BBB: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.