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Jewish World Review August 31, 2005 / 26 Av, 5765 GOP, Dems in synchronized funk By Tony Blankley
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Usually, when one of our major political parties is feeling
weak, the other one is feeling strong. But right at the moment, both the
Republican and Democratic Parties seem to be in a synchronized funk.
Republican operatives do not currently anticipate the 2006
election to be a good time for Republican challengers. As a result, as Bob
Novak and others have pointed out, it is hard to get the best Republican
hopeful candidates to risk taking on even weak Democratic incumbents in the
next election.
Meanwhile, Republican incumbent congressmen and senators are
sending signals not to expect many heroic legislative efforts from them
before the election — which is still 15 months away. Social Security, of
course, is off the Republican legislative agenda. But so, too, will be other
smaller legislative efforts that might upset even small groups of voters.
I have always found it a curious, if predictable, response of
legislative parties, which fear the public is not satisfied with their
performance that they retreat further into inaction, rather than exert
themselves to re-gain the sagging approval of their natural electors. It is
the instinctive pose of the deer — to freeze in place and hope not to be
noticed.
Given that in an off election the legislators are the only
federal incumbents on the ballot, hiding in plain sight may not work too
well. Although it has to be conceded that unless Election Day 2006 is far
worse for Republicans than it currently looks, they are not likely to lose
either the House or the Senate. But when a party, hoping to only lose two or
three Senate seats and a half dozen or so House seats, adopts a hunker-down
policy — they run the risk of having no strategy left to play if things are
in fact worse next spring or summer.
Compounding the problem is President Bush's insistence on
pushing for his guest-worker legislation this fall. Unless he agrees to a
full, really-secure-the-border-first-before-addressing-guest-worker plan —
this is both political and legislative terrible news waiting to happen. If
the Republicans go along with him, they further alienate the growing part of
the public for whom secure borders is becoming the single issue on which
they will vote. If they oppose the president, they further weaken their own
party's president — as well as upset the business and agri-business
interests, which want the cheap labor and make campaign contributions.
The best prospect for the White House's congressional party in
an off election is a popular president. The congressional party undercuts
their own electoral prospects by undercutting and weakening their president.
But sometimes — as in 1990, when President G.H. Bush came out for tax
increases — it is the lesser of dangers to oppose their president on a
vastly unpopular (and unwise) policy. Insecure borders and immigration looks
to be shaping up as the tax increase tar baby of 2006.
Overhanging Republican anxieties is the war in Iraq — which is
not yet a lethal threat to a Republican congressional majority but might
become one.
With the Republican Party thus mired in this bog of despond, one
would expect the Democrats to be as chipper as a roué bouncing up the stairs
of his favorite brothel. But the regular, elected Democrats are more likely
to be playing the song "Blue Monday" on their CD players and reaching for
their razor blades.
That is because the mainline Washington Democratic Party has
been all but possessed by their lunatic, MoveOn.org, Howard Dean, anti-war,
anti religion, anti-pickup truck, anti-normal, activist wing — and they
know it. Not only is their left-wing fringe forcing its goofy ideas and
obnoxious, off-putting rhetoric on the party regulars, but they are raising
most of the money.
The Democratic Regulars find themselves similarly situated to
the1970s' British Labor Party, which, though possessing many sensible
members and some sensible ideas, came to be seen as the party of the loony
Left. They lost power in 1979 to Maggie Thatcher and didn't shed their loony
image and regain power until 1997 — a full 18 years later.
Even Sen. Clinton — who it had been presumed would get a free
pass from the liberals in order to moderately position herself for a general
presidential election — may find that she, too, will have to placate the
loons by feeding them with the harsh and foolish words they demand from
their politicians.
But in this parity of despair, the Republicans have one
advantage over the Democrats. They have the executive branch and legislative
power to actually carry out some good ideas — if any pop into their heads.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, Creators Syndicate |
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