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Our legal system certainly isn't perfect, but it has a feature that our social and political environments could use: a statute of limitations.
With this, you are forgiven for infractions committed long ago. That's why you don't have to worry that the police will appear at your door with a warrant for borrowing a car without permission in 1966, or for having been present on a premises where marijuana was smoked in 1969. The statute of limitations has run out on those offenses.
But parts of our social system offer no such built-in forgiveness for the errors of youth.
Just ask Rep. Robert Michel of Illinois, who serves as the House Republican leader. The NAACP chapter in his district is calling for him to resign.
Not because he proposed repealing the 13th Amendment or
the Voting Rights Act; the man is no racist. But he did
commit a grave offense. In his youth, he enjoyed listening
to Amos 'n' Andy
on the radio, and he admitted as
much last weekend.
Never mind that Amos 'n' Andy,
however offensive
it might sound now, was the most popular program in the
country for many years; how was a child to know any better
then? Never mind that most of us, when we're kids, are
totally insensitive about such matters, and laugh
uproariously at ethnic jokes, religious gibes and racial
put-downs, even as we put our wits to creating new ones.
Never mind that Rep. Michel has served 32 years in congress
without the slightest taint of bigotry.
In certain eyes, if he ever chuckled at the antics of Kingfish half a century ago, then he is unfit to hold office in this country. Can he ever atone for those childhood guffaws? When does the statute of limitations run out?
Others might like to know that, too. No matter what Rep.
Pat Schroeder actually does in the way of substantive
matters, she still carries certain irrelevant baggage: a
press-conference teardrop and a Great Wall bunny suit. How
long before she can leave those behind? How old will Dick
Lamm be before he lives down the duty to die
and
Stand up, damn it
?
Why is it that some people's offenses gain eternal life, and the indiscretions of others are quickly forgiven?
It isn't the nature of the offense: Sen. Al Gore's admission of youthful marijuana smoking had no effect on his presidential campaign, but the same thing was enough to torpedo a supreme court nominee.
It does appear, though, that conservatives do have a
statute of limitations.
They are willing to let
people atone for youthful follies. Liberals seem to believe
in original sin; as far as they're concerned, if you slip
up once, you're condemned.
That explains why Ronald Reagan could be an ardent New
Dealer in his youth, and a noted Hollywood womanizer
between marriages, and still be accepted as the leader of
American conservatism and the great spokesman for
traditional family values.
It also explains why liberals still hate Richard Nixon,
and not for Watergate. Never mind that Nixon opened
relations with China, or put the federal government in the
business of enforcing environmental laws. Liberals won't
ever forgive Nixon for his red-baiting during the McCarthy
era, when everybody from Harry Truman on down was fretting
about security risks.
If the attacks on Rep. Michel are any indication of contemporary liberal thought in America, then the only acceptable people are those who were caring, compassionate and sensitive from the moment of birth, and who have never strayed from that pristine path. As far as liberals are concerned, there isn't any statute of limitations for lapses from purity.
That, more than anything else, might explain why increasing numbers of Americans say they're conservatives. Conservatives seem willing to welcome any converts, but the liberals won't accept you unless your background is such that you've always been one.
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