled ... not merely anti-Republican.''
Was Raspberry thinking about civil discourse when he compared Ronald Reagan to Rambo, calling him ``President Ronbo,'' because of his opposition to Nicaragua's communist Sandinistas? Was Raspberry principled or merely on a rampage when he wrote this in 1985 about the Reagan administration's approach to poverty: ``The Reagan approach is: Problem? What problem?''
Was Raspberry trying to promote honest disagreement when he wrote nine years ago, ``By its attitudes, by its appointments and by its actions, the Reagan administration has become the most actively antiblack administration in recent memory.'' Since Raspberry couldn't accept the view that poverty programs have largely failed, he took the easy way out and labeled the Reagan administration racist.
On Dec. 1, 1986, Raspberry again showed his commitment to substantive discussion when he wrote, ``Ronald Reagan is in trouble, and (we might as well own up) some of us are tempted to take a certain fiendish pleasure in the fact.''
So when Raspberry wrote last week, ``The opposition these days isn't ideological or interesting. It's petty, partisan and tiresomely predictable,'' he's ignoring the fact that the reason most Republicans have opposed President Clinton's liberal, big-government approach to issues is because they believe his philosophy about government is wrong - on principle.
We have arrived at that moment referred to by Mr. Lincoln, who noted that you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The revolution is approaching. The cannon fire begins Nov. 8.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB