This may sound silly, because it probably is, but I’ve long believed that the nation’s two major parties each had key strengths, and the political process works best when each are able to utilize their respective assets.
Republicans are excellent at message development, hardball tactics, campaigning, and railing against perceived rivals, but they’re really bad at governing. (By “governing,” I mean crafting effective public policy proposals, explaining why those proposals work, and then implementing them.) Democrats, conversely, are the polar opposite: strong on matters of policy, generally lost when it comes to the political game.
It seems to me, therefore, that no one is in their right place right now. Dems are ineffective in the minority because they’re awful antagonists, while Republicans are ineffective in the majority because they don’t actually like the policy process. Tom DeLay was born to be the Minority Whip, but he’s miscast as the House Majority Leader. Bill Frist is clearly out of his league as Majority Leader, but may make an effective critic as Minority Leader. And George W. Bush has no idea how to use the power of the presidency. It’s as if everyone’s wearing the wrong hats.
With this in mind, I enjoyed Dick Stevenson’s piece in the New York Times today on renewed calls for Republicans, particularly the Bush White House, to start taking their governing responsibilities seriously.
President Bush and his hard-charging political team, which seemed to make all the right moves in winning re-election last year, have stumbled when it comes to governing in a second term, many Republicans say, leaving the White House scrambling to get back on track.
Even as they expressed continued support for Mr. Bush and his goals, influential Republicans said Karl Rove and the White House political operation have been slow to shift from campaign mode, with its base-energizing positions, to an approach that allows for more compromise and increases the probability of Mr. Bush signing legislation that directly addresses the everyday concerns of voters.
“The tone has been too much of a permanent campaign,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker. “When you’re the minority, you need to fight. When you’re the governing majority, you need to produce.”
I hate to agree with Gingrich, but that’s absolutely right.
Stevenson points to all kind of interesting explanations for the GOP’s current predicament — overreach, misunderstood mandate, revitalized Dems, intra-party strife among Republicans — all of which ring true.
But I think it boils down to something less complicated. Campaign politics and governing are not only incompatible at times, they’re actually mirror opposites. Campaigns tend to divide, us vs. them, our guys vs. their guys. Governing is, or is supposed to be, a cooperative process, with responsible people reaching consensus, striking compromises, and finding a shared sense of purpose.
Today’s Republican Party has mastered the prior, but doesn’t even understand the latter. And now that the GOP enjoys firm control of the federal apparatus, they seem lost because they want to utilize their skills — confrontational campaign tactics — even though the circumstances don’t warrant it. Listen to their rhetoric: Dems hate the troops! They hate Christians! They’re ruining the country!
Unfortunately for the GOP, no one cares because Dems no longer have any power. It’s as if Republicans haven’t quite realized that they’re running the show, so they’re sticking to the permanent campaign because it’s the only approach they know. It’s not working — and it’s getting kind of embarrassing.
Of course, there’s an upside. Republicans can stay on their current path and voters will set things right by returning them to the minority. I know this may cause the GOP great consternation, but trust me, we’ll all be better off.