We went to my wife’s family reunion, held this summer in New England because her cousin who lives there had a massive stroke and can’t travel.

He’s recovering well, thanks mostly to the tremendous help he’s getting from his brother—who has sidelined his own life, and is not only providing personal nursing care for his brother, but rebuilding the house as his brother was doing at the time of the stroke.

For what it’s worth, the brother who had the stroke is a Democrat, and the caring brother is a Republican, and a wonderful model of compassion.

Politics don’t matter, of course, when your brother needs your help. Most of us love our families and would do almost anything for them. Not all of us, of course.

It’s one of the earliest stories in our society, from the Judeo-Christian Bible, about how one brother murders another, and when confronted about it, asks the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?’

Of course we are. But what about our sisters? Other relatives? Neighbors?

The ancient scriptures also say, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” And how far does the neighborhood reach? Who is our brother? Just the blood brother? What about the old phrase, “The brotherhood of man,” meaning humankind?

When our first Republican President, Abe Lincoln, was asked what he believed, he cited, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” He lived in a time when millions of our black brothers and sisters — neighbors all — were enslaved, and he used the force of government against slavery.

In the 1930s, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, working to revive the nation’s economy in the midst of the Great Depression, said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

Roosevelt enacted a series of government programs to provide jobs in the short run, and Social Security, farm aid, unemployment compensation, and the right of workers to unionize so that they could fight for better wages and benefits for themselves, to prevent another depression.

Republicans of the time argued that helping people too much might lead to their dependency, so they opposed those programs.

By the time Republican Dwight Eisenhower was President in the ‘50s, Republicans and Democrats argued about how much to raise the minimum wage and what Social Security benefits to add.

But in 1980, the Republican Party turned back to the “right,” nominated Ronald Reagan, and dropped its support for equal rights for women. Candidate Reagan said, “Let us make a commitment to care for the needy,” but as President he said, “Government is the problem,” blaming government programs and poor people for high prices and other economic woes.

Today’s Republican leaders, seem to believe that government is mostly a “problem,” rather than a tool of people working together to solve problems.

So they argue that government protections stifle business, taxes should be cut for the wealthy so they can create jobs, and we can’t afford Medicare and Social Security as government programs.

They oppose any kind of government funded national health care program. But no alternative is offered, so voters are left to wonder, who will care for our brothers and sisters if we cut taxes to the bone and eliminate or privatize government programs?

Do we really care, or is it just talk?

The Democratic Party and President Obama have answered, yes, we are our brother’s keepers, and all Americans are our brothers and sisters.

The Republican answer seems to be that our President is not one of us, a foreigner, government programs make people lazy, but tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate them to create jobs.

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney signed a health care bill similar to “Obamacare,” but now he and his party disavow it. What would be their approach to helping us care for our brothers and sisters who are sick, too old to work, but not able to pay for health care, or otherwise just need help? Charity?

Are the Republicans really going to organize volunteers to find and help those who need it? Or just trust our luck to the stock market?

 

Jack Burgess is a retired teacher of American and Global Studies, and a native of southern Ohio.