Years ago, I found myself uttering a line: I can’t stand to be lectured on compassion by the party of abortion-on-demand. I think it was back in 1984, when Mario Cuomo was riding high. He gave a much-ballyhooed speech at the Democratic convention, in which he chastised Republicans and conservatives for being ogres, basically — for hating the poor, the sick, the halt, the lame, etc. He set himself up as a great moral instructor and exemplar. And so did his entire party, really.
And my reaction was, “Give me a break. For one thing, it’s hard to take lessons on compassion from the party of abortion-on-demand. Get that one right — or do better on it — and maybe then you’ll be fit to speak to the rest of us.”
And I am reminded more broadly why I became a Republican, those moons ago. I was taught that the Republican party stood for greed, for dog-eat-dog, for ignorance, for callousness. And I was taught that human decency demanded that you be a socialist, basically. But then I grew up, and learned what a free economy did for people, as opposed to socialism (or collectivism, or statism, or a social-welfare state). I saw results as life was really lived in the world.
And that reminds me of one more thing: You hear a lot here at the Democratic convention — about social welfare, about caring for our troops, and so on. You hear very, very little about entrepreneurship. Very little about ingenuity and creativity and self-reliance and basically building a better mouse trap. And why do you hear so little? Because the party — being a statist party — cares very, very little about these things.
And what is the best guarantor of social welfare? A free economy, of course.
You know all this, ladies and gentlemen, and many of you probably learned it long before I. But it’s nice to have these lessons reinforced, year after year; and a convention, of either party, is an opportunity to remember why we believe as we do.