In 2006, Democrats won a landslide victory at the polls, sweeping to majorities in both houses of Congress. And then, the Democrats proceeded to do … hardly anything at all. Their agenda consisted mainly of halting George W. Bush’s domestic agenda. Even on the Iraq war, the unpopularity of which fueled the Democratic wave, the party did not make a serious effort to defund the campaign. Ultimately, Democrats funded a troop surge.
The rough equivalent would be if Republicans this year wound up expanding the Affordable Care Act to cover illegal immigrants. (To make the parallel between 2007 and the present more exact, we’d have to imagine that Republicans control the entire Congress, not just half, and that President Obama has lost about a quarter of his current popularity.) This scenario, of course, is unimaginable.
What are we to make of the contrast? One conclusion is that the GOP is the more disciplined, parliamentary party. I’ve made this case myself. But that is not the only implication, or the most disturbing. Why didn’t the Democratic Congress behave under Bush like the Republican-controlled House has behaved under Obama? Why didn’t it simply refuse to fund the Iraq war or to threaten financial cataclysm by holding the debt ceiling hostage unless Bush, say, raised taxes for the rich?
Democrats will have learned from history. It will not be pretty.
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