AUSTIN, Texas -- I am indebted to Jon Stewart of the Comedy Channel and to
"The Daily Show," the last real news program on cable television, for the
idea of a collection of quotes from Sen. Jesse Helms:
-- On the subject of President Clinton visiting North Carolina: "Mr.
Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a
bodyguard."
-- "I'm going to sing 'Dixie' to her until she cries," of Sen. Carol
Moseley-Braun after a debating her on the merits of the Confederate flag."
-- "The New York Times and The Washington Post are both infested with
homosexuals themselves."
-- "The destruction of this country can be pinpointed in terms of its
beginnings to the time that our political leadership turned to socialism.
They didn't call it socialism, of course. It was given deceptive names and
adorned with fancy slogans. We heard about New Deals, and Fair Deals, and
New Frontiers, and Great Society."
Years ago, Larry L. King, the Texas writer, observed in the wake of the
political defeat of a couple of unusually unpleasant Texas congressmen,
Birchers both, that, "It is not enough that we rejoice over their
electorally recumbent forms, but we need to add a few swift kicks while they
are down."
Of course I was appalled -- the most un-liberal sentiment I ever heard. As
King himself observed, we liberals weep copiously over everyone from
milk-shy Hottentots to the glandular obese. An old and ailing Jesse Helms is
not one to crow over. But nor is it necessary to forget -- in the wake of
all this folderol about how he was "a man of principle" -- what those
principles actually were.
Helms has been anti-black, anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-progress. He was
perfectly willing to use his power for partisan nastiness and for petty
provincial politics. His main claim to fame is that he protected Big Tobacco
and his home-state textile industry. I have liked a lot of outspoken
conservatives over the years. Helms is not one. I give him this, he never
had good hair. A fine example of the 16th-century thinker. Onward.
I don't know how the political world looks to you, but it seems to me in my
lifetime liberals have been right about three important things. We were
right about race. We were right about Vietnam. And, by 1980, when our
deficit was $50 billion dollars(!) under Jimmy Carter, I thought: " Gosh,
maybe we should let the conservatives run things for a while. At least they
understand the bottom line."
Two trillion dollars of debt later, I was not quite so persuaded. That was
the last time I ever thought the conservatives should be in charge.
Plus ca change: Bush has now blown the entire budget surplus on this huge
tax cut for the rich. The silliest line of commentary is this phony wringing
of hands and wailing, "If only we had known three months ago what we know
today!"
Of course we knew three months ago there was going to be no surplus. We
were quite regularly told so by an enormous array of experts. Bush went from
saying we needed a tax cut because times were so good to saying we needed a
tax cut because times were so bad.
I am a great admirer of John Maynard Keynes, who first pointed out that
government needs to spend more money during recessions, but there is a
difference between frittering money away on tax cuts for the rich and using
the public's money for public purposes of lasting benefit to all.
If Congress wants a public works program, here's one suggestion. Somewhere
between one-third and one-half of all the public schools in America are
between dilapidated and falling apart (many of them in rural areas as well
as inner cities). This is not a problem addressed by mass testing. To put
money into schools is a sound investment of public money, it pays off in the
future, and you don't have to do it again for quite some time. That would in
turn give the ever-pressed school districts more leeway to hire more and
better teachers.
The three things we know work to improve the schools are smaller classes,
longer school days or school years and well-equipped classrooms. The
physical plant of schools is not, of course, as important as good teachers.
But until we figure out a way to clone good teachers, we know fixing the
windows, walls, roofs, floors, wiring and plumbing will do much good.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at
www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
