Lyon supporter claims Reagan "destroyed" the GOP

Those of a certain age (GOP primary voters?) may remember the movie "Wild in the Streets."  The soundtrack from the 1968 cult classic included "Shape of Things to Come" and other hits.

The movie covers the events leading up to and after the election of a 25-years-old Republican as President of the United States.  He embarks on a campaign of intergenerational warfare that transforms America into "the most truly hedonistic society the world has ever known."

"Wild in the Streets" came to mind after reading an opinion piece by yet another Morris County YR.  This one has turned his personal Facebook page into a homage to Freeholder Hank Lyon, a candidate for Assembly in legislative district 26. 

The title of the young man's column was:  " Why Reagan Destroyed the Republican Party."  Yep, you read that right.  We kid you not.

First of all, for anyone with sensory perception, the Republican Party is not "destroyed."  It controls the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.  There are 33 Republican Governors to 16 Democrats and one Independent.  As for State Legislatures, the map below illustrates how tilted to the GOP that is:

Destroyed???  Is this strange perception due to this young man coming from a state like New Jersey?

Perhaps.  But we believe that what is at work here has more to do with age.  The young man who wrote this did not live in that time before Reagan, when the Democrat congressional softball team was called "The Permanent Majority."  After Reagan, that boast would never be heard again.

And thanks to President Ronald Reagan, that young man was born into a world in which the Soviet Union was a memory, not a menace.  That's not the case for most Republican primary voters.  For them, the Soviet Union was a very real psychological disturbance, always in the background, hovering, waiting.  The civil defense drills and the threat of nuclear war, was something to be absorbed and then compartmentalized, away from daily life but always someplace there.

The 1950's...

The 1960's...

The 1970's...

The 1980's...

Today's young Republicans never experienced any of that, because Ronald Reagan beat the Soviet Union, destroying their economy along with their ideology, and doing it so thoroughly that even "Red" China went capitalist.  Reagan's greatness is assured because he kept his most important promise -- to leave Marxism/Leninism on the "ash heap of history" -- and he did so without it costing a million American lives.

The young Hank Lyon supporter's indictment against Ronald Reagan is that the President did not sufficiently rein in spending.  Lyon's supporter appears to forget what President Reagan was spending that money on:  The largest peacetime military buildup in history, whose goal it was to overtax the Soviet economy into oblivion.  With the alternative a nuclear exchange, it was money well spent.

To write a critique of Ronald Reagan's presidency without mentioning the Cold War or the Soviet Union, is like writing about Abraham Lincoln and leaving out slavery and the Civil War.  It's a non-starter.

The Lyon supporter who so cavalierly trashed the memory of President Ronald Reagan can do so because he has never held any form of public responsibility at all.  Once he holds public office of some kind, and we sincerely hope he does, he will gain some humility.  He will learn that in a representative democracy, perfection is unachievable.  That there are always trade-offs and muddle-throughs.  The young writer will learn this from life as well.  He will learn that no marriage goes exactly as wished for, or children, or career.  He will learn that the expectation of perfection is the enemy of happiness. 

Time and that river, life, will work away his stoney sharpness and his certainties.  And he will be a better human for it.

The Debt and Spend Republicans

There was a time, way back, when Republicans balanced the books.  Yeah, you could trust those Democrats to maybe go off on some flight of fancy, some childish attempt to throw money at a problem, but Republicans were the party of the adults, straight-laced and bottom-lined.  Those years when the Democrats were in charge and went off the rails -- spent too much, ran up debt -- those would be followed by lean years with the Republicans cutting spending and paying down debt.

That's not how it works anymore.  Like modern families, both political parties have learned that the shortest route to becoming "most favored parent" is to buy it for the kids and put the debt on the credit card.  Under no circumstances must the voters be taught lessons in budgeting and that spending money you don't have has consequences.

The debate over the funding of the Transportation Trust Fund has produced a curious dichotomy within the GOP.  On the one hand, you have a small group of starched-assed Republicans who simply refuse to continue the Santa Claus myth that a revenue source can remain constant for nearly three decades and magically fund all our transportation needs. 

They know that the last time the revenue collected from the gas tax covered the cost of the transportation program it was designed to fund was in 1990 -- 25 years ago.  Year after year we've fallen further and further behind in debt, to the point where last year the tax on gasoline and diesel brought in just $750 million.  That same year the cost to pay the debt was $1.1 billion.  It had to be paid before a single pothole was filled.  And paid it was -- with more debt. 

For 25 years we've been using roads and bridges that we couldn't afford to pay for and nobody seemed to notice, nobody seemed to care.  And anytime anyone dared to suggest paying off some of that debt you could hear the howls and cries of the children's chorus.  Why is it that we only hear calls for savings when there's talk of paying more?  Why doesn't anyone ever notice the debt until the credit card statement is due? 

For 25 years we have watched our incomes rise in an attempt to keep up with inflation, while those on Social Security received cost-of-living adjustments to combat inflation --  increases of 5.4% in 1990, 3.7% in 1991, 3% in 1992, 2.6% in 1993, 2.8% in 1994, 2.6% in 1995, 2.9% in 1996, 2.1% in 1997, 1.3% in 1998, 2.5% in 1999, 3.5% in 2000, 2.6% in 2001, 1.4% in 2002, 2.1% in 2003, 2.7% in 2004, 4.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006, 2.3% in 2007, 5.8% in 2008, zero in 2009, zero in 2010, 3.6% in 2011, 1.7% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, 1.7% in 2014, and zero in 2015 -- but the price we paid to maintain our roads and bridges remained the same?  Didn't we ever wonder how?      

New Jersey is a fiscal mess because it has the nation's highest property taxes and runaway debt.  According to the Tax Foundation, New Jersey has the worst business climate in America -- 50 out of 50 states -- because, and let's quote them here:  "New Jersey is hampered by some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, is one of just two states to levy both an inheritance tax and an estate tax, and maintains some of the worst-structured individual income taxes in the country."

So the adults in the Republican Party, fashioned a plan to attack a big part of this sorry state of affairs.  Being in the minority, in both chambers of the Legislature, they had to work out a compromise with the Democrats.  But they had an ally in Governor Chris Christie, who wouldn't let anything less than comprehensive get past his veto pen.  Painstakingly, they worked out a very detailed plan that gets rid of the estate tax before the Governor leaves office, eliminates the tax on retirement income for most seniors, cuts the sales tax to boost commerce, provides a tax credit for working people with low-paying jobs, and provides a personal tax exemption for veterans.  The plan also addresses debt by raising the tax on gasoline and diesel to make up for all those 28 years it hasn't been adjusted for inflation. 

Even with the increase, all of the existing tax and the first 10 cents of the increase is needed just to start paying down the irresponsible debt New Jersey ran up while nobody wanted to pay attention.  Without a 23 cent increase, we cannot maintain and repair our roads and bridges, fund our transportation system, and start to pay down the debt.

You know that meetings have been held with Republicans around the state, asking for ideas on what to cut and how to cut to make transportation construction more efficient and less costly to taxpayers.  And we have to tell you, that the same people who demand savings have been less than forthcoming with specifics.  Everyone has a hashtag but nobody has specifics.  And how did it come to pass that Republicans are so scared shitless of numbers?  Lots of hooting and waving of hands until you ask somebody to put it down on paper, run the numbers.  They look at you as if you asked them to go to the moon.  If we are going to have savings, we are going to have to do better.

Can  you hear the howls?  They're coming from the debt and spend Republicans.  See the hashtags?  They read #NOGASTAX.  Now there is a responsible plan... isn't it?  With such a plan we can solve all New Jersey's debt issues.  Three short words squished together gets it done.  Brilliant!

Remember when Republicans busied themselves with spreadsheets instead of hashtags?  Remember those Republicans in the boring white shirt sleeves and ties, who had survived Patton's winter drive through France, who had lived through MacArthur's island-hopping, and who came out of it to remake the Republican Party and launch the new conservative movement?  Remember them?

Well, they are not with us anymore.  Oh, there are a few who keep to the path begun by them. But for too many, understanding spreadsheets and budgeting is hard work.  Reading requires attention.  So the new Republican is content to be a celebrity-chaser who has given up reading white papers for hashtags and tweets, who requires entertainment instead of facts, ice cream lies instead of hard honesty.  Piss on knowledge.  Lie to me, they say, lie to me and make me feel righteous in my anger.  It feels so good to play the victim.

When Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall at the end of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was asked by a Mrs. Powel, "Well, Doctor, what have we got -- a Republic or a Monarchy?"  To which Dr. Franklin replied:  "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Citizenship was never meant to be easy.  It requires attention, interest, and vigilance.  Hashtags are no substitute for reading the legislation or for understanding the numbers.  Tweets should not replace books. 

As residents of America our distractions are many but as citizens of America our attention must be to the Republic.  We have self-governance in our hands if we merely make time for it.  But that will mean putting aside those with the too-simple-to-be-true answers that allow us to happily keep to our distractions. If we want our Republic back, we are going to have to grow a set of balls, learn to read the bills and understand the balance sheets, demand to be told the unpleasant truths, and brook no easy lies. 

And yes, we are going to have to wean ourselves off debt and learn to pay our way.  Because if we don't, we will condemn our children and our grandchildren to be debt slaves to Red China.