In Thursday’s opinion piece by Jack Craver (“GOP’s leadership fit the standards,” Sep. 24, 2009), Craver highlighted what he called the “right-wing lunacy” of Republicans on the national, local and university levels. If one were to simply take his examples (including, of course, Joe McCarthy) at face value, one would have to assume all Republicans wish to deport every foreigner and let all poor people die without health care… which of course the Bible must instruct because Republicans have to follow it to a T. That all sounds like right-wing fanaticism to me.

But Craver only paints half the picture of Republicans (which I’m sure was his point). Examples of other Republicans from decades ago are President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Martin Luther King Jr. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 after beating back a record filibuster by then-Democrat Strom Thurmond and a nay vote by future Democrat President John F. Kennedy. The good that came from King’s speeches and marches goes without saying, but few know he was a Republican. (Republicans were known at the time as ‘the party for blacks’ due to clear racism from Democrats.)

In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson pushed for the country’s first school-choice system, which would have allowed poor Milwaukee children to be sent to their choice of private or public schools on the taxpayer’s dime. His BadgerCare health program still helps gives health coverage to Wisconsin families that can’t be covered by Medicaid.

At times Democrats considered Eisenhower, King and Thompson all fanatics in their beliefs. According to people such as Jack Craver, only Democrats are looking out for blacks, the poor and the uninsured while Republicans are only interested in “restricting civil liberties.” The facts say otherwise.

It is true Sara Mikolajczak was fanatic at times compared to current UW College Republicans Chair Crystal Lee, but most Republicans are at a happy medium. While impassioned in their core values and beliefs, they are always willing to listen to differing viewpoints and consider the best path to take. This is in stark contrast to the liberal mindset shown by Craver’s article, which considers every single Republican to be a commie-crazy “sociopath” and will not tolerate evidence to the contrary. I hope The Badger Herald readers will take his article with a grain of salt and actually form their own opinions on CR and the GOP based on facts rather than outdated and overused stereotypes.

Joe Powell
Sophomore, mechanical engineering
[email protected]