THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A19 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: KEITH MONROE
LENGTH: 78 lines
Like any good political junkie, I spent the week surfing convention coverage on a half-dozen TV channels. The Republicans got in some good licks at President Clinton, although the party of Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, John Engler and Rush Limbaugh should probably think twice before attacking Clinton's appetite.
Still, the GOP put on a splendid show. Much of its message resonated. I was left with many of the impressions the Republicans hoped to convey, but also with one that they probably didn't intend. Call it an impression of ingratitude.
Speaker after speaker lashed government, which admittedly can be overbearing, intrusive, incompetent and expensive. There's not much disagreement about the need for sweeping reform. Even Democrats now claim to have noticed. Still, the words of King Lear came to mind. ``How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.''
After all, a cursory glance at the resumes of the biggest government bashers suggests that many of them owe much to government. It's well-known, for instance, that Ronald Reagan's family was kept afloat during the Great Depression when his unemployed father was given a government job by the same New Deal that the Gipper later devoted his energies to opposing.
Another familiar tale concerns Bob Dole. As a young government official in Kansas, he had to sign the relief checks for local recipients and found his grandparents among them. On the dole, so to speak. Would he have booted them off if he'd had the power? Some in his party would like nothing better.
It's also worth noting that since 1943, Bob Dole has been a government employee. He's never met a payroll, as they say. And he's not alone. Many of the most-ferocious government downsizers have spent their lives at taxpayer expense. Newt Gingrich and Phil Gramm grew up as military dependents. When Gramm's father died, the family was kept from penury by a government stipend.
Gramm, Gingrich and House Speaker Dick Armey all became college professors before entering politics and undoubtedly were enabled to rise in part due to federal student aid. And most of the time they drew their professorial pay from state-supported schools.
Army Gen. Colin Powell spent his life serving his country, working for its government and cashing its checks. Rep. John Kasich, arch budget-slasher, is a virtual ward of the state. After attending a state school, he's been a government employee since age 26. Perhaps he learned his anti-government zeal at the knee of his father, a lifelong postal worker.
And then there's keynote speaker Susan Molinari, who wants something better than big government for her infant daughter. Yet the Molinaris have been government employees the way others are cobblers or fishmongers. It's the family business. Her grandfather was an assemblyman as long ago as the 1940s. Her father was the congressman from Staten Island until he retired and she took his seat.
Molinari is also married to a member of Congress, Rep. Bill Paxon, who went to work for the government at age 24. Viewers enchanted by shots of their daughter, little Susan Ruby, could rightly feel a sense of shared pride. The baby represents a case of your tax dollars at work.
Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge these men and women or their forebears their government jobs. Similarly, military service is a noble and necessary undertaking. Student aid and state schools have been good for this country. I'm glad a safety net helped save the relatives of Reagan and Dole from even harder times. But you do have to wonder if these folks, who owe much to government, listen to their own speeches as they assault many of the programs they've personally benefited from. Don't they ever feel a twinge at biting the hand that has fed them?
One prominent Republican who owes little to government has been among the least inclined to demonize it. Jack Kemp's father was a self-made businessman and Kemp was a prosperous football hero before turning to politics. He's been critical of government, of course, but he's also been willing to recognize it does some good.
In fact, Kemp has had this to say to his party. ``I humbly suggest that we make it possible for Democrats to give up their quest for redistribution of wealth and income by our acceptance of an appropriate role for government in financing those public goods and services necessary to secure a social safety net below which no American would be allowed to fall.''
His fellow Republicans should listen. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB