Enough is Enough

Enough is Enough

“Hello, I'm calling on behalf of the Allegheny County Republican Party and to ask you if you are planning on voting tomorrow.”

“Yes…yes I am planning on voting.”

“Could I ask you if we can count on you for a vote for Ronald Reagan for President?”

“Yes…yes, you can ask, but I won't be telling you one way or the other. I will be voting and thank you for the call.”

He didn't wait for a reply from the other end, but quickly hung up the phone. That was the second call from the republicans today. That’s good…that put them right even as there were two calls earlier from the democrats asking about Mondale. It didn't matter how many times they called. It wasn't going to change anything now. The election would be tomorrow and only a fool had not decided by now. He had first decided four years ago.

It was 1980 then. The country was in as sad a shape as it had ever been as far as he could see. He was a life long democrat. He had stuck by them with candidates like McGovern when he knew he had no chance to win, when it was a matter of principal, but this man, this Carter had ruined the country.

Enough was enough

Carter had come up with some “misery index”. Well actually it was an economist from Chicago who coined the term; Carter just used it in his campaign against President Ford in ’76. The index was the sum of the rates of inflation and unemployment which in 1976 was 13.57%. Carter stated that no man responsible for giving a country a misery index that high, had a right to even ask to be President. By 1980 the rate had climbed to an all time high of 21.98%.

Enough was enough

52 hostages held in Iran and a President hiding in the white house almost turned out from his own party by Ted Kennedy. When he finally made an attempt to free the hostages he couldn't get that right either. The choppers went down in the desert. The hostages were moved to a “safer” location. During all this he even found time to give back the Panama Canal which Teddy Roosevelt had so cleverly stolen.

Enough was enough

So when Reagan promised to “make us proud again” he swallowed his own pride and pulled a lever he had never pulled before. He voted for a republican for President. Sure he had voted for a few republicans for other offices, but the very thought of voting for one for President was huge.

“Thank God my mother is dead, cause this would have killed her” he said to himself as he left the voting booth.

He adjusted pretty well to his decision that day. Over the next couple of years Reagan actually became “his President” as he did to much of the country. Reagan was, after all a very charming and talented politician. He liked his positions on the military, on Russia, and on abortion and school prayer.

He started to think of himself as a republican and why not? After all it was not just Reagan anymore. He found himself voting for more and more of “them” and beginning to think of “them” as “us”. He was a successful businessman just entering into his “middle years” and isn't that what men do then…become republicans?

Everything would have been O. K except for two things. Most all of his friends were democrats and they weren't letting go of him and that damn nagging voice in the back of his head that wouldn't shut up. The democrats said all kinds of things and so did that voice. It’s like they had some secret pipe line to each other because they often echoed one another.

“You're not seriously voting republican?” one friend asked

“Sure I am. Enough is enough and I've had enough of the democrats. Jimmy Carter finished me off.”

“He was just one man”

“No, he was one too many”

And so it went and yet the nagging voice wouldn't stop. It would latch onto the smallest things and make a big deal of it.

He started to notice, or maybe the voice started to notice, little things that surprised him. Ronald Reagan was against abortion, as was he, on moral grounds. It was about the innocent life that was being taken.

Then why would Reagan cut the government prenatal care? It would be important that the unborn child get that care.

Why cut the social programs? Reagan emptied out the government hospitals and people who had been cared for for years were suddenly on the streets. People with mental problems….the mentally infirm….things like that. Hitler sent them to gas chambers. Reagan threw them onto the streets. The voice was getting louder.

The tuberculosis program was cut. That was the program that closely followed up with tuberculosis patients to make sure that they took their medications all the way through the prescribed period. The patient had to show up at a clinic to get their medication. If they didn't show up someone went to find them. The goal was to wipe out tuberculosis just like polio and small pox. When he cut the program opponents said people would stop taking their medications too soon and we'd end up with a “super tuberculosis” much deadlier. The voice got a little louder…

He tried to cut out the school lunch program all together. When he couldn't do that he tried to cut the budget by arguing that ketchup was a vegetable and therefore we did not need those green beans and corn and what not. The voice was screaming…

Enough was enough

It was probably the” ketchup being a vegetable” or maybe it was the” trees causing pollution”, but what was happening was a shaking of his faith. He had believed that Reagan cared about those unborn children, just as he did and now he wasn't so sure. How could you care about the child before it is born…(well not even completely if you count the prenatal care cut) and then not care after.

He pondered this:

Why want them born if you are not even going to make sure they are born healthy…if you're not going to provide for them if they are not. Why have them born if you are not going to feed them or for that matter educate them for there were cuts there too? All you are going to end up with is more undereducated dependent people. The voice went BALISTIC.

He went to see a good liberal friend of his.

He told his friend what he had observed and that he was confused by what it meant.

“What does it all mean, Randy? Why would he want these children born if he won't care for them? It seems they'll be locked into poverty?

“Do you remember when abortion was illegal in a lot of states?”

“yes”

“And you remember that women crossed state lines to get abortions, right?”

“Right”

“It was not poor women who could afford to do that and if it were to become illegal in a lot of states again it would be no burden on the rich, only on the poor”

The voice put it all together for him and he had it at last.

He said “ So, bottom line is the goal is to have the poor kids born and I think I know why now”

“Go ahead” Randy said

“I can't be rich if everyone is. I can only be rich if there are the poor otherwise who will clean my pool, my house, my car? Who will cook for me and wash my clothes and cut my hair and do my nails? Oh my God is it that sinister?”

“No, not for everyone….not by a long shot, but sure it’s in there with the powers that be. However there are some very good people who feel strongly about it for very good reasons, but those people would care about the child after it is born. Those are the people who are true to their morality and their religion. This is something that I have seen you struggle with over the years and it is something that only you can decide.”

He said what the voice had been telling him for some time now…

“Frankly, Randy it’s not really any of my business. I may not like the idea of abortion, but it is not my body…..it is not my situation….. it is not my choice.”

“What are you going to do next Tuesday?”

“Well, enough is enough”

“I'm going to vote for the man who is going to lose. I am going to vote for Mondale.”

“Welcome back, Chuck”

The voice made a sigh of relief. It knew it could be quiet now for a time until it would be needed again.






4/06/06