This past weekend, I joined the executive board of the UNC Young Democrats on its semester retreat. As one might imagine, the mood was more somber than usual. There have been better times to be a Democrat.
A week ago, the Republican Party captured full control of Congress and reclaimed the N.C. House of Representatives. A questionably elected president with no mandate has won a mandate from an election whose results are hard to question. While defeat is always hard to stomach, Democrats have almost grown accustomed to it.
Our country has been drifting to the right for the past 30 years. Since 1968, six out of the nine presidents elected have been Republicans. And our presidents -- irrespective of their party -- have been becoming more conservative: Richard Nixon's policies were often more liberal than those of Bill Clinton.
More and more Americans now cynically believe that government can't play a positive role in our lives. The burden of proof always rests with Democrats to show they're not big government liberals who want to tax for taxation's sake, while Republicans aren't forced to account for the public schools, their tax cuts have turned into trailer parks or the avoidable illnesses suffered by those denied access to health care.
This year's election should have been one of the most electric in recent history. Our nation is on the verge of war, and our economy has imploded, with millions of Americans losing their jobs. Our president has responded by signing a budget-busting tax cut, 70 percent of which will go to wealthiest 20 percent of Americans and only 2.5 percent of which will go to the poorest 20 percent.
Instead of running to engage the Republicans on these issues, Democrats ran from them. On Election Day, the country was asked to choose between a party proud of its positions and another that maybe kinda sorta didn't like the drift of things a little bit (but not too much). The choice was clear -- Who will stand behind a party too cowardly to stand up for its principles?
A little more than 30 years ago, the Republican Party found itself in a similar situation. Between 1932 and 1960, six out of the eight presidents last elected had been Democrats. How did they respond? They nominated a candidate for president who had absolutely no chance of being elected. And, not surprisingly, Sen. Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election to Lyndon Johnson by 23 percentage points. In the short term, the Democrats racked up veto-proof congressional majorities and passed reforms that Republicans still are trying to dismantle today. But in the long term, Goldwater's idealism fueled the conservative tide that pushed Ronald Reagan into landslide victories in the 1980s.
The thrill of short-term victory is nothing without idealism.
About 41.2 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2001. Our administration has no interest in exploring alternative renewable energy resources that could break our addiction to oil. About 32.9 million Americans in 2001 lived beneath the poverty line, and many more had trouble meeting the basic cost of living with their stagnant wages. Our administration's response to recent corporate scandals has been so inadequate that it was forced to bury the news of the resignation of its Securities and Exchange Commission chairman on the day after the election.
