[Mb-civic] Bob Herbert

[Mike Blaxill]

Get It Together, Democrats
    By Bob Herbert
    The New York Times

    Monday 17 October 2005

    A word of caution: Democrats should think
twice before getting all giddy about the problems
caving in on the Republicans and the prospects of
regaining control of Congress in next year's
elections.

    For one thing, the Democrats' own house is
hardly in order. While recent polls have shown
growing disenchantment with President Bush and
the G.O.P., there's no evidence that voters have
suddenly become thrilled with the Democrats.

    A survey taken by the Pew Research Center
showed an abysmal 32 percent approval rating for
Democratic leaders in Congress.

    Another thing to keep in mind is that
Congressional redistricting (anti-democratic in
every sense of the word) has made it more
difficult to oust incumbents. It would take a
landslide of shocking proportions for the
Democrats to win control of both houses of
Congress next fall.

    This is not to minimize the troubles facing
the G.O.P. The party is in free fall. The war in
Iraq has been a disaster and despite the vote on
the constitution over the weekend there is no end
in sight. The cronyism and incompetence of the
Bush administration ("Brownie, you're doing a
heck of a job") have become a national joke, a
given.

    Tom DeLay has been indicted. Bill Frist and
his lawyers are answering subpoenas and preparing
a defense for possible insider-trading charges.
The White House is in a state of highest anxiety
over the very real possibility that criminal
charges will be brought against one or more of
the most important people in the Bush
administration. And conservatives have formed a
circular firing squad over the Harriet Miers
flap.

    It's no wonder the Democrats are gleeful.

    They should get over it, and get on with the
very difficult business of convincing the public
that Democrats would do a better job of governing
a country that is already in deep trouble, and
sinking deeper by the day.

    It's not enough to tell voters how terrible
the Republicans are. (Leave that to the
left-leaning columnists.) What Democrats have to
do is get over their timidity, look deep into
their own souls, discover what they truly believe
and then tell it like it is.

    Give us something to latch onto. Where do we
go from here?

    A friend reminded me recently of the old
political adage that all campaigns are a battle
between hope and fear. Ever since Sept. 11
President Bush and the G.O.P. have been pushing
the nation's fear buttons for all they're worth.
The public is frightened, all right - about
terror, about the consequences of the war in
Iraq, about economic insecurity here at home,
about the future of the United States. But there
is no longer much confidence that President Bush
and the Republicans are competent to deal with
these tough issues.

    What the Democrats have to do is get off
their schadenfreude cloud and start the hard work
of crafting a message of hope that they can
deliver convincingly to the electorate - not just
in the Congressional elections next year, but in
local elections all over the country and the
presidential election of 2008.

    That is not happening at the moment. While
Americans are turning increasingly against the
war in Iraq, for example, the support for the war
among major Democratic leaders seems nearly as
staunch and as mindless as among Republicans. On
that and other issues, Democrats are still
agonizing over whether to say what they truly
believe or try to present themselves as a
somewhat lighter version of the G.O.P.

    I wonder what Harry Truman would think about
today's Democratic Party?

    Democrats need to put together a serious
proposal for withdrawal of American forces from
Iraq over a reasonable (which means reasonably
short) period of time, and couple that with a
broader national security plan that focuses on Al
Qaeda-type terrorism and domestic security.

    Democrats need to tell the country the truth
about taxes, about the benefits of investing in
the nation's physical infrastructure, about the
essential need to bolster public education from
kindergarten through college, and about the
shared sacrifices that will be necessary if
anything approaching energy independence is to be
achieved.

    They need to be optimistic and hopeful as
they deliver their message to the country,
explaining that all of these things are doable,
that they will strengthen the U.S. in the short
term and create a better future for the next
generation and the one after that.

    Competence is essential, but it's not enough.
The great voices of history have always been the
voices of optimism and hope.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101705C.shtml