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Me-Too Democrats and the Mid-Term Elections

As Democrats assess the debacle the party suffered in Tuesdays elections, they will necessarily ask themselves two questions: What went wrong? and Who is responsible?

The answer to the second question includes several people. Among them are Osama bin Laden, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush. Bin Laden and his terrorists did for George W. Bush what Timothy McVeigh and company did for Bill Clinton. National tragedy leads people to turn to the only president they have at the time and gives that leader an opportunity to become a national symbol. Under the tutelage of Mr. Rove, his senior political advisor, President Bush took full advantage of this opportunity. Rove laid out the strategy for the midterm elections in a secret presentation that was uncovered in June. He stressed the need to maintain a positive issue environment and said that the key would be to keep the public focused on war. When White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was questioned about why President Bush was waiting until September to persuade the American people that war against Iraq is necessary, he responded, From a marketing point of view, you dont introduce new products in August.

Consider what the major issues in this years elections would have been if the administration had not diverted attention to war with Iraq. Those issues would have been headed by the worst performance by the stock market in the first eighteen months of any presidency in the 75 years Standard & Poors has kept records. The drop in the S&P 500 index in the first 18 months of George W. Bushs tenure was almost twice as bad as that experienced during the same span of Herbert Hoovers presidency, when the Great Depression was getting underway. Another major issue would have been the malfeasance and greed of the presidents close allies in the corporate world. We would also have heard about renewed budget deficits, the consequences of the presidents tax cuts for the rich, the rapid increase in healthcare costs, and other issues, almost all of which would have hurt candidates of the presidents party.

Karl Rove also designed a strategy to inoculate Republicans against their congenital problems on such issues as Social Security and health care. Under this strategy, almost all Republicans abandoned their talk of privatization of Social Security and the party presented a prescription drug plan of its own. The latter plan was a far cry from what most citizens want, but the mere existence of a Republican plan left many voters with the false impression that there was little to choose between the parties on this issue.

Yet the skill of Republican strategists in manipulating the issues and focusing the contest in their areas of strength is only part of the reason that the Democrats were unsuccessful in an economic environment that should have been very much to their advantage. When they ask who was responsible for the partys poor showing, they should not look only at the Republicans. They should look in the mirror.

Roves strategy was so successful in large part because the Democrats played into his hand. The Democratic leaders decision to abandon principle and their own better judgment on the resolution for war with Iraq demonstrated political cowardice and lack of conviction. There was nothing to energize the Democratic base.

Weak-kneed Democrats prior to this years election went down a path similar to that followed by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. We now know from tape recordings of telephone conversations Johnson had in the spring of 1964 that he foresaw that an American war in Vietnam would be a disaster for this nation, but he felt he must go ahead with it because if he did not, Republicans would attack him as weak and soft on Communism, blaming him for losing Vietnam as they had blamed Harry Truman and the Democrats for losing China in 1949. That strategy worked politically for Johnson in the short run, but it ultimately proved disastrous for both his party and the nation.

Running a campaign on the slogan Me, too! is always a mistake. Alf Landon tried this approach against Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 and carried only two states. It is time for the Democrats to realize that supporters of Barry Goldwater were right in the early 1960s when they said their party must offer a choice, not an echo. Republicans went down to humiliating defeat on that basis in 1964, but eventually they came back in dominant fashion by refusing to say Me. Too!