I missĀ Jacob Javits, Everett Dirksen, Nelson Rockefeller, Charles Percy, Mark Hatfield, Howard BakerĀ and even Ronald Reagan.
I miss the old-guard Republicans who used to see their political opponents as “adversaries” and not “enemies.”
These are the guys who used to work with Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Sam Rayburn and other Democrats to seek a way forward for the nation.
These days we hear talk of doing away with the “enemy.” It’s all over the air and in print coming out of the Republican National Convention, which concludes tonight in Cleveland.
Where did this “enemy” talk come from?
I cannot answer that with great precision, although I do remember a quote attributed to the former speaker of the House, Newton Leroy Gingrich, who led a GOP “revolution” back in 1994.
It was Newt who spoke to his minions of the need to characterize Democrats as “the enemy of normal Americans.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
There. Now let’s ponder whether the “enemy” characterization has worked well for the nation.
A New Hampshire delegate to the GOP convention has said Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton should be “shot for treason.”
Yes. Shot! The Secret Service is examining whether this fellow presents a clear and present danger to a leading American politician. Clinton hasn’t been charged with a crime, let along convicted of one. That doesn’t matter to this fellow.
Yes, we’ve gotten more than a bit testy these days.
To think that this once-great political party, where politicians used to take pride in their ability to work with the other side, has devolved to this point.
Is the other side innocent of this kind of division? No. They, too, have their share of loudmouthed demagogues. But in the halls of Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, we see the majority party using language that seeks to drive a wedge between men and women on both sides of the aisle.
It’s all coming to bear this week in Cleveland and the Grand Old Party sends its nominee off to campaign against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
I’m usually not one to harken back to the old days. I wouldn’t want to be a teenager ever again.
In this instance, though, I am left to wish for a return — in the words of another grand old-school Republican, George H.W. Bush — to a “kinder, gentler” time.