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Dear Auntie Pinko,
I’m just so happy that the Democratic Party won so many House and Senate seats, it’s hard to think of anything but celebrating. Then I sign on to DU and I’m right back down in the dumps as I read all the threads bickering and arguing about whether or not impeaching Dubya should be the first priority, or whether Hillary Clinton should run for President, or whether smoking should be allowed in such-and-such a place, or what a putz this Democrat or that Democrat is because he or she doesn’t agree with the person posting about this, that, or the other. I realize we’re all Democrats and we don’t march in lockstep towing the Party line, but can we even accomplish anything if all we do is bicker?
The other thing that bothers me is that people seem to have very high expectations for what a Democrat-controlled Congress can do about things like the war in Iraq. Plus a lot of other things. I agree that Congress can pass laws but Dubya can still veto them and neither branch of Congress has a veto-proof Democratic majority, after all. Are we getting our hopes up too high? Will it reflect badly on the Democrats if during the next two years the only thing they can accomplish is to keep the Bush Crime Family and their staff from gutting the Treasury any further or lying us into any more wars?
Auntie, what do you think the Democrats can accomplish, if we can ever stop bickering?
RaeAnn
Durham, NC
Dear RaeAnn,
You just keep right on celebrating! The results of the November 7th election are the most hopeful thing America has experienced in six years; don’t let the day-to-day bickering detract from that joy and hope.
Of course we on DU continue to bicker, as do Democratically-inclined folks on other websites and blogs, and in the media. That’s part of our “job,” in a way. We are, after all, the grass roots. Ideas and opinions have to be threshed out, argued, tested, ridiculed, defended, doubted and embraced, championed and rejected here. That’s part of how the Democratic Party works — we aren’t shy about providing voices for our elected representatives to take to Washington, and we’ve always provided a very wide range of views.
Which is a good thing. One reason this diversity of opinions is important is that it ensures that no legislative initiative is going to make the transition from idea to reality without some pretty strenuous testing. For an illustration of why this is important, just look at the “Patriot” Act that sailed through the legislative process with hardly a dissenting voice.
And don’t forget that one of the perks, so to speak, of being out here in the cheap seats is that we have the luxury of bickering and arguing and taking apart every possible course of action and dissecting every possible flaw in someone who opposes our viewpoints. While I trust that our newly-elected Congressional leadership will continue to facilitate the vigorous debate and intra-party dialogue that has always been a hallmark of the Democratic Party, I am pretty sure that they will also know when to close ranks and call for Party discipline. And especially while we still have Mr. Bush’s Administration looming over America like a toxic cloud, I think most of our Senators and Representatives will find ways to work together regardless of ideological variations.
I think your worry about inflated expectations has some merit. When the scale of the mess to be cleaned up is so vast, it’s easy to slip into denial about the amount of work and length of time the cleanup process will take. With the war in Iraq looming so large in many Americans’ list of worries about the (mis)direction our country has taken, it’s tempting to ask the newly-elected Congress to “fix” it. Right now! Even the Republican commentators who (rather disingenuously, I think,) accuse the Democrats of “not having a plan for Iraq” perpetuate the notion of Congress being able to “fix” the war in Iraq.
And yet there is very little direct action that Congress can take, and what they can do —withdrawing all funding for the military operations, for example— could easily do more harm than good. No Democratic Representative wants to see the shambles there get drastically worse, with even less equipment and protective gear available to troops fighting a rearguard action on an abandoned battlefield.
Congress could, if they managed to develop a broad consensus on a “good” Iraq policy, pressure the Executive Branch to adopt and implement that policy, perhaps by holding hostage various legislative initiatives that Mr. Bush wants accomplished. Of course, that would mean that if Mr. Bush made gestures in the direction of doing what Congress wants (a highly unlikely contingency under any circumstances!) then Congress would have to “reward” him by passing some of the legislative initiatives he wants. I really don’t think this is a good thing. In the first place, I don’t trust Mr. Bush and his Administration to competently execute any steps in implementing someone else’s Iraq policy. They can’t even manage their own. And in the second place, I wouldn’t want a Democratic Congress to feel obliged to deliver any quids-pro-quo to this White House.
So whatever Democrats can do, it will have to be indirectly, applying a little pressure here, rejecting an appointment there, investigating and exposing an abuse somewhere else. The cumulative impact of these steps could be great, but there are no guarantees, and they don’t offer any big dramatic turnarounds that would make the Democrats into national heroes. Just hard, slogging work against continual opposition. The work will expose them to considerable political risk, too. I think they have the will and the guts to do it, but not quickly enough to satisfy the people who “want it fixed, NOW!”
And what Congress can accomplish in other areas, while Mr. Bush still holds a veto pen, will also be limited. I think they will manage to take some crucial steps in the right direction, especially if they concentrate on widely popular initiatives that will reflect very badly on Mr. Bush to veto. They can also do a lot just by “cleaning” their own house —using the momentum for reform to make real changes that significantly affect the relationship between campaign funding and legislative earmarks, ethics rules and enforcement with teeth, etc. And there seems to be a fragile, emerging, bipartisan consensus that we really do need to create election mechanisms that restore voters’ faith in the system. If they take on that one, they could do a lot of good.
A lot of people have been calling aggressively for massive, multiple, far-reaching investigations, too. While I share the desire to watch the worst of the con artists and criminals who have been raiding our public patrimony ‘get what’s coming to them,’ I think it would be smart to be strategic about the number, pace, and scope of investigations.
Wholesale exposure of so much pervasive corruption and wrongdoing carries some risks. Turning the public off entirely, or seriously undermining Americans’ confidence in government itself (rather than the individuals in charge,) could make it difficult for Congress to accomplish further reform. Investigations must be conducted with impartial, dispassionate objectivity, and strict attention to the quality and reliability of evidence, in order to avoid tainting them with partisan rancor. Such a taint would undercut their impact. That kind of care and deliberation will be costly in terms of time and effort, when there is much urgent work to be done elsewhere in the legislative arena. So the new Democratic majority will have to be careful and strategic in targeting and carrying out investigations.
Fortunately, I think we have leadership honed in a very hard school indeed, combined with an incredible reserve of passion and commitment from our incoming Democratic Senators and Representatives. I’m sure they will keep our somewhat inflated hopes and expectations in mind, and do their best to deliver everything they can, while assuring a positive setup for the elections of 2008 and a better future for all Americans. So keep right on celebrating, RaeAnn, and thanks for asking Auntie Pinko!
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