That Other ’80s Show
The Democrats return to failed strategies.

By Ramesh Ponnuru
February 1, 2002 1:30 p.m.

few weeks ago, Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council fretted that his party might be returning to its pre-Clinton ways. He's right.

In the 1980s, Republicans held a commanding lead on issues of national security and economic management and were led by a popular president. Democrats were ahead on such social-policy issues as health care and the environment (an issue of increasing importance as the decade wore on). They tried to gain traction by warning voters about the alleged dangers of deficits and by hurling ethics charges at the Republican administration. "The sleaze factor" was the phrase then in use. None of it worked very well, as evidenced by George H. W. Bush's solid victory in 1988.

Under his administration, however, Republicans lost their advantages on economic and foreign-policy issues: on the former because of Bush's tax increase and perceived lassitude in the face of recession, on the latter because security issues loomed less large after the Cold War ended. Clinton's shrewd repositioning of the party on other issues, notably crime and welfare, eliminated other Democratic disadvantages.

But now defense and foreign-policy issues are back, and Democrats aren't competitive on them. Republicans have a popular president again. And the GOP gets better marks in the polls than Democrats on economic issues. Democrats are trying to exploit the traditional "mommy party" issues (health care, the environment, and the like) and railing about deficits. Enron is this year's version of the sleaze factor.

In the run-up to the '88 campaign, the Democratic presidential candidates were dismissed as the "seven dwarfs." Nobody was dismissing John Edwards in those terms for most of last year-but that's because we were living in dwarfish times politically. The Democratic contenders for 2004 look awfully small now.

There are, of course, differences between now and then. In the 1980s, the Democrats were reduced to hoping for a recession. Now they're hoping that a recession doesn't end. They had a lock on the House then; they have a lock on no branch of the federal government now.

Maybe they'll have better luck this time.

Prime-Time Propaganda
On last night's ER, the gang had to deal with the aftermath of a letter bomb that killed a man and maimed his daughter. His anguished widow explains that the bomb was meant for her because she does stem-cell and cloning research.