Democratic Party Stuck at Denial

Harry Reid stuck in denial: 1994's "Contract with America," was an "urban myth."



On the contrary. It was a list of ten specific issues that the Republicans were committed to bring to a floor vote. Not to pass, although they really did try and succeeded with seven and partially with another, but to bring them to a recorded floor vote so that people could see how their representative voted. Most of them had been languishing in committee for years, because that was an easy way to avoid the tough votes where either way you voted you were going to get someone angry, either the voters or the big campaign contributors.



Most of these issues had large constituencies, people who were committed to them. Offering them a commitment to bring it to a floor vote gave a lot of these folks the impetus to switch their vote to the Elephant candidate. Many of these folks had three, five, or even all ten of the issues that they supported and had given up ever seeing happen. In short, this was a market making activity that brought people from being uninterested in politics to being dedicated Republicans because of the Contract With America. Those who were on the fence but supported one or more of the issues went Republican. And those who did not support them weren't in play for the Republicans anyway.



The Republicans committed themselves publicly to the Contract with America, and en masse. No quibbling around the edges. There would be Floor Votes on these issues, period. Furthermore, the issues in the Contract were in line with what a lot of Republicans and their bases of support believed, and had been campaigning upon for years, not something they discovered overnight because some focus group or high powered consultant told them there were votes in it. Their commitment was believable, the way a Democratic commitment to national security is not.



There is a reason why Democrats have completely lost the hearts of the American middle. Deep down, most of the population realized something on September 11, 2001: We are not immune to the attacks that the rest of the world had been suffering for at least thirty years prior to that, and instead of figuring out ways to enhance our national security while nonetheless preserving our rights as Americans, Democrats are utterly obsessing about not abridging one jot or iota of the most ridiculously farfetched among those rights that grew up during a long period when we were immune, no matter what the effect upon national security. It's going to take an awful lot of hard work on their part before anyone is going to believe the Democrats really mean to safeguard our national security, and they're going to have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk, which means some votes on some issues that are going to alienate their most extreme supporters. I'll believe they mean it on national security when they're willing to risk some wrath and votes on the part of their far left supporters in favor of national security measures that really do protect the national interest. Until then, no deal, at least as far as I'm concerned. I have seen exactly zero evidence that any Democrat other than Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller even understand this.