GOP on the Wrong Side of History Again?!?

The Republican Party tried again yesterday evening to derail health care reform, and thankfully they failed. All 178 Republican Congressmen, together with 34 spineless fuckwits from the Dems, were not enough to beat the 219 vote majority supporting health care reform in this country.

The merits of this specific health care bill are not the issue I'd like to discuss this evening. It's clearly a compromise bill that does not contain the entire liberal wish list, but it is at its heart a sincere effort to being the much needed first steps of health care reform. With luck and time improvements can be made to bring comprehensive health care reform to the United States.

What I'd really like to talk about this evening is the role of the Republicans who are again standing on the side lines of history yelling NO in as loud a voice as possible. It should come as no surprise to students of history, but it is something worth repeating. Because there are still idiots out there who like to vote Republican, and perhaps they need to think long and hard about what these people stand for.

Here are some Republican positions in the recent past that tells you a lot about what they stand for:

• Civil Rights - Anti-lynching bills, and various civil rights bills of the 1950s and 60s were largely opposed by Republicans, hiding behind the rights of individual states as an excuse for not supporting bills to protect minority groups.
• Environmental Policy - Beginning with Nixon's Clean Air act of 1970, pretty much every effort to protect the environment has been opposed by the GOP.
• Abortion - The GOP have repeatedly taken steps to trample the rights of women, even though a clear majority of Americans do not believe that abortion should be outlawed or criminalized.
• Gay Rights - Although there have been many Republican politicians found 'researching' homosexual practices, you won't find many voting for equality for gay people.
• Tax - Cut taxes the GOP say, but whenever they are in office they won't cut spending. They just cut taxes for the rich, and keep up their stupid spending policies until will owe trillions to China. Then they point the finger of blame elsewhere.
  

It's pretty clear that history is littered with nasty old Republicans stamping their feet and pushing their self interest, and those of the rich lobbyists who line their pockets.

Here we are on a historic night of health care reform and a promise of extending coverage to uninsured Americans, and not a single one of them broke ranks to vote for what is right.

In any two party system the pendulum will ultimately swing both ways over time, but never forget the history of the GOP and their opposition to social justice and rights for the people.