A really excellent analysis from former congressman, the very conservative Bob Barr:
[In 1994,] Many in the new [GOP] House majority incorrectly concluded that their 1994 victory was a mandate for all they had campaigned on: dramatically smaller government, quickly achieved; significantly lower taxes; and a complete rollback of many policies instituted in his first two years in office by their nemesis, President Bill Clinton (whom we repeatedly underestimated).I think Barr is right on both fronts. The Democrats have put forth solid legislative proposals that the public supports, like increasing the minimum wage and implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. But in the end, those policies weren't the tipping point that won us the election, at least not exclusively. Bush's incompetence (Katrina), and Republican over-reach (Terri Schiavo), doomed the GOP - and fortunately, at the same time, a good crop of sane Democrats presented policy alternatives that the public endorsed (e.g., time to change the course in Iraq).
What many congressional Republicans failed to realize until much later was that their November victory was less of a vote of confidence in them and more a vote against Clinton. This miscalculation led to costly blunders in our first year; including trying to do too much too fast, which placed us far ahead of where the American public wanted us to be and where it felt comfortable being....
The Democrats will do everything in their power to avoid a return to second-class citizenship. They will be more likely than were the Republicans a dozen years ago to take modest steps, and to be careful lest rhetoric overtake feasible action. The goal for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her battle-hardened team will be to spend two years laying the groundwork for further gains in 2008, and to push an agenda that will provide a solid and likely centrist platform for their party's standard-bearer.
That means, the Democrats need to proceed with legislative moderation over the next few months, if not the next two years (as Barr notes in his last paragraph). The next two years aren't just about fixing the Iraq Problem and stopping the progression, and actually beginning to reverse, all the other damage the Republicans have done to our country and the world over the past twelve years. The Democrats need to think about the future, their future, our future. If they're thrown out of power again in 2 years, then any gains we make legislatively over the next 24 months won't mean squat - the GOP will simply reverse everything again.
Now, that doesn't mean the Democrats should be spineless wimps, or veer politically to the right in order to fool the public into thinking they're really Republicans. It's more about being mature than being conservative. The public likes backbone and they like straight-shooters. They don't like wimps, they don't like games, and they don't like extremes. That means, yes, you stand up to Bush when you need to. But it also means, no, you don't make impeachment a very high priority any time soon.
(Not that the public wouldn't support impeachment, some day - but you don't propose extreme solutions to problems until you lay the groundwork for those solutions, which includes convincing the public of the need and justification for those solutions so that the public doesn't think you're nuts. This was the problem with the Alito Filibuster, and so much more offered by certain feel-good Democrats. Feel-good solutions, well, feel good. But they get you nowhere if you don't have a plan for actually winning the hearts and minds of the public.)
The Democrats need to balance 'doing the right thing' with 'staying in power long enough to be able to continue doing the right thing.' And in that regard, I think Reid and Pelosi have set the right tone and promoted the right policies. Both are planning to begin with legislative initiatives the majority of the public welcomes. And both have made conciliatory gestures towards the Republicans and the White House in order to show the public that a Democratic victory isn't about retribution, it's about setting our country on the right course. That's smart policy, and it's smart politics.
