Bucks
Ed Howard Doonesbury Presidential Candidates
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Ed Howard is a well-known political figure in Bucks County. Although the former State Senator is in his eighties, he still cuts a fine figure. While I’ve shrunk in size, Ed seems to have grown taller. He may exceed eight feet!
I used his height to my advantage when I recently addressed his class at Delaware Valley College. Ed has been teaching a course to retired citizens for two years. It’s called “Citizens Learning in Retirement” and is great fun. When he’s desperate, Ed calls me to discuss various topics. Often, the subject is politics, laced with my version of history. I usually begin with this disclaimer: ‘the quality of my appearance is directly tied to my compensation…zero.’
I’d guess that most of the 30, plus, students are well past retirement age, live in central Bucks and Montgomery Counties, and are registered Republican. All have strong opinions and closely follow local, national, and international stories. Judging by their answers to my questions, the Republican Party is making a big mistake if it expects these suburbanites to follow the Party line. There won’t be any blank checks sent anytime soon.
My topics were the local elections for 2007 and the 2008 Presidential. To show why the Republican Party has lost touch with Middle America, I introduced the Presidential race with the April 15 political comic strip “Doonesbury.”
Because Ed Howard is so tall, I had him hold the “Donnesbury” piece high in the air so all could see. In the strip’s first four panels, an interviewer is asking Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, an important question.
“Dr. Dobson,” the interviewer begins, “I was just running the numbers on the various Presidential candidates. On the GOP side, the three front-runners…Giuliani, McCaine, and Gingrich…have five divorces among them, four of them really messy, and all of them involving adultery. On the Democratic side, the three front-runners…Clinton, Obama, and Edwards…have no divorces or infidelities. So, my question is, which party best represents family values?”
“The Republicans” Dobson replies in the next panel. “They don’t support gay marriages.”
“Nor their own, apparently,” the interviewer observes.
“That’s private!” Dobson snaps. “That’s between a man and a woman…and another woman…and sometimes one more woman!”
I introduced this Donnesbury strip to the class because critics accuse the GOP of hypocritical behavior. I asked the class these questions: (1) How many of you think that a Republican can win the Presidential election in 2008? No one raised his hand. (2) How many of you think that the GOP will change its party platform? Zero hands. (3) And most worrisome for the Bucks County Republican Party…How many of you think Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy will win reelection next year? Not all, but most of the hands shot up.
The class was certainly up to speed on national issues. When I asked them about presidential influence, they thought that the two most important powers were the power to wage war and the power to nominate federal judges…especially nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the County level, the class thought that the Republican Commissioners would retain control of the courthouse in November but they were divided about which two Democratic candidates would win the contested May primary?
Most of the class was unsure about the various County row offices…what they do…and why we vote for them at all? After Ed and I listed them and summarized their assignments, I sensed that the class felt that most of the row offices could be abandoned and put under the jurisdiction of the county court.
The class was mixed on whether the county should continue its three County Commissioner form of government (as I do) or whether it should adopt a home rule charter similar to Lehigh and Northampton Counties? Each of them elects nine representatives and a county executive. That interesting discussion will have to wait for another day.
I did surprise the class when I told them that Barry Goldwater, the father of the modern conservative movement, would not recognize what had happened to his core values, if he lived today. According to his daughter, Barry Goldwater believed in balanced budgets, lowering federal taxes…and was of the pro-choice and pro gays in the military persuasions. With the exception of lowering federal taxes, today’s conservatives bear little resemblance to the former U. S. Senator from Arizona, himself an Air Force General.
My how the GOP has changed…and I’m a Republican. Good grief!
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith