Joseph Lane: Memo to President-Elect Obama ... Remake the Democratic Party for the Long Term, Now
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Barack Obama revealed an ambitious plan that has always been implicit in his campaign but now stands both openly avowed and suddenly plausible:
he plans to remake the Democratic party.
He made it clear that he wants to find common ground with some Republicans and that he thinks it is possible to transcend the labels that have limited our policy options. If he is sincere about that aspiration (and I think he is), he needs to accept at least two important pieces of advice for the first few days in the White House.
1. Face-off with Congress, the sooner the better.
First, he needs to find a textbook liberal piece of legislation passed by the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, and he needs to veto it and have the veto upheld - the more prototypical the legislation and the sooner the better. He may even have to write the piece of legislation for the exercise to ensure that the point is unmistakable. He must demonstrate that although he wants to work with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he won’t let them dictate the terms of the cooperation. This will come at some risk - ask Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter - but this is not 1993 or 1977.
Barack Obama will have the troops on the back-benches that will support him, and thanks to two consecutive successful congressional elections, the Democrats now have a good number of Representatives and Senators from moderate to conservative districts and states. Many of them will feel that they owe him their seats in the national legislature and will be willing to stake their careers on working with the president on moderate projects. The transformations in the Virginia congressional delegation in the last three years - Senators Webb and Warner and now Representatives Nye, Perriello as well as Obama’s old ally Boucher - illustrates the point nicely.
2. Build a pragmatic, center-left coalition, even with McCain.
President Obama needs to invite Sue Collins, Arlen Specter, Mark Warner, Rick Boucher, Jim Webb, Heath Shuler, and even John McCain, as well moderates and pragmatists from both parties over immediately and say, “OK, we want a health care plan that covers more Americans and lowers costs, an energy plan that gets Americans to work making clean and renewable electricity and that lowers our dependence on foreign oil, and a national security plan that uses American force only where it can accomplish demonstrable benefits for our security without alienating our allies and the rest of the world. And I want all three plans to be ones that all of you in this room can vote for.” If he does that, he could build a center-left coalition party that would be immensely powerful for a generation (and might even attract some conservatives who are rediscovering their own progressive tendencies). If he starts with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on a liberal wish list, he will get some things passed and may win two terms, but he will ultimately narrow the Democrats’ hold in the House and Senate (starting in 2010) and risk losing power after eight years like Clinton did.
Barack Obama has a remarkable opportunity to transform the Democratic party, and he needs to do it. It is not only good for policy, but it is also good politics. There will be a nearly irresistible desire among the Palin rump of the Republican party to continue resisting and running against him on the basis of the hackneyed attacks on the presumably “socialist” (or at least paleo-liberal) character of any Democratic administration. Barack Obama can defuse that attack at the outset. It may not be silenced, but it will appear off-target and anachronistic if the new president chooses to chart a new path toward a more pragmatic liberalism.
He should waste no time getting started.