Aug. 10, 2006
 
COMMENTARY: A Man in Search of a Party
 
By Joseph J. Honick
 
Most of us grew up wed to one political party or another mainly because of parental influence, our school environment among other factors. How often one reads letters to the editor or talk show comments uttering the idea of lifelong commitments as Democrats or Republicans.
 
Some split among other fractionated groups.
 
Somehow, over the past generation or so, the idea of definitive party philosophy has dimmed in the face of changing morals, mores and unprincipled efforts to be elected or reelected to powerful offices at all levels.
 
The very idea a Republican run government would be willing to do a guns and butter policy a la LBJ and risk a ballooning deficit and quantum leaps in overall debt would have been anathema to pure conservative thinking. And it is. After all, the deficits/debt of the Reagan administration, according to the Republican leadership, was the fault of the Congress.
 
When a surplus was achieved, it was Republicans who claimed the victory during the Clinton administration.
 
But we’re at war, you say. Fine enough. War implies the need for sacrifice – not another Johnsonian blast of governmental fiscal mismanagement that has drawn the ire of both liberal and conservative in and out of Congress.
 
On the other side of the aisle, while quite accurately criticizing the administration’s war evidence claims and economic mismanagement, the Democrats have failed to come up with positive proposals the people of the country can understand and support.
 
It is not unusual at all for the party out of power to spend much of its time undermining the ruling party. This kind of stuff was the obsession of the Republicans during Clinton’s two terms when the charges of lying did not involve war action, but, were nevertheless no less virulent than the current assaults on Bush.
 
There was a time, prior to the emergence of Newt Gingrich, when Democrats and Republicans could argue heatedly on the floor of both Chambers on a daily basis yet move in the same social circles, even have each other over for dinner. Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy were fast friends. Illinois Republican Senator Everett M. Dirksen was a favorite among many Democrats as was the greatly unsung Bob Dole. They all worked for the same employer: the American people, knew it and treasured it. That changed with the decisions to assault opponents on the most personal and familial bases.
 
Americans deserve something better than the exposure by George Wallace and Ross Perot that both parties’ leadership seem to have deserted their own principles, if principles is the correct term for what has guided them over the years.
 
In the end, both sides get away with not having to work too hard to be clearly defined because of the apathy of the most spoiled electorate in the world: us -- the masses of people who not only fail to involve themselves in the issues and look beyond the party professionals selling their wares, but also fail to vote when their chance for personal expression is so easily available, without the threats, guns and other pressures that make it dangerous to vote in other nations.
 
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I have personally worked hard for both Republican and Democratic candidates based on their records on key issues, capacity to articulate their ideas and my limited sense of their ethics. I’ll continue to do that because, as this commentary asserts, I am, like so many other Americans, a person in search of a party. I contribute to both in the belief we need them both and will continue to do that as well. If the big investment banks, defense contractors, unions and others can do that, I need to have my oar in the water as well.
 
In the meantime, you would do well to reassess your own partisanship and ask hard questions of those to whom you’ve been tied for whatever reason. Purity and reliability are hardly the monopolies of political parties, and it’s your future and that of the nation that is at stake.
 
Editor’s Note: We are reprinting this Aug. 9, 2005 commentary in the wake of the events of Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006, when both Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia were defeated in primary elections. Honick is president of GMA International Ltd., the consulting firm he established in 1975. Its principal areas involved working to broaden business opportunities abroad for American companies and assisting them in preparing for such effort. He is also a regular contributor to Huntington News Network.