Aug. 16, 2006
It's The Ideas, Stupid!
Two Ex-Bill Clinton Aides Lay Out 'The Plan' For A Democratic Comeback
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In September 1994, a week or so before the Gingrich Contract with America was unveiled on the Capitol steps, a group of Clinton White House officials led by Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin asked to come for a meeting at the CBS News Washington bureau. They wanted to talk about the program the Republicans were about to unveil and emphasize how irresponsible it was, just a list of "goodies" with no way to pay for them.
Mainly because of the presence of Secretary Rubin, the meeting produced a full complement of CBS News correspondents and producers and did more to advertise the upcoming event, which most of us had considered mainly a PR stunt.
Twelve years later, two Clintonistas – former domestic policy chief Bruce Reed, who now heads the centrist Democratic Leadership Council; and political/communications aide Rahm Emmanuel, now a Democratic member of the House from Chicago and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – have written a book called "The Plan: Big Ideas for America." Published on the eve of another midterm election, one which looks good for the Democrats, it is a set of ideas which the authors believe will reshape the policy debate. No word yet on whether this White House will request a similar meeting, and Democrats who have had a hard time agreeing on an agenda are unlikely to stand on the Capitol steps with this book. But it is likely to cause some ripples.
The book, "The Plan," is actually a two-parter. The first part is a very readable discussion of what the authors think went wrong with policy in America. They believe it was bad politics that led the country astray. They divide Washington into Political Hacks and Policy Wonks and conclude mainly that too many Hacks have had too much power. The Bush White House, they claim (citing former Bush aide John DiIulio), was devoid of a policy apparatus and everything was run by the political arm. They contend that the Bush administration was all about getting reelected rather than solving the country's problems.
Reed and Emmanuel also take a shot at a Democratic Wonk (who titillates the Hacks), George Lakofff, who put forward the idea that what politics is all about is framing the issues and that what Democrats need to do to regain power is to get better at finding the right words. (By the way, Lakoff is also a guru of Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, with whom Emmanuel has been feuding. But that tidbit is left out of The Highminded Plan and would only matter to Hacks who are more interested in dividing than governing.) The problem for Democrats, they believe, is not a failure to communicate but a failure to know what to communicate.
The chapter on the Wonk/Hack divide is hilarious and insightful. Reed, the Wonk, and Emmanuel, the Hack, made a deal in the Clinton years to trade the "secrets, quirks and idioms" of each group and try to "rescue issues which had been stuck in the crossroads of politics and policy for years." They write that most journalists are Hacks, while columnists are Wonks. Lobbyists are Hacks who make money pretending to be Wonks, while The New Republic and Washington Monthly and most political bloggers are Wonks pretending to be Hacks. "Hacks come to Washington because anywhere else they'd be bored to death. Wonks come here because nowhere else could they bore so many to death."
But Reed and Emmanuel's larger argument is that the Hacks have "gone wild" and turned politics into a world of tactics rather than a means to achieve what Americans really want: solutions to their problems.
In the second part of the book, they present their list of Big Ideas for America. Many are DLC staples like universal Public Service. Others are virtually identical to those laid out by the wife of their former White House boss in her American Dream speech at the DLC meeting in July: universal college, retirement accounts for all, hybrid cars, universal children's health insurance, expanding the home mortgage deduction. The specifics of how to pay for the "goodies of '06" are lacking and the chapter on building a "muscular" national security is a bit perfunctory. But many of the ideas are fresh and robust and sure to be part of the political conversation for the next few years.
Like The Contract of 1994, The Plan of 2006 is filled with positive proposals that test well in polls. The authors say that Americans are tired of politics which is about "oppose, oppose and oppose," and are looking for solutions to their problems and a positive agenda.
But in many ways, The Plan is less like the Contract and more reminiscent of Putting People First, which helped Bill Clinton capture the White House in 1992. Democrats have an opportunity to road-test The Plan in '06 but it may really be the blueprint for the candidates of '08.
Stay tuned.
By Dotty Lynch ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Second issue: Get Social Security adequately funded.
Third: Really do a Manhattan Project to find new enegry sources that are less polluting of our atmosphere. We are drowning in our on smoke, or will flood many cities along the edge of the ocean, including New York and New Orleans.
Fourth: Universal Health Care for all
Fifth: Increase taxes to bring down the deficit. We are drowning in red-ink. We are rapidly moving toward second power status with the money we are borrowing from countries like China.
Sixth: Universal College education for anyone who can pass an appropriate entrance exam.
These are but examples of what I would like to see debated and refined to make America stronger.
Bernard W. Hess
Greensboro, NC
This is the same idiot crowd that wants to drive Democrats toward their mythical center, rather than standing up for the courage of Liberal convictions, which ARE the center of the Ameriacn political spectrum. Most Americans ARE Liberals, but most Americans also DON'T VOTE AT ALL because no Democrats have been speaking to them, because the nitwits in the DLC told all the pols to act like Republican-lite.
You want to reach the voters? Try representing THE PEOPLE, not transnational corporations that would screw America in a heartbeat if it made them a dime more.
Fully Fund the VA.
Actually LOCK the Social Security lockbox. Don't let politicians dip into it so they can play Enron accounting games with their budget figures.
Complete a phased withdrawl from Iraq within the next six months. Transfer half the force to Afghanistan to completely eradicate the Taliban once and for all. And gee, capturing Osama might be a good idea too.
Transfer the other half of troops home to help rebuild all the areas in the Southern US damaged by the recent hurricanes. Begin employing impoverished residents of these areas in this effort as well.
Sign the Kyoto Treaty. Stopping global warming isn't about saving the planet. It's about saving PEOPLE. Increase funding for alternative energy research, development, and implementation by 500%. This is a security issue.
Cut all defense programs that cannot demonstrate measurable results in security improvement. If education must endure quality testing, so must the DOD. For every dime you take away from the DOD, give it to fund education.
Raise the minimum wage.
Close ALL corporate tax loopholes. If a corporation makes a profit onshore or off, they must pay their fair share.Roll back the Bush tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
Create national health care based on the Scandanavian model.
Give pro-labor organizing laws real teeth, and enforce them. Aggressively prosecute corporations that violate workers rights to organize.