After struggling with myself to get out of my warm bed to make the trek through the cold and snow to go to my 9:30 power lecture (Political Science 617; Comparative Legal Institutions, if you were curious), I finally arrived a minute late to find the lecture hall covered with leaflets from the College Democrats that question the appropriateness of President Bush’s $40 million inaguration. The back of the leaflet, I found equally as interesting. After noting all of the things that $40 million dollars could buy (aside from part of the unmentioned Pell Grants the President cut the other day), the leaflet turns to ask “Interested in a more fiscally responsible party?”
I found this pretty interesting. The Democratic party, was appealing to voters on the basis that they’re more conservative finacially than others. Finacial conservatives aren’t voters who are usually democratic. In fact, finacial conservatives tend to be more moderate republican’s than anything else. But the Democratic suggestion that republican’s are not holding true to their own philosophy of government, I find largely true and a truth that completely undermines their position. The amount of deficeit spending under the Bush Administration (with a republican controlled congress), is much larger than under Clinton and Regan. Clearly, the reality is that the Republican’s actions are different than their words.
Moreover, the democrat’s appeal to this idea though is particularly interesting. As I said before, people who vote democratic, tend to do so because of other issues. Appealing to the economics of the nation I think is something the democrats have lost. Democrats have ceded the issue of the economy to the republicans on the grounds that republicans don’t like taxes. Also, Al Gore in 2000 often talked about the economy, but did so in such a wonk-ish fashion that every democrat seems to fear that if s/he talks about the economy in way other than “taxes=bad,” then s/he too will be branded some kind of ivory tower robot. I found this leaflet particularly interesting because it appears to be an attempt to reclaim what was once lost; a democratic message on the economy. Clinton-Gore were effective in 1992 by emphasizing the message that “It’s the economy, stupid” in order to show how Bush the First was mishandling the economy. The existence of Ross Perot in that campaign only reinforces this point.
Commenting on a new book on American Centrists, John Stewart said, “Take to the streets and scream: Be Reasonable!” And clearly, this is what we need. The economy is not colored in black and white by the issue of taxes. We need to be able to see the shades of gray and make reasoned policies based on this ability. I think the facts show that the Republicans are being neither reasonable, nor are they handling the economy well, and this leaflet reflects this.
