Politics

 

 

Eerily like the Democratic Party of 1854, the Democratic Party of 2010 may be a presidential election victory away from an ignominious repudiation and a decades-long detour through the political wilderness.  Like the 1850s, the thrilling and astonishingly decisive victory of a handsome dark horse, paradoxically, may mask the structural instability of the Democratic ascendancy.  Under the sweet but delusional spell of sudden and unexpected congressional majorities and control of the White House, Democrats then and now misread their mandate and misjudged the durability of their dominance.  Ironically, the recent meteoric elevation of party fortunes in 2006 and 2008, the euphoric triumph of Barack Obama, and perhaps even a hard-fought reelection win in 2012 by default, may well offer the Democratic Party of today one final and spectacular opportunity to definitively demonstrate the utter bankruptcy of modern liberalism.

 

In the same vein, the modern Republican Party runs the risk of misinterpreting the looming Democratic catastrophe as a GOP success. Democrats have struggled mightily to characterize the Republicans as the “party of no,” which, at least during this season of off-year canvasses and special elections, proved a compelling and winning strategy. More accurately, sensing the swelling public frustration, GOP leaders have merely opposed the Democratic overreach on sheer political instinct.  Banking on continued economic stagnation, and expecting (justifiably it seems) an endless supply of Democratic maladroitness, hypocrisy, and arrogance, Republicans envision a dramatic midterm conquest commensurate with the Revolution of 1994.

 

However, Republicans seem blind to the fundamental uniqueness of this moment and, more striking, the precariousness of their short-term political position.  What does the GOP have to offer the electorate in 2010?  Unlike 1994, when Republicans presented an expertly crafted and eminently comprehensible common sense platform, the “Contract with American,” current GOP leaders seem somehow unwilling or incapable of shaping a cogent alternative message.

 

As sympathetic conservative commentator, Fred Thompson, said this week on his radio show, “the Republicans run the risk of being the dog that catches the car.”  What now?

 

Even more problematic, 2010 voters have experience with Republican rule.  Unlike 1994, voters can easily recall a twelve-year track record of GOP incompetence, corruption, and infidelity to the conservative principles of government Republican lawmakers so blithely espouse.

 

The inconvenient truth: the Republicans of 2010 carry the baggage of a failed party bereft of ideas and visionaries—lacking intellectual honesty and the courage to speak classical conservative truth to its own conventional wisdom.

 

The current GOP is not offering a true austerity program, which, if actually implemented, would prove wildly unpopular and painful—but an indispensable remedy to place America back on a path to sustainability.  Instead, Republicans seem to be offering more of the same: tax cuts, a little less government spending on the margins, and a negative promise to steer clear of budget-busting programs on the scale of national healthcare.

 

Right now no one in the Republican Party is seriously addressing the tough issues that pose an existential threat to our survival as a nation: the trillions of dollars in debt we currently owe and the tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities looming in our future.  The best the GOP can do is offer a promise to return to the status quo ante Pelosi: the pledge to stay on the road to disaster —but drive at a more moderate speed.

 

Is that really a winning message for 2010 and beyond?