Democratic Congressional Priorities
A Big Win
Fueled
by anger at the Iraq War, Bush’s ‘War on Terrorism’, New Republican economic
policies (inequality, debt and stagnation) and corruption, more mainstream
Americans went to the polls than expected.
Thus Democrats regained control of both the house and the Senate,
winning 32 additional house seats, 6 additional senate seats, and many
additional governors and state legislators.
This might not have happened until 2008, except for a series of bad news
about the Iraq War which even Bush could not explain away.
Our
conventional wisdom often suggests that Independents are some type of moderate
Liberal-Conservative mixture. Two thirds
of Independents are Liberals, many more consistently liberal that the Democrats
(who sometimes simply want to win regardless of ideology). A high percentage of Independents voted and two
thirds voted for Democrats.
New
Democratic Legislators
Howard
Dean’s 50 State Strategy appears to have paid off big time for winning both
national and local contests in both blue and red states. Passionate supporters are not enough to win,
they must be organized. Democratic
candidates won in various red states.
Even when they only threatened to win, they diverted Republican
resources from other races.
Rahm
Emanuel’s recruitment of well qualified candidates was also important. Emanuel is primarily concerned with
Democratic victories regardless of the ideology of the winners and the means
used to obtain their victory. Howard
Dean wants Democratic winners to be Liberals and disparages deceptive
campaigning. Contrary to the
Conservative pundits, our newly elected Democrats are as liberal as our long
term Democratic legislators and their leaders.
Many have run what are called populist campaigns, against unfair
taxation, corruption by powerful business interests, decline of our middle
class, increased collapse of our safety net, etc.
Legislative
Priorities
Our
Democrats should find it easy to agree on legislative priorities and
strategies.
1. Ethics
Reform
The
highest priority will be ethics reform, including reduction of lobbyist
influence, treating the minority Republicans fairly and seeking bipartisan
solutions without sacrificing Liberal values.
Hopefully many other electoral, campaign and legislative process reforms
will follow.
2. Economic
Fairness and Safety Net
A
second priority will be economic fairness, including repealing the huge
subsidies for oil companies, bargaining with pharmaceutical companies to lower
the price of Medicare medicines, lowering the interest rates that banks can
charge for student loans, raising the minimum wage, etc. Hopefully (when Bush is replaced by a Liberal
in 2008), our taxes will be made much more progressive.
It
will take awhile, but escalating medical care expenditures with more patients
left behind will require basic health care reforms. Democrats may also provide legal status for
immigrants needed for our workforce.
Democrats will also replace ideology with science, supporting stem cell
research, taking steps to reduce global warming, mandating less use of
carbon-based energy and protecting our eco-systems.
3. Bi-Partisan
Foreign Policy
Democrats
will attempt to restore a bi-partisan foreign policy, which gets us out of
4. Civil
Liberties
Another
area of liberal concern is the greatest assault upon our civil liberties (by
the Patriot acts and other legislative and administrative acts) since our
Republic was founded. As with previous
periods of hysteria about threats to our country following World Wars I and II,
we may simply have to wait until the hysteria abates. Hopefully as occurred with previous
repressive legislation, very few people will be harassed by the Patriot
act. We will not become like the
5. Social
Legislation
The
growing strategic consensus is that liberals should attempt to stimulate
mainstream grassroots support for social legislation instead of trying to pass
it before our public is ready. Both long
term and newly elected Democrats may place a low priority upon legislation
concerning gun control, gay marriage and eliminating restrictions on women’s
reproductive choice. This does not mean
that these issues as unimportant, but only that any legislation costs more
effort than the relief it would provide.
6. Continuing
Corporate Influence
Both
traditional and new Democrats are susceptible to corporate influence. Corporate influence must be viewed as the
reason many Democratic legislators voted for the repressive bankruptcy
legislation. No major extension of
health coverage is possible without eliminating the enormously costly employer
– private insurance company financing, but Democrats have continually attempted
compromise with private insurers and failed. The biggest challenge may be not
disagreement between long term and new legislators, but instead the fragmented
responsibility for legislation among various house committees and subcommittees.
A New
Liberal Era
We
have paid an enormous price for giving power to Bush and his New Republican
Colleagues. But through their excessive
deception, incompetence and corruption, they have succeeded in wrecking the
traditional Republican Party. Already
the various types of Conservatives are blaming each other for their
losses. Many Republicans are deciding to
retire from congress. This should help
Democrats to elect our president and even more legislators in 2008.
Our
sweeping victory may be the beginning of the largest liberal period in American
History. Our American mainstream is more
liberal than ever before. With
urbanization, immigration and changes in household composition, we have become
more tolerant of diversity.
Unfortunately our diversity may have lessened our sense of
community. With a loss of oneness, we
may be less compassionate. But as our
personal insecurity has increased, we are more concerned with strengthening our
safety net. United Democrats (with few
Trojan Horse Conservatives among them) can respond to our mainstream tolerance
and compassion, with divided Republicans unable to oppose them.