Editor: This letter is not about your facts or your stance on the Health Care Bill. You make some very good points, but I suspect that others just as learned as you could make equally good points against the bill. I am a bit more relaxed about all this and think the bill will stand or fall on its merits, or its lack of. I would have to admit in the spirit of candor I am betting on the latter.
This letter is about the over-use of the phrase equating the GOP as the “Party of No.” Here is a little secret about the Republican Party . . . OF COURSE it is the Party of No. Its very DNA is made up of the concept of “No.”
The GOP was formed by persons who stood up and said no to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Whigs and Free Soil Demo-crats banded together to create the Republican Party in opposition of an act that would have expanded slavery and drawn out its eventual demise. By doing so, they created the Party of No: the Republican party.
The GOP would in a few short years stand as the Party of No against the evils of slavery itself. The GOP would say “No” to a divided nation, even though it meant the bloodshed, tears and suffering that was the Civil War. It would say “No” to peace when that terrible war was costing thousands and tens of thousands of lives, while Democrats were advocating for negotiations with the South.
The Republican Party suffered huge defeats in the Gilded Age when their factions known as Mugwumps and Half-Breeds said “No” to the Spoils System of the Civil Service.
The GOP would make a comeback when they stood up under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt and said “No” to trusts and monopolies such as Northern Securities Company and Standard Oil.
In the 1960s, the GOP would help the effort to say “No” to discrimination of fellow Americans when they helped pass the Civil Rights act of 1964. It should be noted that a larger percentage of Republicans voted in favor of the bill, close to 80 percent, than their fellow Democrats.
More recently, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, the GOP stood up and said “No” to detente with communism, bringing about freedom for millions that suffered under the fists of the U.S.S.R.
George W. Bush said no to terrorism, terrorism generated by the perverted beliefs of Islamic apostates.
I do not pretend to say that Republicans have always said no at the right times in our history, or for that matter said yes at the right times. I am only trying, in my limited way, to say that no is not always a bad thing.
I would add that saying no has a long history in our American story. When we say no on principle, and for the right reasons, we join some great company. Names such as John Locke, James Madison, George Mason, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson all helped add the Bill of Rights to our American Constitution. If you read those 10 Amendments you might note that they are all about no: no to government, no to the role government can take.
I think that if you or I could join that company of men, we would be glad to say no more often.
Sincerely,
Thomas R. Williams,
Allen County Sheriff
