The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his094/bbb07884.arj/BBB07884.TXT

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The Reprobate Republicans

by William P. Melden


     The Bulletin has never declined to point out the stupidity
and wickedness of the Democratic Party, especially those members
of the party who have, by a cruel twist of fate, found their way
into the United States Senate. Chuckling and howling over the
antics of the Democrats is always a healthy and enjoyable
exercise, but as we wipe the tears of laughter away from our
eyes, we should pause to consider a sobering thought: namely,
that the Republicans aren't much better.

     Viewing the political horizon, we find that the party of
Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy does not maintain a monopoly on
degeneracy and general sleaziness. The Republical Party, like the
Democratic, is composed of sinners: cultured sinners, perhaps,
and oh-so-respectable sinners, but sinners nonetheless.
"Destruction and misery are in their ways, And the way of peace
have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes"
(Rom. 3:16-18).

     Perhaps the situation was best summed up by John Lindsay, a
pretty-boy liberal Republican who once "served" as Mayor of New
York City. One day, pitching for votes in Harlem, he became
helplessly frustrated by the unwillingness of the Afro-American
audience to listen to anything a white Republican had to say. In
a rare burst of candor, the sweating Lindsay cried out, "Don't
you understand? My skin may be white, but my heart is as black as
yours!" Amen.

     Other examples are not so funny. Everyone knows about
Lincoln, of course, the "great" Republican who single-handedly
slapped the Tenth Amendment out of the Constitution and thereby
sent the concept of "States' Rights" off to the Elephant's
Graveyard. But what about more contemporary Republican heroes?

     Christians have cried for the past twenty years over the
excesses of the truly horrible "Warren Court." This was the
Supreme Court that gave us forced integration, booted prayer out
of the public schools, and gave criminals a collection of
"rights" that any sceptered monarch could only dream of. But His
Majesty, Chief Justice Earl Warren, was a genuine blue-blooded
Republican (and a former Governor of California, interestingly
enough), and was appointed to his lofty position on the Court by
a Republican President, the inimitable Ike, Dwight Eisenhower.
When we weep over the tattered Constitution, let us not be blind
to the real culprits in the case: the Republicans, who have
occupied the White House for twenty-four of the past thirty-six
years.

     And what of the current Republican leader, the kindly and
lovable Reagan? Speaking personally, Ronald Reagan is my favorite
American politician, and I have voted for him as frequently as
the law allows. But my emotional attachment to this affable gent
does not diminish his dreadful complicity in the assault on the
Constitution. It was Reagan, not the sainted FDR or Lyndon
"Basset Ears" Johnson, who forever shattered the First Amendment
by appointing an Ambassador to the Vatican. Paul instructs
Christians to "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:11).

     (But then, when did our beloved President ever claim to be a
Christian? During the second Reagan-Mondale debate in 1984, the
candidates were asked directly, "Are you a born-again Christian?"
Mondale laughed the question off, and Reagan side-stepped it with
style. If the President is saved, then he blew the kind of
opportunity for witness which only comes once in a lifetime.)

     Reagan, the most popular president of modern times, has
delivered America over to the Vatican, lock, stock, and empty
gun-barrel. Had a liberal Democrat struck such a deal with Rome,
conservative Christians would have raised an uproar. But they
accepted it from Reagan, because...well, why? Because he's nice
to Jerry Falwell? (So is Ted Kennedy.) Because he's opposed to
abortion? (Not a single abortion has been prevented by law since
Reagan took office.) Because he takes the correct position on the
AIDS "crisis"? (On the contrary: according to the National
Review, August 14, 1987, Reagan has appointed an avowed fruit to
his "Presidential Task Force on AIDS," thus giving America's
fairies the official Ronald Reagan Seal of Approval.) Or is it
just that America's Laodicean Christians were looking for a
politician they could "believe in," and Reagan galloped into view
on his white horse?

     Ah, there's the rub! Ronald Reagan, along with such
cheerleaders as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, has succeeded in
doing what no Democrat could ever do: convince America's
Christians that justice and righteousness can be found in
Washington, D.C. Bible-believing Christians, who once believed
that "help cometh from the Lord," have now joined all the
cheapjack politicians and welfare swindlers in thinking that
"help cometh from Washington." In 1980 and 1984, Christians gave
their time, talent, and money to the Reagan Cause, thinking hat
he could somehow end abortion, eradicate pornography, "put God
back into the schools," and transform our dear and dying nation
into the New Jerusalem. They should have known better.

     The Democrats, let me emphasize, deserve every bit of
contempt and ridicule we can possibly give them, but let us keep
some in reserve for the Republicans, who gave us the Warren Court
and the Vatican Ambassador. And instead of snapping at whatever
shiny bait the candidates toss out in this election year, let us
remember God's words: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to
put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to
put confidence in princes" (Ps. 118). That means any princes,
Democrat, Independent, or Republican.