Party Hearty

As they head into the 2004 elections, the Democrats are in a position similar to that of the Republicans in 1964. They’re the out party, facing a popular incumbent who is doing a lot of things they can’t stand. Many liberals appear to be reacting to this situation as conservatives did then: by effectively writing off the next election, using it to better define their party rather than to win the White House. Liberal activists who see Washington Democrats as sellouts are rallying to Howard Dean in order to “send them a message.” Which is not the same thing as sending them a president. The Democrats are divided by what unites them: Hostility to Bush impels some of them to seek the candidate most likely to beat him, and others the candidate most unlike him.

When Dean was governor of Vermont, he was often at odds with the left wing of his party. In the past, he has taken a position on guns to the right of the national Democratic party. But the logic of his insurgent campaign has propelled him to the leadership of a resurgent Democratic Left, which he calls, following the late Paul Wellstone, “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.” For the first time since at least 1992, the Left feels the wind at its back. While the Left generally does not criticize Clinton by name these days—there are still warm feelings for him following his impeachment ordeal and victory—the impulse is to undo what he did in 1992. They think he sold the party’s birthright for a mess of pottage. All the party has to show for Clinton’s efforts, in the Left’s view, is lost Senate seats, lost governors’ mansions, lost state legislatures. Clintonism even lost the crown jewels: the House majority that Democrats held, with two brief interruptions, for 60 years. A1 Gore’s left-populism brought his campaign to parity with Bush, but his failure to break decisively with the moderates kept him from winning by a substantial margin.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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As they head into the 2004 elections, the Democrats are in a position similar to that of the Republicans in 1964. They’re the out party, facing a popular incumbent who is doing a lot of things they can’t stand. Many liberals appear to be reacting to this situation as conservatives did then: by effectively writing off the next election, using it to better define their party rather than to win the White House. Liberal activists who see Washington Democrats as sellouts are rallying to Howard Dean in order to “send them a message.” Which is not the same thing as sending them a president. The Democrats are divided by what unites them: Hostility to Bush impels some of them to seek the candidate most likely to beat him, and others the candidate most unlike him.

When Dean was governor of Vermont, he was often at odds with the left wing of his party. In the past, he has taken a position on guns to the right of the national Democratic party. But the logic of his insurgent campaign has propelled him to the leadership of a resurgent Democratic Left, which he calls, following the late Paul Wellstone, “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.” For the first time since at least 1992, the Left feels the wind at its back. While the Left generally does not criticize Clinton by name these days—there are still warm feelings for him following his impeachment ordeal and victory—the impulse is to undo what he did in 1992. They think he sold the party’s birthright for a mess of pottage. All the party has to show for Clinton’s efforts, in the Left’s view, is lost Senate seats, lost governors’ mansions, lost state legislatures. Clintonism even lost the crown jewels: the House majority that Democrats held, with two brief interruptions, for 60 years. A1 Gore’s left-populism brought his campaign to parity with Bush, but his failure to break decisively with the moderates kept him from winning by a substantial margin.