The Democrats’ Dilemma

NATIONAL REVIEW’S conference on the topic “Do Conservatives Have a Role in the Democratic Party?” took place in the National Press Club in Washington on November 14. Given the timing—a week after the election, a month after the Bush/Darman budget deal—it would have been equally appropriate to ask, as Wick Allison noted in his introductory remarks, whether conservatives have a role in the Republican White House. But the questions are related: since conservatives and Democrats face a common problem of political exclusion these days, it is worth considering whether they might share political solutions. So NR brought together some pollsters, some pundits, and some pols to explore the question, along with three of its own—John O’Sullivan, Bill McGurn, and myself— for kibitzing.

History, at least, suggests that the Democrats’ options are open, for the party has been many things to its many members over the years. The famous Democratic convention of 1924 was torn between the forces of William Gibbs McAdoo, who was essentially the candidate of the Ku Klux Klan, and the forces of Al Smith, who ten years later became a spokesman for the Liberty League. Its compromise candidate, John W. Davis, would find himself, thirty years later, arguing the states’-rights position on Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court. In 1960, John F. Kennedy, running for President as a liberal, attacked his Republican predecessor for being weak on defense; once in office, he cut taxes. In the last decade, although the party itself remained resolutely liberal in the post McGovern sense of the word, millions of registered Democrats crossed the line to vote for Ronald Reagan.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

NATIONAL REVIEW’S conference on the topic “Do Conservatives Have a Role in the Democratic Party?” took place in the National Press Club in Washington on November 14. Given the timing—a week after the election, a month after the Bush/Darman budget deal—it would have been equally appropriate to ask, as Wick Allison noted in his introductory remarks, whether conservatives have a role in the Republican White House. But the questions are related: since conservatives and Democrats face a common problem of political exclusion these days, it is worth considering whether they might share political solutions. So NR brought together some pollsters, some pundits, and some pols to explore the question, along with three of its own—John O’Sullivan, Bill McGurn, and myself— for kibitzing.

History, at least, suggests that the Democrats’ options are open, for the party has been many things to its many members over the years. The famous Democratic convention of 1924 was torn between the forces of William Gibbs McAdoo, who was essentially the candidate of the Ku Klux Klan, and the forces of Al Smith, who ten years later became a spokesman for the Liberty League. Its compromise candidate, John W. Davis, would find himself, thirty years later, arguing the states’-rights position on Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court. In 1960, John F. Kennedy, running for President as a liberal, attacked his Republican predecessor for being weak on defense; once in office, he cut taxes. In the last decade, although the party itself remained resolutely liberal in the post McGovern sense of the word, millions of registered Democrats crossed the line to vote for Ronald Reagan.