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************************************** LEFT FACE, BACKWARD MARCH! by Chuck Muth December 8, 2002 "On its current course, the Democratic Party will lose the White House in 2004 even more decisively than it lost Congress in 2002," begins a stinging critique of the Party Bill Clinton Built. "If those who want the party to move left are successful, our losses will be of historic proportions." The Republican National Committee couldn't have said it any better. But these words come from Al From and Bruce Reed in a "confidential" Thanksgiving Day draft memorandum to their fellow Democrats titled, "The Road Ahead." It might have been more aptly titled, "No Left Turn" or "Dead End to Armageddon." But hey, it's their memo; they can call it what they want. "So where should we go from here?" From and Reed ask. "Clearly not to the left," they warn. Yet that is exactly the trail the herd of donkeys appears to be blazing. You can't get much further left than choosing San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi to replace Dick Gephardt as House Minority Leader. And the two leading candidates for the Democrat's 2004 presidential nomination appear to be a two-headed McGovern-monster; one head clamors for higher taxes (John Kerry) while the other...well, just clamors (Al Gore). But both talk out of the left sides of their mouths. Apparently, some people didn't get the memo. The warning sounded by From and Reed should hearten the souls of Republicans and conservatives who for years have entertained the nation with their political circular firing squads. But it's the Democrats who are now a party divided. Badly. As today's Democrat leadership and leading candidates move radically to the hard left, Bill Clinton's "new Democrats" are stuck standing in the middle of the road yelling "Stop!" "Unless Democrats take swift, aggressive steps to recapture the vital center of the political spectrum that we reclaimed during the 1990s," warn From and Reed, "our party will return to the political wilderness, and Republican gains will be far more lasting and consequential in 2004 than the grim results in 2002." Lordy. Talk about gloom and doom. What, pray tell, must we do, Oh Mighty Masters of the Muddled Middle? "We must...expand our reach to attract middle class voters who work hard and play by the rules - too many of whom voted Republican this year." Go figure. The people who "work hard and play by the rules" voted for the party of working hard and playing by the rules rather than the party of government cheese and no controlling legal authority. Who'd a thunk it? No, the prospects don't look good for the Incredible Shrinking Party. "The harsh reality is that the Democratic base just isn't big enough to win: there are more conservatives than liberals, more independents than either Democrats or Republicans, more suburbanites than big city dwellers, more whites than minorities, more non-union workers than union workers," the memorandum notes. In addition, note From and Reed, Democrats lost working stiffs whose annual income falls in the $50,000-75,000 range by a lopsided margin of 60 to 38. Amazing how getting hit square in the face with a middle-class tax-hike pie focuses one's voting attention, isn't it? "Today, Democrats aren't winning the middle class for a simple reason: Too many Americans don't trust us to keep their taxes down or spend their money well." Now, I wonder how they got that idea? Wait, From and Reed have the answer: "As one potential candidate said recently, 'Why do most Americans think Democrats want to spend and spend? Because they do.' " Duh. "In sum," From and Reed conclude, "many of the voting patterns that plagued Democrats in their three landslide defeats in the Presidential elections during the 1980s have begun to re-emerge." In other words, the San Francisco liberals are coming back out of the closet like those zombies in the "Living Dead" movies and the moderates are desperately trying to shove them back in. So it looks like a two-year, gut-wrenching, hair-pulling, groin-kneeing, tug-o-war food fight for the heart and soul of the Democrat party leading up to the 2004 elections. Republican prospects couldn't be brighter. Uh-oh. I just remembered: Republicans are notorious for their ability to never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity. And BOY, is this an opportunity. They're doomed. # # # Chuck Muth (www.chuckmuth.com) is executive director of the American Conservative Union and president of the Goldwater Club
