Having offered advice to Republicans last
week about how to behave if we lost the election (and catching
a whole lot of hell for
it), I’d like to take a turn now and offer some advice to the
actual losers, the Democrats.
First of all, start by admitting you lost. That would be a big
change from the last election when, after four years, Democrats
never really conceded losing in 2000. Operating under the delusion
that the election was “stolen,” they were able to dismiss
everything George Bush did as illegitimate. Even September 11 —
why, that was just Bush’s fault as well.
Second, it’s time to admit you have become the minority party.
This isn’t so bad. Republicans were a minority party from 1932
until 1994. I know it’s hard because for Democrats the political is
always personal and the personal is political. But there are other
things in life. Look at the trial lawyers. They’re essentially the
Democratic Congress in Exile, out of office but functioning like
the “private attorneys general” they fancy themselves and making a
lot of money as well.
But it isn’t the same, is it? To Democrats, politics means
changing things — equalizing income, dispensing social justice,
curing the sick, creating sustainable ecosystems. Pass a law and
watch it happen! It never occurs to you that people can pursue
these goals in the private sphere — and can accomplish things
rather than just telling other people what to do.
The Old Democratic Party is going to have a tough, tough time
dealing with this. The truth is, John Kerry was about the best
candidate the Democrats could have offered. He had a war record, a
patrician air, and enough verbal felicity to win people’s trust.
Yet Kerry was rejected. Somehow his vague “plans” about Iraq and
health care never range true. People have gotten smart. They aren’t
seduced by Democratic ideals anymore.
It isn’t going to get better. Since Southerners stopped fighting
the Civil War and joined their conservative brethren in the GOP,
sectional differences have become meaningless in America. Instead,
the country is divided rural vs. urban, cosmopolitans versus the
average American. The cosmopolitans are able to project their
vision out from New York and Hollywood, but people aren’t listening
anymore.
You could see this the morning after with Katie Couric trying to
cope with the idea that the election was decided by “values.”
Values? What the heck is that? It never occurs to her that three
hours later viewers will be treated to an afternoon of soft-core
pornography masquerading as soap opera. None of this raises an
eyebrow in Manhattan, but parents in Peoria trying to keep their
kids away from the television are sick of it.
SO HERE THE DEMOCRATS are, stuck in a country with a bunch of rubes
who believe in things like going to church and not being
enthusiastic over homosexuality. Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics have
come full circle. (He wasn’t originally very happy about being
“Born in the USA.”) Is there any way that Democrats can function in
this environment?
First you must begin by realizing that American values are real
and the American electorate only entertains liberal ideas when it
is feeling secure and experimental. John Kennedy won office because
people had become almost bored with the prosperity of the 1950s.
Jimmy Carter got elected because he was an innocent waif floating
on the Sea of Watergate. Bill Clinton won because we had triumphed
in the Cold War and the country had little to worry about.
Those opportunities aren’t going to present themselves very
often. Today we live in a dangerous, dangerous world. On Election
Day a Moslem extremist in Holland murdered the great-grandnephew of
Vincent Van Gogh because he had made a movie critical of Arab
culture. These are not ordinary times. We have enemies who don’t
play our game but are striking at the very root of our
civilization.
Democrats have got a lot of thinking to do about our place in
the world and the roots of our culture. They don’t have a very good
record. In the 1960s, liberals loosened the screws on the criminal
justice system just because it might be fun to see what happened.
They expected crime to drop. Instead, it rose to unprecedented
heights for thirty years. Only in the 1990s when states started
reinforcing the death penalty and Rudy Giuliani decided to reimpose
social order did the wave subside.
Democrats will face their first big test when it comes time to
confirm that long line of federal judges. Can they finally
acknowledge that appointing judges is a prerogative of the
governing party? Or will they reduce themselves to an obstreperous
minority, grinding the system to a halt rather than admitting
defeat?
It’s time for a different agenda. Sooner or later, liberals must
reconcile themselves that they are indeed “Living in the USA.”
