A very good article that hits the mark. I doubt any liberals, if they read it will have a clue. I don't know why that is. But it is what I observe as I listen to liberals or democrats in general.
Don't Look Back
Why do Democrats keep losing? Because they have nothing to offer by way of reform.
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST
It's time to let Democrats in on a little secret. America is a land of perpetual rebirth and reform--always has been. That's why George W. Bush gets a pass on whatever he did before he found Jesus and swore off drinking. And it's why Bill Clinton received the benefit of the doubt over his "youthful indiscretions" in 1992. And it is why John Kerry probably would have been given a pass on his anti-Vietnam War activities, if only he could plausibly claim to have seen the error in calling his fellow veterans war criminals and equating America with communist Vietnam.
As Democrats search for an American value they can embrace, they also might want to consider that voters tend believe in American exceptionalism--that this nation is a beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. Put these two ideas together and what Donna Brazile will discover as she mixes with the common folk at Denny's and Applebee's is while Americans may complain about the daily struggle of their lives, they expect hardship on the path to a better life. It's the old biblical story of wandering in the wilderness in order to find the promised land, which is how Jonathan Edwards explained it to the generation of Americans who would turn out to fight the Revolution. And it's a much more appealing story for a nation that still identifies more with life on the frontier than it does with John Edwards's story of "two Americas."
What Americans will not tolerate is pessimism, defeatism and stagnation. It's not for nothing that Jimmy Carter's presidency ended amid an era of "stagflation." When Mr. Carter put a sweater on in the Oval Office and told Americans to get ready to start accepting less, he might as well have resigned. Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide in 1980, promising a brighter, better and stronger America. Four years later he won in a walk talking about "morning in America."
Americans don't want to make do with less or accept defeat. They want a new beginning, a fresh start, a rebirth. Franklin D. Roosevelt knew he couldn't offer the same old tired solutions to the greatest economic crisis to beset the nation. Instead he offered the New Deal, itself a derivation from his cousin Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal decades earlier. Bill Clinton similarly understood this and ran for president as a "new Democrat"--a Democrat who would be tough on crime, strong on defense and not a big spender.
What all this means for Democrats now, is that if they want to start winning elections again they need a reform agenda. Schools would be a great place for them to start. Instead of defending the status quo or trying the same old tired solution--more money--Democrats need to spend their time in the political wilderness thinking of what real reforms they can get behind. School choice, vouchers and charter schools are only a few of the options out there. If Democrats come up with something else that works--say, greater local control--for a generation they'll be reaping dividends as the party of education, instead of the party of unions and bureaucrats.
Other areas offer even more opportunities for Democrats, but so far they have little or nothing to offer. Social Security and tax reform are in the pipeline now, thanks to President Bush. And unless Democrats come up with a counteroffer pretty quick, Mr. Bush is going to become the president who gave one of the oldest and most venerated New Deal programs a new lease on life. The same goes for bringing reform to the tax code, the military (bringing the armed forces into the digital age) and even government welfare programs. By the end of the campaign, Mr. Kerry offered a "me too" in terms of using faith based organizations to confront social problems. But no one really took him seriously. In this vacuum, President Bush's Faith Based Initiative remains the only fresh idea in confronting social problems kicking around Washington today.
There's a debate raging now whether the election really did turn on "values"--as if the word only applied to abortion and gay marriage. If that is the extent of the debate for Democrats, it will prove to be a dead-end street. The short answer is, of course the election turned on values. But the hard answer is that it's hard to think of an election that didn't. Fighting the war on terror, bringing democracy to the Middle East, protecting Social Security, ending an era in education dominated by the soft bigotry of low expectations--it's hard to find a contentious political issue that is devoid of fundamental moral judgments. And on each one of these issues, it is the Republican Party that has been offering fresh ideas, a chance for a new beginning. Democrats need to get a reform agenda and start thinking about ways to be born again.
Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com.
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