Come back, GOP — We miss you

We have in this country a Congress composed of two dominant parties, and that system seems to work well for us. In fact, it tends to work better when no one party is in complete control of the system. Deals are brokered and compromises are made. No one gets everything they want, but most get something, and the country is pretty accurately represented.

But this bit of political machinery can only operate if there are two functioning parties that will work with each other. If one side of the aisle gets so bogged down in ideology that it won’t consider opposing points of view, the whole sausage making enterprise grinds to a halt.

This is what happened to our tea-soaked 112th Congress and the 113th could be heading in that direction. So I am here appealing to the GOP to please come back. The country misses and needs you.

At this point I’d like to make a confession, so here goes: “Hello, my name is Chuck and I voted for Richard M. Nixon.” I have been doing penance in the Democratic Party ever since. Of course, back then Republicans were a different breed of pachyderm that drew the line at felonious behavior. Ah, the good old days.

Like today, the late 1960s and early ’70s were very divisive. There was literally rioting in the streets over Vietnam. Protesting students at Kent State had recently been shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard. A handful of Nixon’s henchmen were caught breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel and the subsequent cover-up eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.

Even in the midst of all this contention we still managed to have a functioning government. Nixon, working with Congress, established the Environmental Protection Agency. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed. The Coastal Zone Management Act was passed, and a revenue sharing program was started that sent federal dollars to states and municipalities with no strings attached. All this and more was accomplished with a Republican in the White House and a Democratic Congress. Two differing political points of view that somehow managed to represent a nation and do the business of government.

Today’s GOP has changed somewhat. It seems to have been abducted by absolutists bent on their own agendas and the voices of genuine statesmen capable of governing are being drowned out by the shrill rhetoric of unyielding ideologues. These are entrenched dogmatists who believe government is incapable of doing anything well and they will prove that point at every opportunity.

The last Congress set a record for accomplishing less than any before it. Its members did, however, manage to drive down our credit rating in 2011 by dragging their feet on authorizing payment of our debts otherwise known as the national debt ceiling. This is no longer the party that can lay claim to Lincoln and I’m sure some members would fall on the secessionist side of that argument between “blue” and “gray” states.

So what has happened to the Grand Old Party? Where are the people who understand that governing is largely the art of compromise? I believe there are still members of that body who would like to see a more convivial atmosphere between the two parties. I think some of them might even be Republicans. The problem is, those Republicans are afraid of being primaried in their next election. This is when the more radical wing of the party votes for someone of their ideological disposition and the incumbent looses the primary.

Of course, the crazies of the political world would have a much harder time of it if we all participated in the electoral process, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. What is happening is reasonable politicians on both sides of the aisle are being held hostage by a very vocal few incapable of accommodation. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad explanation of how a dictatorship works.

Our recent history serves up a fine example of someone who was primaried. Incumbent Lisa Murkowski was defeated in her primary by Tea Party gem Joe Miller. Remember him? He’s the guy who handcuffed a reporter at a press conference. He’s the guy who said when asked about illegal immigration: “Build a wall. If the East Germans can do it, so can we.” If you visit his website at joemiller.us you will find an article about anti-surveillance clothing. It apparently blocks infrared radiation. That’s right; we’re talking aluminum foil suits. This is the guy the Tea Party wanted to send to the Senate, although he may have had a problem getting through the mental detector.

Fortunately, the voters of Alaska saw this whack job for who he is and elected Lisa Murkowski in a historic write in campaign. That same Lisa Murkowski has now become the sole Republican in Congress who has come out against holding the world economy hostage in the debt ceiling talks. This takes no small amount of courage and is what statesmanship actually looks like. This is also what our government used to look like and could again if members would just get off the train to crazy town.

I personally disagree with her concerning gay rights, stimulus funding, the environment, immigration, etc., but she has become a small voice of reason amid all the shouting. I’m not saying I would vote for her in the next election, but Murkowski is the sort of politician we could use more of in D.C. She is letting the good of the country trump ideology. If I do vote red next time I just hope it doesn’t turn out like the last time I voted for a Republican.

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.