The Democratic Problem
Ron Brownstein nails it:
In the latest poll from Democracy Corps, a project of leading Democratic consultants, Republicans held a crushing 30-percentage-point advantage when voters were asked which party knows what it stands for.
If Dems don’t know, we don’t know. However, Brownstein poses a problem that isn’t much of a problem:
The danger for the GOP is that the political dialogue is being structured less as a choice between Republican and Democratic ideas than as a referendum on Republican ideas alone.
How is this not a win-win? If, for example, the choice is no longer whether to cut taxes but how much–that’s nothing but good for Republicans and conservative ideals. You never heard much about of a “democratic crack-up” in the 60 or so years of Democratic legislative branch control from the New Deal to the Contract with America.
With the Republicans holding all 3 branches, of course the agenda is Republican. Why Brownstein things this is a problem for the Dems is beyond me — it’s like complaining water runs downhill.
It’s when the opposition is driving the agenda that the incumbent party has a problem. Like, say, 1980 or 1994.
Now, not knowing what they stand for is a problem — that’s the path to irrelevance and a Republican supermajority.
Comment by Kevin Murphy — 4/4/2005 @ 10:52 pm
I like how Brownstein implies that Democrats enjoy raising taxes if they could get away with it, and they get some perverted pleasure from doing that. It’s funny how often the Democrats make the mistake of advocating taxes because they bring pain to some group, rather than any net gain or widespread benefit coming from them. (See: Yacht Tax)
Bill Clinton was swept into office mainly by the one-issue candidacy of Ross Perot, and his relentless pounding of the budget deficit and debt issue. This issue is a powerful force that just doesn’t exist now, for some reason. The surging debt, surging oil prices, and plunging dollar makes one wonder how long this era of low inflation will last.
Brownstein doesn’t see the elephant in the room - that the Democrats are members of the Culture of Pain. Democrats oppose a border fence upgrade because it generates too much pollution, they say. Hospitals and schools gorged with criminal migrants are dumped like a piece of shit on voting citizens. Kerry’s only decipherable opinion about taxes is they should be higher.
Comment by Ladainian — 4/5/2005 @ 1:38 am
“How is this not a win-win?”
Because some policies aren’t popular. Its easy to be the party that gives away goodies and tax cuts. But not easy to be the party that wants to cut social security checks.
Comment by actus — 4/5/2005 @ 8:04 am
Some Call It The Carnival/Bonfire Of Classiness.
I call it “Classiness, All Around Us.” Click to explore more WILLisms.com. In no particular order, WILLisms.com presents classiness from the blogosphere: 1. The Political Calculations Blog explains: About 98 percent of baby boomers would have been be…
Trackback by WILLisms.com — 4/5/2005 @ 8:38 am
A win is not the same as a win-win, dude.
Referendum means Dems can win with no ideas of their own. That’s not good.
Comment by Richard Bennett — 4/5/2005 @ 1:16 pm
If the Republican did in fact know what they stood for it would indeed be a win-win. But as a former conservative Sen from Mo pointed out in a NYT op-ed the liberal/Rockerfeller Republicans seem to be taking charge of the party. Neither party really knows what it stands for. The Republicans have a definate advantage, but having an advantage and winning are not the same. One pertinent example : why has Janice Rogers Brown not yet been voted on by the Senate?
Comment by Rod Stanton — 4/5/2005 @ 1:21 pm
I see your John Danforth op-ed and raise you today’s David Brooks op-ed…
Comment by Christopher Cross — 4/5/2005 @ 3:20 pm
The Democratic Problem
If Dems don’t know, we don’t know. However, Brownstein poses a problem that isn’t much of a problem.
Trackback by Legal XXX — 4/5/2005 @ 9:35 pm