New Democrat Update - January 1998
FROM “NEW” TO “OLD?”
US House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) is clearly politically positioning himself as the leader of the “Old Democrats.” He has made it a point to oppose President Clinton - leader of the “New Democrats” - on the balanced budget, tax cuts, welfare reform, relations with China and trade. His widely-covered speech last month at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government only reinforced his attempts to differentiate himself from the President. That strategy is sure to come back and haunt the House Minority Leader.
In politics, nothing succeeds like a great economy. Gephardt is awkwardly arguing against Clinton’s highly successful economic agenda of fiscal discipline, expanded trade and investment in education and training. That formula has yielded the creation of 13 million net new jobs in the past five years, unemployment under 5% for the first time in a quarter century, inflation under 3% and skyrocketing consumer confidence.
Gephardt's opposing positions also make him a tax-and-spend, interest-group-driven, protectionist Democrat. Before President Clinton’s victory in 1992, that combination of labels, along with values out of touch with mainstream Americans, defeated Democratic presidential candidates in five of the last six previous elections.
Those are precisely the wrong signals to send to the politically moderate suburban Congressional districts across the country, especially here in the West. Swing voters and a growing majority of rank-and-file Democrats (as demonstrated by Mark Penn’s DLC poll in November) will frown on a move to the left, hurting the party's chances of recapturing the House - and Gephardt becoming Speaker in 1998.
All of the above just adds to Gephardt's very muddy and diffuse image - a definite liability in any run for the Presidency. He came to Congress in 1977 critical of labor's positions on trade and the minimum wage, while supporting the Reagan tax cut. He voted for a constitutional amendment to end forced busing to desegregate schools and advocated a cut in capital gains taxes. By 1988, when running for the Democratic presidential nomination, he had reversed all those positions.
Democrats have a clear choice between the Clinton and Gephardt formulas. The Clinton way promises real solutions to economic and social problems, while rebuilding a majority progressive coalition. Gephardt's attempt to turn back the clock will only reverse our economic gains and lose the support of voters who returned to the Democratic fold in 1992 and 1996.
On the Stump...
Closer to home on a very related subject, DLC President Jim Gibson spoke to the Downtown Democratic Forum last month on “Why Democrats Must Change.” The presentation covered the background of the DLC, what the organization is trying to accomplish and “New Democrat” positions on trade, entitlements, race, the next round of welfare reform and race.