This is what they brag about? By Curt Andersen News-Chronicle I’ve recently read a column or two stating that Democrats need to “define themselves;” that no one knows what they stand for. I was taken aback by this. Apparently, when things are going well for a while, enough people assume that this is the way it has always been, or maybe they think that they have gotten where they are on their own tremendous talent and industry. It’s time to get over both ideas. Last summer, a BookTV panel discussion with Molly Ivins, Al Franken, and Bill O’Reilly turned into a spitting contest as O’Reilly lost his temper because of Al Franken’s charge that O’Reilly lied about winning two prestigious Peabody Awards. (O’Reilly did NOT win the Peabody Awards.) I have never watched O’Reilly’s show, but it does have a reputation for beating up on liberals. Nothing new here. O’Reilly’s behavior on the BookTV show was a cross between the Tasmanian Devil of cartoon fame and some snarling inbred puppies that I once came upon. His rudeness is an indication that parental training in good manners did not “take.” In a separate earlier interview in the BookTV show, O’Reilly told the interviewer that his show was different because he didn’t “use name-calling, like Rush Limbaugh.” A caller then asked O’Reilly a question and O’Reilly immediately called him a “pinhead.” Ironic. During the BookTV discussion, Franken commented about that old, worn-out, rightwing saw that Social Security is a bad system. Franken told how his wife’s father died when she was a teenager, and how that “bad system” saved her family. Her mother did not lose the house she and her late husband had purchased some years before, and she did not have to join the work force as a peon to keep the family going, while leaving the kids with a sitter. That got me to thinking about the neighborhood I grew up in during the 1950’s. On just the two sides of our street, there were four families in which the father had died when the kids were adolescents, and one of those fatherless kids also lost his mother when he was twelve. In those four families, there were 16 kids who would certainly not have thrived without the Social Security benefits that allowed the families to stay in their homes, and in many of those cases, allowed the kids to get college educations. If we add the older widows and two handicapped men (one by polio and one by Multiple Sclerosis) to the list of younger widows in my neighborhood, the number saved by Social Security goes from four households to twelve. That a family does not lose its home when the breadwinner dies young is taken for granted today, but it used to be that a family tossed onto the rocks of ill fortune was doomed to suffer. In the past, widowed women were left to the whims of already destitute or uncaring relatives, con artists, or controlling landlords. Some were forced into prostitution, others into sweat shops. Sometimes the homestead was taken by unscrupulous bankers…a nice source of income for the indolent pseudo-upper crust of the time. The 30-year long massive assault on liberals has poisoned the minds of many who thrive under the liberal reforms of the last 120 years. Conservatives have been referring to the “tax and spend Democrats” for so long that even some Democrats believe it. Even now that we have wild-eyed spending by the Bush Administration, Republicans see risky and expensive military actions as “justified.” At least when Democrats spent, the money was used for improvements to infrastructure and education, and not burned up in a frenzy of false Christianity in munitions that blast infidel foreigners into smithereens. If you want to see what Democrats are all about, look back to the 1960’s and 1970’s. Back then parents could assume their children would, by and large, surpass what the parents had achieved. That was before the pendulum began to swing back. Some of the gains made then are still enjoyed by many people today, even if the benefits are falsely assumed to be a direct anointing by God Himself. White collar workers look down their noses at blue collar workers, even though every time the blue collar workers got an increase in pay or benefits, the white collar folks got that and more…and not even a thank-you card! Bad thinking and bad manners. Look back to those benefits on the job, including increased pay, vacation pay, sick pay, protected pensions, workplace safety, protections from sexual harassment, maternity leave, the 8-hour day, the 5-day work week, overtime pay, health and dental insurance, women’s suffrage, the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Civil Rights Act, the Endangered Species Act, EPA, OSHA, NASA, the Public Service Commission (when not run by Tommy Thompson, Scott McCallum or Jim Doyle), a regulated stock market (but not yet regulated enough), and so forth. This is what Liberals stand for…a level playing field. Look back as Conservatives pick away at it like vultures defiling a corpse. Look at what Conservatives have on their scorecard: they sided with the English during our Revolutionary War; they supported slavery; they continue to use racism, class warfare, bigotry, homophobia, and religious zealotry to divide and conquer our economy; they resisted women’s right to vote; resisted allowing Indians, Chinese, and blacks to vote; they continue to support automobile manufacturers in their never ending campaign to avoid making fuel-efficient cars while selling more gas guzzlers as our troops die on the battlefield, all the while moving towards rampant corporate control of nearly every aspect of life. This is what they brag about? Andersen is a lifelong resident of the Green Bay area and a Navy veteran. He owns a small business and is an adjunct instructor at NWTC. He is vice president of the Clean Water Action Council. His column runs Wednesdays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected]