If Democrats don't get clear about this the next "third party" will actually be the second party
Get Along? Get Real.
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A25
The power of negative thinking is greatly underestimated, especially in politics.
…Remember the 1993-94 battle over Clinton's health care plan? William Kristol, the Republican strategist and editor, wrote a series of memos urging his party to do all it could to block Clinton's plan and not dare think of compromise.
If Clinton got something like universal health coverage, Kristol warned, "it will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will, at the same time, strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government."
Naturally those of us who favored giving all Americans health coverage regretted how much influence Kristol's view had on his party. But can anyone now doubt that as a strategic matter, from his side's point of view, Kristol's shrewd counsel of negativism was proved absolutely right? Republicans stopped health care reform, but Clinton took the blame. A chance to show that progressive government could achieve important objectives was lost.
And now the Republicans are moving to weaken Social Security -- one of the great achievements of progressive government -- in the name of strengthening it. They are willing to borrow massive sums to start private accounts that Republican strategists such as Grover Norquist freely concede are designed to create a new generation of stockholders -- and Republicans. Kristol's now irrefutable logic suggests that Democrats would be fools to be complicit with putting the country further into hock to undercut a program that works for the purpose of creating more Republicans.
The same logic applies to other issues, including battles over the judiciary. Republicans did all they could to obstruct Clinton's judicial appointments. Their punishment? More vacancies to fill with right-wingers when Bush became president. Some punishment.
At the heart of Getalongism is the view that Democrats should not dare do what the Republicans did. Could it be that Getalongism is an ideology designed primarily to maintain the Republicans as our nation's permanent governing majority?
