by Brian Tobin

Created on: May 07, 2008   Last Updated: January 29, 2009

The famous crack that the Republicans campaign on the platform that government doesn't work and then get themselves elected and prove it is all too true. This country cannot stand another Republican in the White House in 2009. A cursory tally of the Bush damage proves the thesis. Bush is gone now; but, finally, shamelessly, Republicans in the House have rejected a massive bail-out of the economy after sheepishly voting to endorse every Bush spending plan which has impoverished the country to the tune of ten and a half trillion dollars over the past eight years.

In democratic politics it is axiomatic that successful administrations must govern from the center. A recent case in point would be the eight years of Bill Clinton during the 1990s. The Republicans since the 1960s have been the party of states' rights,balanced budgets,and free trade. So,Clinton came along and delivered eight years of relative peace and prosperity by practicing states' rights,free trade,and balanced budgets. Governing from the center was the key. Ronald Reagan,for example,did likewise in the 1980s, except for the balanced budgets. And therein lay his fatal flaw. Dick Cheney (maybe the president "in absentia" during the G.W. Bush years) famously remarked that balanced budgets don't matter and Reagan already proved that. Reagan is now the icon of doctrinaire Republicans; but Reagan was well-known and well-respected for reaching out to Democrats and having a famous friendship with House Speaker Tip O'Neill. Reagan too practiced states' rights,free trade,and at least talked balance budgets. Clinton did balance the budget. Governing from the center was again the key to Clinton's eight years of relative peace and prosperity.

A Democrat must now take over in the White House precisely because the Republicans have seemingly lost the ability to govern from the center. Fanaticism rules the Republican party. In domestic policy it is the fanaticism of the religious right to whom the Republicans feel they must pander by advocating violating states'rights in proposing an anti-abortion amendment and cutting off funds for stem-cell research. They have further violated states' rights by supporting a failed "No Child Left Behind" federal mandate for schools. "Homeland Security" has created a police state mentality by the federal government taking over airports and botching disaster relief. In foreign policy the same mentality has led us into an insane war in Iraq because the so-called Republican "neo-cons"

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