Republicans Are People Too

Socialists have always drawn succor from the belief that conservatives lack compassion. On their political battlefields, the hard-hearts (us) march against the caring (them). Imagine my surprise, then, to hear Michael Harrington, socialist author (The Other America) and politico, compliment a conservative on the morality of his motives.

The bon mot is actually on tape, recorded for public television. Harrington was debating Congressman Jack Kemp (R., N.Y.) in one of those sterile publicschool auditoriums where Manhattan socialists seem always to hold their meetings. The topic was “Tax Policy and the Economy.” “Your heart is in the right place, amazing for a Republican,” Harrington told Kemp. “It’s your economics that are wrong.” Echoes of confusion reverberated through the Harrington supporters in the hall. Like me, they had for years been used to hearing the charge put the other way around.

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Paul Gigot

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Socialists have always drawn succor from the belief that conservatives lack compassion. On their political battlefields, the hard-hearts (us) march against the caring (them). Imagine my surprise, then, to hear Michael Harrington, socialist author (The Other America) and politico, compliment a conservative on the morality of his motives.

The bon mot is actually on tape, recorded for public television. Harrington was debating Congressman Jack Kemp (R., N.Y.) in one of those sterile publicschool auditoriums where Manhattan socialists seem always to hold their meetings. The topic was “Tax Policy and the Economy.” “Your heart is in the right place, amazing for a Republican,” Harrington told Kemp. “It’s your economics that are wrong.” Echoes of confusion reverberated through the Harrington supporters in the hall. Like me, they had for years been used to hearing the charge put the other way around.