Dems vs. GOP: Best Weapons Are the Facts
by Walter Williams
Published on Monday, August 4, 2003 by Long Island (NY) Newsday
Next month, progressive Democrats will open a new think tank, the American Majority Institute, that has an expected yearly operating budget of at least $10 million. This level of support means the institute can challenge the conservative Republican policy shops that in recent years have been much more heavily funded and have clobbered their Democratic counterparts in selling ideas to the public.
The key question is whether the new institute has to emulate the Republicans from President George W. Bush on down in using deceptive information to mislead American citizens about their policies. Its decision whether to employ such chicanery goes to the fundamental democratic issue of informed consent.
But it makes sense for the institute to emulate the conservative policy shops in three ways. First, a big annual budget is needed in the face of the well-funded array of right-of-center think tanks.
Second, aggressively pushing the message is essential. John Podesta, former White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton and the institute's president, has noted that most Democratic policy shops "don't have the communications muscle and focus that is important in influencing pubic opinion."
Third, the American Majority Institute should hire staffers who write well and have good media connections. Also needed is quality control by a cadre of policy analysts with state-of-the-art research techniques. The latter can vet questionable Republican claims and ensure that the American Majority Institute's data and arguments are valid.
Now comes the hard part. The American Majority Institute must avoid the temptation to spin its arguments by pushing the available information too far and engaging in trickery to justify a claim.
In the first place, a primary means of attacking the Republicans will be to expose the dishonesty of their cooked information and deceptive commentary. That is best done when the accuser's claims rest on sound data and honest analysis.
The second reason is that informed consent by the American people is essential to a viable democratic system. Efforts by Republican politicians and public policy shops to purposely dupe citizens on major policy issues have undermined the foundation of the nation envisioned by the founding fathers.
It's no use trying to finesse the shameful cowardice of the Democrats during most of the Bush presidency. The biggest problem for the new institute and the party is not finding honest numbers, but finding the courage to use them.
The Republicans have been zealots without regard to veracity or consistency. Yet, the Democrats have been fearful of taking on the popular president and the partisan think tanks that have supported his distorted claims. These unscrupulous practices also can be the Republicans' Achilles heel.
Exposing the dishonesty, however, requires that the American Majority Institute attack the Republicans with a hard-nosed relentlessness. It should use the available honest numbers to expose the legerdemain on the tax cuts for the wealthy and other clear policy deception. Now that the Democrats have challenged the Bush administration's deception on the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - and drawn blood - hard-hitting critiques of the fraud in other Bush policies can be reinforcing.
Continued Democratic timidity will fail. Nor are Democrats likely to out-spin the Republicans. Forceful use of honest data is the best option.
The Democrats have a mother lode of reliable information that shows the pattern of calculated deception of the Bush administration. It is a rare opportunity that can be used effectively by a tough think tank that is scrupulous in analyzing and packaging data and commentary that can help Democrats in attacking the Bush administration.
When sound numbers support a strong case, the American Majority Institute should go for the jugular. The attack on Republican politicians and think tanks must be unrelenting in exposing deceptive information and dishonest analysis. Be partisan and be honest - it is not an oxymoron.
Such an effort can serve the interests of the Democratic Party and the public. Fighting deception with deception to win the presidency and Congress makes a mockery of the critical concept of having an informed electorate.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans need to recognize this basic point: For a nation that aspires to lead the Mideast toward democracy, lying to the American people about major policies is the antithesis of constitutional democracy.
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Walter Williams, a professor emeritus of public affairs at the University of Washington, is the author, most recently, of "Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
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