TNR's Peter Beinart opines that Democrats' best midterm election strategy is to be vague about agendas and clear about NOT being George W. Bush. And he makes some pretty good points:
Today, according to the Pew Research Center, Democrats are 16 points more likely to declare their enthusiasm for voting. Only 42 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are happy with their party's performance, down 19 points from 2004. And a plurality of * Republicans* think most members of Congress don't deserve reelection. This year, in other words, disgust will likely propel Democrats to the polls and leave Republicans sitting at home.
For the White House, getting these surly GOP couch potatoes to vote is the only way to prevent political Armageddon. And the best way to do that is to get them so enraged about the Democrats that they forget their frustration with their own side. That's why congressional Republicans spent the summer dredging up wedge issues like gay marriage, abortion, and flag-burning. It's why Dick Cheney said Ned Lamont's Connecticut Senate primary victory might embolden Al Qaeda. And it's why Republicans keep trying to bait Democrats into unveiling a detailed agenda--in hopes of convincing Republican voters that, no matter how disappointing Bush has proved, the other guys would be worse.
Beinart says the GOP wants Democrats to submit a "Contract with America"-type plan, so that disenfranchised conservative voters have something to rally against. Democratic candidates' best strategy, he writes, is to "stick to vacuous slogans like 'time for a change' and 'had enough?'".
It sounds logical, yet I completely disagree. Being a "party of no ideas" is a solid plan to recapture the House (and dare we hope, the Senate) this fall, but is it really the direction we want to go? Does this strategy truly embody the party to which belong?
Despite history and experience telling us otherwise, I still believe that our political objectives should revolve around ideals rather than elections and power. Maybe it plays into the GOP's short-term plans, but I think congressional Democrats need to submit a "Contract with America"-type plan so we can redeem our values from exile and put our ideals into action instead of activist blogs.
Democrats have a unique opportunity this fall to remind this country that morality is not the exclusive domain of the Right. We count ourselves amongst the ranks of a majority of Americans who are dissatisfied outsiders looking in as the GOP leads us into one clusterfuck after another. Sure it can cost us a few seats in Congress this year, but we can make our ideals heard by the millions of morally strong Americans who label themselves as "independents" because Karl Rove and Fox News have brainwashed them into believing "liberal" is a 4-letter word.
Perhaps there's an inherent flaw in liberal DNA that causes conflict between ideals and a victorious political strategy. Republicans seem much more capable of sacrificing core beliefs for electoral gain, as they rationalize that one must control the legislature in order to legislate change. Maybe they're right…but isn't having uncompromised ideals the best thing about not being a Republican?
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