FROM THE HEARTLAND
URL:http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tbray/?id=110002575
Now vs. Then
Democrats are the party of the past. Are voters ready for the future?
BY THOMAS J. BRAY
Tuesday, November 5, 2002 12:01 a.m. EST
With the fate of Congress hanging on as little as a few thousand votes across the nation, Democrats are reportedly firing up their legal legions for postelection lawsuits attempting to "rectify" any close outcomes with which they disagree.
But they might want to think carefully about plunging into this morass once again. For one thing, Republican operatives are likely to be ready for them. For another, it may only reinforce the sense that Democrats stand for little more than the lust for power that was so disgustingly on display at last week's "memorial" for Sen. Paul Wellstone. Indeed, the closeness of the election suggests that while voters may have their doubts about Republicans, they see Democrats as mainly interested in building a bridge to the past.
What to make, after all, of the fact that the Democrats have been forced to trot out two war horses of the last century--78-year-old Frank Lautenberg and 74-year-old Walter Mondale--in hopes of retaining control of the Senate? Or that Bill Clinton and Al Gore have been aggressively urging Democratic voters to turn out in large numbers, not to advance an honest agenda, but to refight the battle of Florida? Or that insofar as Democrats have tried to raise issues, it has been to run the old playbook about "extreme" GOP proposals to reform Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment?
And yet there is George W. Bush, the "accidental" president, rolling along with approval ratings somewhere between 63% and 73%, depending on which poll you read, even after raising the dread possibility of war in the coming months. There has been much commentary about how Iraq has drowned out debate on other issues. But out here in the real world, it has actually been quite the reverse--very little talk about war, and a blizzard of TV ads involving the usual gouging and elbowing over the other guy's domestic record.
Pundits notwithstanding, voters can walk and chew gum at the same time. They understand that a great country must deal both with foreign threats and domestic challenges. It's not that Iraq has crowded out other issues. Democrats, by voting in overwhelming numbers to endorse the president's call to deal harshly with Saddam Hussein, took that issue off the boards. They thought this would lead to an electoral wave in their direction based on domestic issues. Instead, they seemed unable to gain traction.
That would be fairly remarkable in itself, given the record of most midterm elections. No doubt there will be many signals for the future from today's voting, which will include referendums on such issues as universal health care (Oregon), drug policy (Nevada and Ohio), income taxes (Massachusetts) and the initiative process itself (Florida, Montana, Oklahoma and Oregon). But the biggest message may be that even in uncertain economic times, the class-warfare theme at the heart of the Democratic agenda sounds increasingly tired--a relic of the 20th century.
In yesterday's hastily put together debate in Minnesota, Walter Mondale showed that he still has the mental acuity to serve in the Senate. But Republican challenger Norm Coleman demonstrated that he could go toe to toe with a former vice president on the issues. And while courteous and even deferential to Mr. Mondale, Mr. Coleman achieved what had to be a central aim: forcing Mr. Mondale into the awkward position of having to defend his very 20th-century pledge to the Democratic National Convention in 1984 to raise taxes.
Mr. Mondale and Mr. Lautenberg may still manage to win, of course. Both are respected, popular figures in their own right and voters may find them reassuring figures in a time of national stress. But they can hardly claim to represent the future. Campaigns based on "experience" are really campaigns based on preserving the status quo, not mandates for change.
Thus the 2002 election, insofar as it carries a message, would seem to confirm that Republicans still have the energy and the edge when it comes to defining the national agenda. It's an advantage that will have to be carefully nurtured, which can be frustrating to conservatives eager for change. But it does suggest that the Democratic desire to prove that the election of 2000 was stolen has failed. Voters are clearly ready to move on, in the immortal words of Bill Clinton. And for President Bush, that's a major triumph.
Mr. Bray is a staff columnist at the Detroit News. His OpinionJournal.com column appears Tuesdays. |
