A Great Republican Idea

I know Republicans aren’t supposed to listen to National Public Radio but they had a story on the other day that every Republican should love.

Land-Grant Universities And Agriculture's Future

"One hundred fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln signed a law that transformed agriculture and education, and transformed America along the way. Named after its congressional sponsor, the Morrill Act of 1862 directed the states to create institutions of higher learning for the study of agriculture and mechanics, and provided 30,000 acres of public land to each state for the purpose. These land-grant universities include MIT, Cornell, the California state universities and Texas A&M, among many others."

By the way, just in case you’re interested, the law -- The Morrill Land-Grant Acts -- was named for Justin Smith Morrill, a founder of the Republican Party from the unlikely state of Vermont. The law was only able to be passed after many Southern states had left the Union. They had been blocking it for 20 years. Does that sound familiar?

The next time you hear a modern-day Republican tell you that government can’t create jobs, tell them how Texas A&M got its start. And MIT.

Speaking of MIT -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- do you controller types know about SAGE from Lincoln Labs? You might recognize that the government created a few jobs when they figured out how to wire multiple radar sites to a computer.

It’s nice to know where you’ve been. It helps you figure out where you can go. The Republican Party wasn’t always crazy. Really smart people used to run for Congress and work in government. We can make this country work well again. But first, we have to recognize that we need a good government for that to happen. And we won’t get there with the Republican simpletons’ slogan that government is bad and business is good.

Don Brown
July 6, 2012