Tilting at Windmills - critiquing SUV's

Washington Monthly, Dec, 2002 by Charles Peters

Have faith in the common sense of the people and explain. Too often Democrats assume the public can't or won't understand. For example, the real position of most Democrats on Iraq was that there was no need to rush to decision in October because there was no evidence of imminent danger and that Bush's effort to keep the issue on the front burner in September and October was designed to keep economic issues that would favor the Democrats off the front pages. Why didn't they explain themselves? Doing so would have enabled them to expose Bush's cynical manipulation and at the same time put the spotlight on his administration's economic and regulatory failures.

On terrorism, the Democrats need to explain that invading Iraq will not deal with its main causes--Islamic fundamentalism and the strife between Jews and Arabs that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton worked so hard to end and that George W. Bush has largely ignored.

On the danger of nuclear weapons, those lying around the former Soviet Union remain a far greater danger than those supposedly being developed by Iraq and North Korea. And so are the nuclear weapons held by Pakistan, where an unstable government is threatened by a rising tide of anti-Americanism.

On tax cuts, Democrats must explain how the future Bush tax cuts and others the Republicans are talking about benefit mostly or only the rich, if and when tax cuts are necessary, Democrats should explain that the equivalent of a partial rebate of the payroll tax is the best way to help working people.

On health care, the Democrats need to explain that they have been the party that from Truman to Johnson to Bill and Hillary Clinton has tried to expand the protection of the American people against the expense of medical care, The greatest challenge for the party is to learn from the failure of the Clinton plan and develop a health program for all that the American people can and will support, for this is our greatest need.

On regulation, the Democrats must explain that they have been the protectors of the environment, economic fairplay, and public health and safety, and that the Republican deregulators have usually been the enemy.

Where they don't know enough to explain, they need to learn. Democrats must accept their responsibility to master military issues. We need new Gary Harts and Sam Nunns. And that means a lot of Democrats have to learn a lot more than they know now so that they can discuss equipment and manpower needs with authority. This is not only relevant to national preparedness but to making sure that we do not waste money that could be spent on health and education to develop weapons that we don't truly need.

Finally Democrats must always remember that we are the party not of the privileged but of the people, that we have a proud history of protecting the powerless from the powerful, of caring about what happens to average everyday Americans and of appealing to the generosity and idealism in the human spirit. If we remain true to ourselves, victory at the polls will come.