ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260095
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HENRY W. TIELEMAN
SPEAKERS AT the recent GOP convention did not present much of a positive image. Instead they engaged in inaccurate, nasty and personal attacks on President Clinton and his highly successful economic and social record, which they would love to refer to as their own.
Moreover, the Republicans, with their control over the House and Senate, substantiated by their party platform, are taking this country down a path that leads to increased poverty, dismantling of education programs and a total reversal of our social values.
Presidential candidate Bob Dole has long developed this radical thread of life, voting against Head Start, Medicare, guaranteed student loans, minimum-wage increase, Medical Leave Act, etc. Only last year he pronounced proudly his opposition to Medicare, saying, "I was there fighting the fight, one of 12 voting against Medicare in 1965, because we knew it would not work. "
The GOP and its candidate are desperate to cultivate the image of party unity, demonstrated by its four-day infomercial. However, not everything has the smell of roses and moonshine in the Grand Old Party. The biggest dispute in the Republican camp is the animosity between Dole's entourage and the right-wing reactionaries.
Dole may be the nominee of the GOP, but in reality he has been seduced by the reactionary right under the direction of the two Pats. Scared to death that Pat Buchanan was threatening to walk out of the convention and start a reactionary party of his own, Dole gave Pat and his right-wing cronies everything he wanted: an anti-choice platform, an anti-choice running mate, and a program for school vouchers. Looking at the final GOP platform, it is a mirror image of the Buchanan blueprint that he called "Charter for Victory."
Dole's biggest cave-in was on the abortion clause in the GOP platform. Originally Dole said his decision to add a tolerance clause to the platform was "not negotiable. It is going to be in the plank." However, to appease the Christian right, the tolerance clause was removed from the plank, clearly demonstrating Dole's lack of credibility.
Also, to keep the fiscal conservatives at bay, big-money interests pressed Dole to adopt the $550 billion tax bribe. He eventually capitulated and, to the astonishment of the pundits and electrifying the convention delegates, he suddenly picked onetime rival and champion supply-sider Jack Kemp as his running mate.
Publishing magnate Steve Forbes may have lost the political battle during the primaries, but it seems that he won the tax-cut war.
While Dole has stopped short of endorsing Forbes' flat-tax proposal, which he referred to during the primaries as "snake oil," the former Senate leader has called for budget-busting tax relief benefiting primarily high-income and corporate America. To justify his sudden shift from deficit hawk to supply-sider, Dole said: "I would not propose the economic package had I not been certain we could achieve it without [hurting] Social Security, without hurting Medicare."
Bob Dole has accepted an extreme platform and put forward risky and reckless economic and social plans. These plans will explode the deficit, cut Medicare by $270 billion, scuttle environmental protection, slash education by cutting health-care for children and cutting student loans, dilute safety in our neighborhoods by repealing the Brady Bill and eliminating 100,000 police officers on the beat, and eliminate a woman's right to choose.
The United States is a country that cares and uses its resources not only to aid the well-to-do but also to help the poor and the disadvantaged to lead productive lives. The American people want a president who can solve their problems who understands the need to stop the right-wing, negative and anti-people agenda the Republicans have adopted.
The GOP candidate not only embraces that agenda, but by doing so he is willing to compromise his principles and accept what he knows is wrong for this country in an attempt to gain the presidency.
Henry W. Tieleman of Riner is a delegate to the Democratic Convention.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB