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Friday, May 11, 2007
Party of Reagan yet to emerge at the Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Witnessing the train wreck under the Gold Dome, a new realization dawns.
This is not a governing party rooted in the conservatism of Ronald Reagan. It’s the Southern Democratic Party of Joe Frank Harris as realigned by Reagan in 1984. You can’t look at it and expect Reaganism. Within the majority is a promising core of mostly young movement conservatives whose formative years came during his presidency and thereafter. Great things will come. But not yet.
The Democratic Party that ruled Georgia through Joe Frank was essentially conservative, with its spending impulse held in check by debt-fearing Depression-era fiscal conservatives such as former Speaker Tom Murphy and Ways and Means Chairman Marcus Collins, both of whom came in 1961. Well before Murphy actually left, the influence of that breed had faded. In both parties, it’s been replaced by majorities susceptible to the bond lawyers and deal-makers who grow rich by inventing new ways to get government into debt.
That Democratic Party, businesslike and relatively efficient at determining the tax load Georgians would bear, was personality-driven and had no ideological engine — except, perhaps, the transfer of metro Atlanta’s wealth. But in managing the budget and distributing the state’s wealth to its constituent interest groups, it had developed a system that worked. There was a comfortable orderliness to it all. In the good years, the pleaders got cash. In the lean, they got perks — power, job security or future retirement benefits. And in all cases, except when public sentiment dictated otherwise, the pleaders had near veto power over legislation affecting their turf.
When their self-interests clashed — the big and small banks, medical professionals, liquor dealers, cities and counties — the people’s representatives, tempted and nudged by lobbyists in the hall, split the baby.
Ronald Reagan changed the game. Until the early ’80s, about half the South’s white voters considered themselves Democrats. “The 1984 election was the great turning point for white voters in both the South and the North,” write Earl and Merle Black in their latest book, “Divided America.” “Reagan’s realignment of white voters, the most important shift in white partisanship since the New Deal, occurred in the North as well as in the South. The Southern transformation was much more dramatic. …” The Democratic Party in Georgia and nationally began to align leftward.
This GOP, as a governing party, is ideologically indistinguishable from the Joe Frank Harris Democrats. It pays homage to different icons — FDR then, Ronald Reagan now — but mostly like the tourist muttering “como se llama?’ from a phrase book.
During this session’s much-publicized stand-down involving the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker, all invoked some utterance from the conservative phrase book — but often without anything proceeding or following that gave foundation to conservative principle. Some phrases hurled at each other reflected, in fact, the liberal stereotype of conservatives as heartless trolls determined to squeeze pennies out of the meager rations of the vulnerable. When Perdue rescinded his veto of the supplemental budget, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle issued a statement declaring: “Governor Perdue has ensured that the urgent needs of students, kids on PeachCare and communities devastated by natural disaster will not take second place to political posturing.”
In vetoing the supplemental budget in the first place, Perdue averred that it “would lead to furloughs of literacy instructors and prosecutors, stopping cleanup of hazardous waste sites, halting health screening of newborns, letting up on Internet predators, leaving us unprepared for a pandemic flu outbreak and turning a blind eye to meth labs.”
No liberal commentator anywhere in Georgia, nor any interest group of the left, could have more effectively juxtaposed tax cuts and Armageddon or more emotionally framed the case for more government. The Right is making the Left’s arguments, usurping its language.
This is a party adrift, a big tent where an assortment of moderates and conservatives mill about, without unifying principle, aim or agenda.
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Atlanta cops; false victims; barbershops
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s free-for-all Friday. Pick a topic:
• One sentence in a story “Mortgage shakeout squeezes families” explains how far we, journalists, reach to find “victims.” The victims are a Southern California couple wishing to move from a two-bedroom apartment. The sentence: “But because their timing coincided with a shakeout in the mortgage market earlier this year, their credit now isn’t good enough to get a loan to purchase the house they wanted with no money down.” In other words, their bad credit keeps them from getting a 100 percent loan for the “house they wanted” just now.
• When officers assigned to police the cops submit phony reports to justify taking autos home — four internal affairs officers filed identical reports justifying need — it’s hard to have confidence in the Atlanta Police Department’s culture. Or when the police chief’s meticulous records are to make certain he doesn’t give taxpayers a minute more of his time than they are billed for.
• When my band of right-wingers take over, women who weigh more than Rosie O’Donnell will not be allowed to wear miniskirts outside the bedroom. Some things should not be seen in public.
• An Atlanta police spokesman explains why robbers target barbershops. They see them as “cash cows” and easy pickings, said spokesman James Polite. Maybe I was wrong to think that working people wouldn’t vote for a presidential candidate (John Edwards) who spent $400 for a haircut. I have obviously spent my life in the wrong barbershops, nary a one of which would be thought to herd “cash cows.”
• There are some crimes for which parole should not be allowed. Murdering six people, as Carter Arnold Jr. and his partner did, is one of them. After serving 37 years, he’s due to be released next week.
• It’s reported by the Associated Press as a “triumph for the pharmaceutical industry” but it might just as easily been reported as a “triumph for consumer protection.” By a 49-40 vote, the U.S. Senate required the feds to certify the safety of prescription drugs imported in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan and New Zealand. Imported drugs can be cheaper, hence the “triumph for the pharmaceutical industry” slant. Yet, as noted by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), both Republican and Democratic administrations have declined to certify safety.
• Of course, if we want really cheap drugs, we can always follow the example of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who effectively seized Merck & Co.’s patent for the AIDS drug efavirenz and announced plans for an inexpensive generic version. Merck had offered the drug at a 30 percent discount. We could, as Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela, nationalize everything we see. Oil first and now he threatens banks and steel.
• One marvelous feature of the Senate drug bill, which passed 93-1, is to double the number of FDA researchers studying drug side effects. Another is to create a computerized network to scan insurance and pharmacy records for indicators of problems with new drugs. House action awaits.
• Hint to all: Jane Fonda’s getting a bit over-exposed. I’d put her mug in the panda file. With Ralph, the whale shark.
• Having used the line-item veto to kill the $142 million tax rebate, thus drawing the ire of fiscal conservatives, Gov. Sonny Perdue should now veto everything that oinks. If he starts singling out House bills or House pork for veto, there’ll be lasting consequence, one of which is that somebody from outside the Gold Dome will be the next governor. The Big Three will chew themselves up. I’d bet on U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, if he wants to come home in 2010, or U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, the likely favorite of fiscal conservatives.
• Somebody’s still counting sports teams, in baseball anyway, by skin color. Jesse Jackson’s crew. Atlanta Braves. I’d relate more, but it’s simply too boring.
• The president trusts an aide to tote the code to launch nuclear missiles, but the queen totes her own pocketbook. The precaution was not necessary. When we accuse Washington politicians of pilfering the public purse, we are speaking of pork, not the queen’s pocketbook.
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