If Darth Vader ran for president he would be a Republican. Think
about it. Vader spent most of the original trilogy building an
enormous weapon called the Death Star that could destroy planets
with a single blast in order to expand his empire and control the
entire galaxy. Now, this is not to say that all Republicans want to
take over the world, but if intergalactic expansion and an ultimate
weapon that shoots lasers from space do not reek of the Reagan
years, I don’t know what does ““ the man actually called
the policy “Star Wars.” At least he was somewhat
self-aware.
But this forces Democrats like me to ask the question,
“Why do we keep losing to the party of Darth Vader?”
Nobody likes Darth Vader. Nobody wanted to see the Emperor kill
Luke, skin Chewbacca alive, and make the Ewoks work as minimum-wage
slaves drilling for oil on Endor. But somehow, we’ve had more
Republicans than Democrats in the White House since the “Star
Wars” 1977 release date.
I think the reason for Republican success can be gleaned from
last week’s all-night congressional talk-a-thon over judicial
appointments. Democrats keep losing to Republicans because
Republicans are willing to create a ruckus over nothing, while
Democrats keep quiet too often.
In last week’s publicized confrontation ““ featured
as a top story by most major news outlets ““ Republicans kept
the Senate in session for over 40 hours in protest of a Democratic
party filibuster to block judicial appointments. President Bush
accused the Democrats of “obstructionist tactics” that
were “shameful.”
Let’s be clear: 98 percent of Bush’s nominees have
already been confirmed.
By contrast, the Republican-led senate of 1999-2000 confirmed
only 72 of 117, or about 62 percent of judicial nominations from
President Bill Clinton. According to my math, if Democrats are
using “ugly politics” now, Republican politics in
1999-2000 were a lot uglier.
It’s clear that Democrats have been nicer to Bush nominees
than Republicans were to Clinton nominees. The problem is, the
American public never heard about it during the Clinton
administration. Now, however, the public is being bombarded with
the idea that Democrats are impeding the judicial nomination
process. Edge: Republicans. Despite having the truth against them,
they have gotten through to the American people by creating a
spectacle.
This is essentially how Republicans have managed to succeed for
the last 25 years.
Democrats should have stood up to Republican congresses of the
past, and made sure the American public knew Republicans were
confirming only 62 percent of President Clinton’s nominees.
Then the recent Republican allegations would seem silly and
hypocritical. But the Democrats didn’t get their point
across. As a result, the Republicans are the squeaky wheel getting
the grease.
If Democrats are going to salvage their party and succeed in
upcoming elections, they must adopt similar, but more respectable
tactics. The first step is for Democrats in Congress to publicize
Republican indiscretions from the White House. If President Clinton
was in office during the September 11, 2001 attacks and had
withheld crucial documents from the American public or started a
war with Iraq built on falsehoods, the Republicans would have made
sure the media covered his every move.
They would have threatened impeachment, shut down the
government, and called him a traitor. The Democrats should not do
anything so petty or stupid. Instead, they should just press harder
on both issues.
Democrats need to become much more active and learn to use the
media to their advantage. They need to make sure the American
public is not simply spoon-fed Republican propaganda.
For example, according to a poll in The Washington Post, nearly
70 percent of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was personally
involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. One-third of
respondents in a University of Maryland poll believe the United
States has already found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
““ and that poll was taken in June. The Democrats do not need
to have an all-nighter at the Capitol building or grind the wheels
of government to a halt; they just need to disseminate the
truth.
A lot of Americans agree with Democrats on the issues that make
or break elections. Most Americans are abortion rights; most
Americans support the goals of the environmental movement; most
Americans want federal safety regulations enacted on the use and
production of handguns; most Americans want health insurance
provided equally to everyone in the country; most Americans want
gays and lesbians to have equal opportunity in the workplace; and
most Americans want to be softer on crime for nonviolent offenders.
The list goes on.
The important lesson is this: If confronted with the truth, most
Americans will support Democrats over Republicans. The truth,
however, will never get to most Americans if Democrats do not help
push it along.
Burke is a fifth-year political science student and former
Viewpoint editor. E-mail him at dburke@media.ucla.edu.