Remembrances of Things Past

Or, the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

I was cleaning up my office today. Man I needed to do that. I hadn’t touched the place since I moved in and boxes needed to be unpacked, and accumulated papers piled on the floor needed to be sorted out. So it was with some amusement that I came across a set of files from my days working at the DNC that my mother had sent to me. I found an old cartoon from Doonesbury, circa 1991.

A man is lying sick in bed with a lethargic look on his face. His doctor asks him how he is feeling today and he replies: "I don’t know. I don’t know what I feel. I’ve lost the courage of my convictions. I have this terrible urge to pander. I no longer have any direction. My sense of purpose is gone. I have no idea who I am."

And his wife exclaims! "Oh my God! You’ve turned him into a Democrat!"

It was interesting to find these clipping and old memos from around the time of the first Gulf War. There was an article from USA Today entitled "Bush has Democrats in Retreat." And this was Bush Senior.

I also found some papers I inherited from the circular files at the DNC that are an historical curiosity. Most of them are talking points distributed by the DNC between 1956 and 1960. What do you think of these two quotes?

"Private health insurance is out of reach for much of the population, particularly those whose medical needs are greatest….Millions of American families are in debt for medical care and millions more defer treatment because of the fear of debt. Provision must be made to bring adequate care within the reach of all our people."

"I have been against [national health] insurance as a very definite step in socialized medicine. I don’t believe in it and I want none of it for myself, I don’t want any of it."

The first quote is from the Democratic Advisory Council of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1960. The second is from Dwight Eisenhower, longtime recipient of medical care paid for by the US taxpayer and provided by the US government, who was commenting on Democratic proposals for national health care reform.

Hmmm….