Democrats Must Wield Power Carefully

View of the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building, which faces the National Mall. (Source: VisitingDC)

In politics as in life, great crises often create great opportunities. In electing a Democratic president and increased majorities in both chambers of Congress, the American public gave Democrats a mandate to repair much of the damage it believes Republicans have done to the country.

But there are some, like Sen. John McCain in one of his campaign’s closing arguments, who charge that a single-party government can’t be good for the country because, they fear not having a system of checks and balances will lead to abuse of power — particularly under Congress’s left-wing leaders.

However, having a single party in power does have its advantages. The most important of which is that more gets often accomplished. And when there is deadlock, such as can occur when one party controls the White House and another Congress, voters don’t know who to blame for what does or doesn’t get done. “If in four years things are as bad as they are today, there won’t be any question as to who’s responsible,” says DePaul University political scientist Michael Mezey.

House majority whip Rep. Jim Clyburn says there is a difference between leaning left and lurching left, and he has warned his fellow Democrats against the latter. “I get a little nervous when I hear that people, especially on my side of the aisle, seem to feel that we’ve been given a mandate to go lurching to the left as an antidote for Bush having taken us so far to the right,” he says. He believes that President-elect Barack Obama will govern from the center and voters want lawmakers to work together in a bipartisan manner to put the country back on track.

Clyburn also has cautioned members against trying to achieve too much too quickly. Looking back to the sixties when President Lyndon Johnson enacted civil rights laws in stages, he says, “We have to be patient; we can’t do things in one fell swoop. You do it in an incremental, evolutionary way.”

Although in some ways Obama’s job will be easier with Democratic majorities, conflicts will arise from within the party’s rank and file and it cannot be assumed that he’ll get everything he wants.

“Bill Clinton had a Democratic majority in his first two years as president and there were frustrations, including Congress’s failure to pass his healthcare program. In 2005-06, Bush was not able to move his social security revision plan through a Republican-controlled House and Senate,” says Mezey. “So the assumption that presidents control their co-partisans is false. Obama will have to work very hard to keep his majorities together and on a number of issues will have to seek bipartisan solutions, and he will encounter opposition from both the left and the right.”

Although there will be exceptions, many Republicans are not likely to be in much of a bipartisan mood come January. “They’re of two minds now, but there’s certainly a core of them who want to fight and oppose all things

Obama. Democrats beat a lot of moderate Republicans, so that leaves the hard-core, red meat Republicans. The irony of all the Democratic victories is that it leaves a more coherent ideological minority party,” says University of California, Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain. “You have to separate what the party activists are thinking from the elected officials. The elected officials want to be in power and thank God they do because that’s what moderates them.”

Cain predicts there will also be pressures from special interests who helped Democrats this year, such as labor unions and environmental groups. “They’ll say we worked for you, we delivered, now we want everything on our list and we want it now,” says Cain.

Labor has grown zealous in its determination to get legislation passed that will make it easier for them to unionize without a secret ballot, which will likely cause dissent among Democrats. “Certainly traditional liberals will be supportive but there are a number of Democratic lawmakers who come from states where unions aren’t particularly

popular who will revolt against things of that sort,” says Mezey. He believes Obama’s healthcare plan might also result in opposition from both his party and Republicans, and GOP lawmakers will surely oppose him on tax policy.

That’s why Mezey and others applaud Obama’s choice of Illinois Rep. Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff. “He understands how to cut deals and make things happen in Congress and I think Obama is aware that this is one of his problems,” says Mezey.

Cain says that Democrats hated being in the minority and are trying to draw on lessons learned from both Clinton’s and Bush’s terms. He says, “Congress is partly at the mercy of the president. If the public perceives that the administration doesn’t handle the economic recovery well or hasn’t found the right answers, traditionally that first mid-term election can be a killer for the party in power and they know it.”

And, Clyburn adds, anytime they appear to forget it, he’ll be there to remind them.