RECIPE FOR OBLIVION :

Themes for an Opposition (BILL KELLER, April 20, 2002, NY Times)

[I]f the Democrats insist on speaking up, isn't it fair to ask that they have something interesting to say? I read the speeches of the various early contenders in Florida and they consisted mainly of recycled themes from campaigns past — saving Social Security (yes, they dragged out the old lockbox), protecting the environment, broadening access to health care, and Robin-Hooding the rich. These are all entirely worthy themes, perhaps more applicable now than last time around. But bold?

The last Democrat elected to the White House was propelled by some fresh thinking and a willingness to stand up to favorite constituencies on issues like welfare reform, spending discipline and free trade. For the Democrats to recapture the benumbed American electorate again, they need to say more than "We were right last time."

For instance? Here are four populist thoughts harvested from a single week of news, opportunities for Democrats to steal political advantage where the Bush administration is blinkered and vulnerable. And they require only an over-the-counter dose of that much-prescribed boldness.

Mr. Keller proceeds to outline a platform that has four planks :
*Oppose capital punishment
*Propose a flat tax
*Oppose missile defense
*Lift the Cuban embargo

Surely he jests.

Let's take them point by point :

(1) To the best of my knowledge, despite some highly publicized cases where DNA evidence got guys off of death row, capital punishment still polls very well with the voting public. And presumably anyone who would cast a vote based solely on opposition to the death penalty is already a Democrat, so it's hard to see how that one helps.

(2) Suppose the Democrats did propose a flat tax; the Republicans would just say : okay. Sure, the Democrat plan would be different than a Republican plan would be, but that's just the details work that we can fix in committee--where's the issue?

(3) Democrats have been running against Missile Defense for twenty years now with no discernible effect on either the program or public opinion. In fact, they've complained about the program so much that polls show most Americans believe we've already deployed a functional missile shield. Run around now telling them we don't and Democrats want to make sure we never will and you're going to scare the bejeezus out of a lot of folks.

(4) I'm thinking this isn't a good time to suck up to a hostile foreign leader who always appears in public in fatigues.

So, what we have here is a platform that proposes : adopting a Republican tax idea that Democrats have opposed for a century; being nicer to criminals and dictators; and opposing a defensive weapons system, that people think we already have, and the development of which creates those high tech manufacturing jobs that unions like so much. Oh yeah, that'll work.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2002 3:26 PM