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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Edward Gresser
I watched with some interest Chris Chocola's address to the Conservative Political Action Committee in February. He mixed a suggestion of bright prospects for Republicans this fall with an attack on the
It sounds awfully familiar. Back in 1982, Democrats were unhappy with an energetic president but gaining polling ground in a period of high unemployment. Lots of Democrats believed then, as many Republicans seem to now, that if we preached the true faith more often, repeated it more loudly, and denounced the president more angrily, we'd restore our fortunes. But the Democratic problem wasn't lack of ideological purity. It was too much ideology and too few new ideas. The public concluded that, dominated by interest groups and unwilling to rethink our policies after the Little Depression of 1974 to 1982, we weren't ready to govern. Neither purity nor loudness nor anger could solve that problem.
A couple of years later, the
President Clinton presided over steady growth and record job creation in the 1990s. President Obama, taking on the gigantic task of turning around the battered economy and lopsided budgets he inherited from his predecessor, is drawing on an eclectic mix of ideas. The healthcare reform bill rests on progressive principles of universal coverage but also draws from experience with individual mandates in Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health reform. The DLC's Bruce Reed, directing the
Hit list.Democrats are more puzzled than flattered to see Republicans not just copying but outdoing our old model. Having really won only one presidential election since the 1980s, Republicans are fading in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northeast. Moderate Republicans are leaving or being driven out. With few left to purge, conservative crusaders have begun expunging deceased
This isn't the solution to the
Republicans should be frankly admitting the problem and starting a rethink. Instead, they're shutting down debate and repeating mistakes we made a generation ago. Bad move. Republicans don't need ideological purity. They need self-criticism and new thinking. It's a bit painful, but they'll be better off. Believe me. We've been there.
The
Edward Gresser is president of the
Available at Amazon.com:
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
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