I have been surprised by many of the Republicans’ newly discovered passions.
Take for example their newfound passion against parliamentary procedures they themselves have generously practiced in the past, such as reconciliation, “deem and pass,” etc.
Or their newfound passion to zealously and liberally use parliamentary tactics they have roundly condemned in the past, such as serial filibusters, holds, blocking of legislation and nominations and proposing endless amendments.
Granted, these are the prerogatives and defense mechanisms that come and go with the ebb and flow of political power in our democracy and which have been practiced by both parties.
However, would it be asking too much for the party exhibiting such passions to be a little more circumspect, a little less in-your-face about it?
— To every so often allow a couple of its members to vote their conscience and not the party line?
— To occasionally give credit where credit is due?
— To be the “Party of Yes” once-in-a-while?
— To suggest alternative legislation?
— To give bipartisanship a chance?
— To give compromise a try?
— To actually legislate?
Unbridled passions were clearly evident during the recent health care debate and legislative process, a bitter contest that saw its highpoint (or low point) in the House of Representatives when the bill passed among much rancor and without a single Republican vote.
Unbridled passions were also alive and well outside of Congress: at Tea Parties, at town hall meetings, at many other “kill the bill” gatherings and demonstrations. They culminated on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on the day when the final debate, and voting, on the health care legislation was taking place inside. When angry activists hurled racist and anti-gay epithets at several Democratic legislators and when one black legislator may have been spat upon.
On that day, the passions ignited by the Republican Party finally came full circle and re-connected with House Republicans cheering and firing up the crowds from offices and balconies of the Capitol.
To be fair, both parties have turned a blind eye to—even encouraged—demonstrations, protests and unsavory activism by their members against legislation or causes the parties oppose. We all remember the massive and sometimes violent anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam War and the vocal and widespread opposition to the Bush administration’s Iraq war.
But there comes a time when the double standard—the political hypocrisy—becomes too brazen to ignore, too overplayed to claim that “the other party does it, too.”
One of the Republican rallying cries against health care reform has unfailingly been that the legislation is being “rammed down the throats of the American people.”
To validate their claim, Republicans have passionately embraced something they abhorred and ridiculed in the past: public opinion polls.
To hawk that a majority of Americans oppose health care reform, Republicans have publicized the raw numbers of polls—which indeed reflect a varying range of opposition—without mentioning several important factors.
For example:
— The fact that polling results depend significantly on what is asked and how it’s asked.
— The fact that majorities of Americans do like specific, key provisions of the health care legislation while they may oppose the whole “package.” For example, a February, 2010, ABC/Post poll found that 80 percent of Americans favored banning limits on pre-existing conditions and 72 percent liked the idea of an employer mandate. Republicans emphasize data points related to “government control and involvement,” possible impact on quality of care, and cost.
— The fact that a significant number of people who express opposition to the health care legislation do so because it is not “liberal enough,” because it does not include, for example, the “Public Option.” On a question in a March 22, CNN poll, a majority of Americans (52%) either supported the health care plan or believed it should be more liberal.
Finally, we must not forget the disingenuous yet very effective misinformation and scaremongering campaign run by Republicans.
Of all new-professed Republican passions, their sudden heads-over-heels love for polls, their startling urge to obtain the “consent of the governed,” seem to be the most uncharacteristic, the most philosophically inconsistent given their past disdain for public opinion.
Just look at George W. Bush’s presidency: his assumed mandate to do not what was popular, but what he thought was right, what his principles—and religion—told him to do, damn the polls, damn public opinion.
The Bush administration’s disdain—some will say contempt—for public opinion was exhibited “best” with the Iraq War, a war to which Bush continued to commit our blood and treasure notwithstanding tremendous public opposition.
While Bush himself has implicitly or explicitly expressed his disregard for public opinion, no one did such more contemptuously than his vice president.
In an April, 2008 interview, Cheney was asked what he thought about polls that indicated two-thirds of Americans believed the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, that the cost in lives was not worth the gains.
Cheney replied with one single word.
“So?” the vice president said.
When pressed by the reporter whether he cared about the opinion of the American people, instead of bristling at the suggestion, Dick Cheney tried to emend his response by saying “I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid!
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.