SOUND RETREAT:

Democratic Vision of a Strong, Free-Trading, Interventionist U.S. (Ronald Brownstein, November 3, 2003, LA Times)

The manifesto's authors want to shift the party toward an agenda that pursues international cooperation more energetically than Bush, but still acknowledges that America must often bear the greatest responsibility for confronting problems like Iraq. They believe, justifiably, that the challenge for Democrats in 2004 may be to oppose the way Bush has exercised force without sliding back into the reflexive hostility toward the use of force that characterized the party after Vietnam.

The manifesto aims to prove it is possible to strike that balance. It accepts three pillars of Bush's thinking on international security: that the war against terrorism is a long-term, consuming challenge like the Cold War; that preventing alliances between terrorists and rogue states with weapons of mass destruction "is one of the paramount challenges of our time"; and that the war was justified because Saddam Hussein "posed a grave danger to America."

Yet the authors maintain Bush's approach has "weakened America's security." They argue Bush has been too unilateral, too quick to emphasize military force over the economic and cultural tools in America's arsenal, too slow in fortifying defenses against terrorism at home, and too ideological in pursuing massive tax cuts when Washington faces huge bills to meet its new security demands.

They want Democrats to reinvigorate alliances, spend more on defense (while accelerating military reform), push faster to lower trade barriers (especially with Arab nations), work harder to encourage democratic reform in the Mideast, and spend more on homeland security.

Every Democratic presidential candidate, even Dean, echoes much of this thinking, especially the priority on strengthening alliances. But the authors' Roosevelt-like vision of a muscular, free-trading, interventionist America isn't fully shared by any of the Democratic contenders except Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who is languishing in the polls. And by endorsing the war in Iraq, the authors have placed themselves on the retreating side of a civil war in the party.

Along with their complaints that no one will listen to them on the radio and that they don't have a Fox News-type outlet, Democrats have also fretted that they don't have the same quality of Think Tanks as the Right. But how will better ideas help if your own internal party politics precludes their adoption?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 8, 2003 8:39 AM