democrat1

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

National For a Real Democratic Platform - Part I by David Katz Democrats today are facing a crisis more serious than the one the Republicans faced in the mid-sixties, the growing irrelevance of the party in the eyes of the electorate. By the middle of the Johnson presidency, the Republicans were viewed as a me-too party, echoing the Democrat world-view from a more conservative, pro-business angle. The left wing of the Republican party was indistinguishable from conservative or centerist Democrats on economic and social issues, and far more liberal than the conservative Southern Democrats on race.

Barry Goldwater’s “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” speech was actually a rejection of Republican platforms and policy. Goldwater and his political descendants realized that moving left to court the political middle was a strategy for continued failure; after all, Republicans acting as pseudo-Democrats would always have less to offer than Democrats acting as real Democrats. Despite the disaster of the Goldwater presidential run, weaning Republicans away from the governmental philosophies shared by both parties became the dominant effort of Republican strategists. With the opportunity provided by the demise of the Solid South in the wake of civil rights successes, the Republican party welded a conservative fiscal policy, pro-business/anti-labor stance and (often neo-racist) social conservatism into a winning platform.

When not painted with the left-wing tarbrush, Democrats are viewed today as me-too Republicans subject to the same “why settle for a cheap imitation when you can have the real thing” rap that Republicans faced two generations ago. The Solid South is now part of a Southern, mid-America, mountain West axis that shares a social (and, in part) religious outlook despite diverse economic interests. Democrats face the task of breaking this coalition apart and forming a new one more favorable to their own party. What is needed to accomplish this?

First, they must be willing to espouse positions and projects that they believe are right, even though they may be deeply unpopular with the current electorate. It is impossible to change public opinion on any issue if you are forever running away from your own position.

Second, they must agree on policy covering the economy, international relations, domestic safety, the environment, education and health care. Then they must publicize these positions. In part II of this series I will suggest guidelines for this process.

Third, they must be more aggressive in publicly confronting the President and Republican congressional leadership on issues, and on Republican misrepresentation of facts. Democrats have achieved an unenviable reputation as having no backbone, ready to roll over whenever pressure is applied.

Republicans are vulnerable on a host of issues, from their dissipation of the Clinton budget surpluses to increased unemployment to a failure to act on medical coverage and prescription costs to alienation of allies to starving Homeland Security of adequate funding to cuts in education funding and aid to states to encroachments on our Constitutional rights and liberties. These vulnerabilities will be irrelevant if the Democrats don’t speak out effectively, but speaking out will only be effective if, in addition to pointing out the Administrations failures, they are able to present a coherent and understandable plan for governance.