Do Dems Have Their Own Purity Test?
With Tea Party activists brewing their own strain of conservativism, Republicans are waging a fierce battle among themselves over what it means to be a member of the Grand Old Party.
We saw this play itself out in November in New York’s 23rd congressional district. The Republican candidate, chosen by party leaders, was forced out of the race after a conservative candidate who didn’t know a darn thing about the issues in the district captured the fancy of the Tea Party renegades, almost winning the seat.
Now we see the same thing playing out in Florida. The state’s once-popular Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is in a dogfight with his more conservative challenger for the U.S. Senate nomination, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.
Even the Republican National Committee is fending off a concerted effort to keep the party’s money from candidates that don’t pass a “purity” test.
While such a thing isn’t being presented as rigidly by Democrats/progressives/liberals, the debacle in Congress is clear evidence that there is a “who-is-more-of-a-real-Democrat” battle ensuing between the various wings of the party.
The net result of this silliness is that Democrats are on the verge of not getting much done in terms of health care and freezing spending and other measures because some choose to govern from an intractable position.
In his State of the Union speech, even President Barack Obama cautioned that a failure to lead by his own party is not the way to go.
“To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills,” the president said.
Yet on so many issues, different groups under the Democratic tent are burying their heads in the sand, angry if they don’t fully get their way.
Look at health care. At some point, those who support a public option must realize it’s not going to happen. So in a world where compromises matter, you push and push and push, and you try to get as much as you can. And you reach a conclusion that is satisfactory, rather than say, “if I don’t get all I want, it’s over.”
Every time I read the HuffingtonPost.com, Arianna Huffington — a former Republican — is blasting away about something Democrats and the administration aren’t doing right.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, is almost fed up with the president, continuing to argue that last year’s nearly $800 billion stimulus plan wasn’t enough and more money needed to be spent. These folks have never had to put together a coalition of at least 220 elected officials and get them to stay on point.
And now Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wants a freeze on defense spending if the president wants to freeze federal spending in 2011. So, congressional liberals are ready to spend and spend and spend on elements they want after eight years of President George W. Bush? Fine, so how do we pay for all of this? Pelosi is also playing with fire because weakness on defense is the thorn in the side of Democrats. Any one tragedy in national security on their watch will lead to massive losses.
This “stick-to-your-guns” strategy does not, nor will it ever, result in real gains. Like it or not, politics is about compromise. In some ways, Democrats are sounding like Republicans in the health care debacle — they demand to be included and offer a host of ideas. And when a few ideas are accepted, they say enough wasn’t done.
As someone who has voted for Democrats and Republicans, we are stuck in this political matrix, watching members of both parties dig their heels in the ground and refuse to find common ground.
Right now, Democrats hold a 78-vote margin in the House and 18 votes in the Senate, larger margins than President Bush ever had. Yet, he still managed to pass a host of measures. Why? Because Republicans knew how to stick together and put some of their bruised egos aside (although, it would have helped for them to stand up to the president when he turned a federal surplus into a deficit).
Democrats have a real chance to affect the American people in a positive way. It’s time for them and their allies to stop focusing on their pie-in-the-sky expectations and embrace what can be achieved. Otherwise, Democrats might find themselves in the minority come this time next year. And when assessing blame, they can simply look for the closest mirror.
Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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