Is Harry Reid Really On The Right Side of History?

Rory Cooper / January 13, 2010

This past weekend a brouhaha developed across the nation over remarks Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made in 2008 about then-candidate Barack Obama, as reported in the book “Game Change” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Putting aside whether his vocabulary was appropriate for a senator, in private or public, there is an interesting case being made in his defense. It essentially goes like this: Harry Reid’s rhetoric is excusable because of his voting record. As Harold Ford said on the Today program on Monday: “If his voting record raised concerns, I think there would be issues.” President Obama said Reid is always on the “right side of history.”

Here’s the paradigm that we’re living in: Liberals are portrayed as social justice champions of poor and minority Americans. Conservatives are pictured as indifferent or even opposed to measures that would improve the welfare of the poor and minorities. The return of this line of reasoning is the most disturbing consequence of this week’s political dust-up. There’s no better time to ask whether any of this is even true.

The first question is whether liberals have a right to that high ground. Specifically, have liberal policies of the past four decades put minority groups on a path to social justice? The second question is whether conservatives have a track record of indifference. The answer simply is no to both. At the very least, one can say of the two camps that their intent to uplift the downtrodden are the same. So let’s all use this week’s events to start over on a level playing field and evaluate the policy merits of each. (more…)