The recent political history of the United States has been an almost unbroken series of triumphs of the "new" Republican party over the "old" Democratic party. In just one generation we have gone from a Democratic-controlled government, at all levels, to a Republican-controlled government at virtually every level. Furthermore, future prospects for a Democratic renascence seem slim at best. Indeed, things have gotten so bleak for the Democratic party that it is incapable of defeating a Presidential candidate as foolish and incompetent, with a record of failure throughout his life, as George W. Bush.How did it happen? How did this political party, which seemed for so long to be the permanent ruler of the country, become the outsider, in total disarray, without any real hope of ascendancy in the foreseeable future?
There are three forces at work which have combined to create the current situation, two within the Democratic party and one outside it. The first force is the hubris of the party, a combination of arrogance and conceit that led to the party refusing even to consider that there were facts which the party's basic tenets failed to address. The second force is the party's apparent inability to adjust to current trends without losing contact with its core strengths. The final, outside force is the force of hypocrisy in the guise of religious certainty and fearmongering leading, if unchecked, to a tyranny based on theocracy.
In the 1970s, the Democratic party simply refused to acknowledge several facts:
- The welfare system, where money was given in perpetuity to people who did nothing to earn it, was a failure;
- Marginal income tax rates of 70%, while lower than they had been 20 years earlier, were unnecessary and untenable;
- In the aftermath of Watergate, Americans would no longer accept the "word of government" as fact;
- After 30 years of supporting dictators and other unsavory characters, a people accustomed to being considered the world leader looked weak.
By refusing even to admit that these problems existed, the Democratic party lost touch with political and social reality. As a result, the election of 1980 fundamentally changed the political balance of power. Yet, despite what should have been a wake up call, followed by a quarter of a century of almost unbroken failure, the Democratic party still refuses to understand. The party leadership still acts as if it simply deserves to be in power, and rejects any attempt at change. Hubris lives on.
Additionally, by nominating people who cling steadfastly to the old, and now failed, ideas and slogans, the Democratic party only ensures continued failure. The reason John Kerry lost the election is that he was an empty shirt. He mouthed new ideas, but they weren't his. He claimed to offer a choice, but nobody knew what he stood for - indeed, nobody could be sure if he actually stood for anything worth voting for. The same could be said for Al Gore, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale. Only Bill Clinton seemed to understand what it took to reach out to Americans, and the Democratic party never fully embraced him.
Now the party is in danger of losing touch with its core principles in an effort to win elections. This is foolish and stupid, and ultimately doomed. For even if some elections are "won", in the sense of getting Democrats elected, they will be truly lost because the core principles of the party will not have a chance of being put to use.
The fact is, the core principles of the Democratic party - fairness, opportunity for all, help for the downtrodden, individual liberty - can be ridden to victory. The problem is not that the principles are wrong or even outdated; the problem is the misguided feeling within the party that these principles cannot win elections. This feeling couldn't be more wrong, for only by standing on principles can voters be swayed.
Finally, the so-called "religious right" has hijacked moral debate, and they have done so because, and only because, the Democratic party allowed this to happen. Is it moral to give trillions of dollars we don't have to people who don't need it? Is it moral to decry abortion as condoning murder, yet champion state-sponsored execution, which is clearly murder? Is it moral to send hundreds of thousands of young Americans to kill tens of thousands of innocent people, killing, eventually, thousands of Americans for no legitimate purpose and based only on a lie?
The people who run these groups care nothing for morality. They care only for the increase of their own political power. It's time Democrats stood up to these liars and hypocrites. It's time the party stopped cowering every time someone mentioned the words "moral" or "values".
The only way the Democratic party can regain any measure of political power is by taking the following five steps:
Stop worrying about focus groups and polls and start just telling the truth;
Forget about "getting out the vote" in so-called "swing states" and start taking the political battle to the "red states";
Recruit candidates in all districts, not just the "competitive" ones;
Shout loud and long about every instance of election fraud;
Once the above steps are taken, never back down.
This is essentially the same formula employed by the Republicans. It worked for them, and it will work for the Democrats as well. Currently, nobody in the party leadership will even consider this path, which means that the current leadership needs to be replaced en masse. Only when new people, with this basic strategy in mind, are put in charge, can the Democratic party regain its leadership role in America.
Copyright 2004, Dan Jacoby
For a PDF version of this document, click here.
To contact Dan Jacoby, click here.
Return to the Main Menu