Back in 1964, when the Republicans ran Barry Goldwater for President, the Chad Mitchell Trio came out with a song describing (somewhat cryptically) the Republican Party. Here are a few of the lyrics:

[Let’s go] back to the silver standard and solid Goldwater…

Let’s go back to the days when men were men

and start the First World War all over again

[Let’s go] back to when the poor were poor, and rich were rich

and you felt so damn secure just knowin’ which were which!

Okay, it was a bit “over-the-top” but, nevertheless, it highlighted the fact that, at the national level, the Republican Party was not the Party of change. The themes of: “Let’s keep things the way they are, or, even better, ‘go back’ to who we used to be”–were as Republican then as they are now. It is the Democratic Party, at least since FDR and the Great Depression, that has been the party of change in Washington.

Case in point, the recent one-house passage, with no Republican support, of the Biden “Build Back Better” legislation. Though not given a large mandate in the last election and, though in control of Congress by only the “skin of their teeth,” Democrats pushed this through the House of Representatives. It should have been no surprise that a fellow Democrat, Joe Manchin, Senator from a conservative state like West Virginia, would have problems with the bill–but they passed it anyway in the House.

The politics going on here should not surprise anyone. ” Radical ideas” like Social Security and Medicare (financial assistance and health care for the elderly) were Democratic initiatives. There were outcries at the time that such programs would bankrupt the country and drive us into socialism. Though, in those days, there were some Republican votes for these programs–it was the Democratic Party that proposed and largely provided the bulk of “yes” votes to make them law.

Yet, Republicans have correctly assessed the reality that the electorate in our country is generally conservative in its thinking, and when people want change, it takes place incrementally and very slowly. Harry Truman in the 1950’s and Ted Kennedy in the 1980’s couldn’t make headway with healthcare legislation. It wasn’t until 30 years later, under Barack Obama, that the matter really got addressed in any meaningful way. Today, as “Obamacare” has become more accepted in the country, you see (as with Social Security and Medicare) fewer Republicans attacking it.

Another reality is that every time the Democrats push for social change, they usually suffer for it in the next election…and so this doesn’t portend well for them in the 2022 elections. I would expect that the coming year will be a good one for Republicans.

I will say this though for Democrats, when they try to create new programs, they at least are honest enough to include revenue and tax measures to help pay for it, as reflected in this most recent bill where they proposed raising taxes on billionaires and corporations. Republican reaction to all of this has been to again “bang the drum” that Democrats are the “tax and spend” Party. Democrats counter that Republicans have become the “borrow and spend” Party.

Though they still maintain the political “high ground” of being resistant to change, when it comes to spending money–Republicans have shown that they are as good at that as Democrats. And, who was the last President to have a balanced budget? That was Bill Clinton. His political affiliation? Let’s not get into that.

Differing views on politics remain as American as apple pie. To everyone, no matter what your political persuasion–thanks for reading these articles and have a Happy New Year!

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.