Preoccupied by pettiness, Dems missing big picture

  • George Will / Washington Post columnist
  • Wednesday, November 5, 2003 9:00pm
  • Opinion

WASHINGTON — Probably more than twice, but certainly twice, Howard Dean has said something sensible. He has been roundly roasted for both indelicacies, the roasters being his rivals for the Democratic nomination.

A decade ago Dean said the Social Security retirement age should be raised. Well, yes. If in 1935, when Congress enacted Social Security, it had indexed the retirement age to life expectancy (which for American males was 62 — Congress did ruthless arithmetic in that sterner era), the retirement age today would be 73 and Social Security’s problems would be much diminished. But reasonableness is scandalous in Democratic primaries, so Dean has recanted and vowed to sin no more.

But he is a recidivist, and his latest sin is as scarlet as a portion of the Confederate flag. He said he wants even the votes of "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." He now says he meant poor people. He does not say, but might as well say, he meant poor, stupid, white bigots.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

For Dean and Deanites, the idea of courting the Confederate-flag-and-pickups cohort probably gives them the frisson of walking on the wild side, the tingle of keeping bad company, like a professor in a biker bar. But Dean’s statement, which dripped a kind of regional disdain, was a clumsy attempt to make a sensible point: Disdain no voters.

Nevertheless, John Kerry, who understands the Democrats’ testosterone primary, recently got off his Harley and took photographers to watch him kill Iowa pheasants. He called it "simply unconscionable" for Dean to "embrace" that "divisive symbol." Dick Gephardt, who is comfortable in the company of Al Sharpton, the star of the Tawana Brawley hoax, said he did not want the votes of guys with such flags on such trucks. Gephardt did not specify what other categories of Americans were too loathsome to accept votes from. Wesley Clark, who has been a Democrat for only a few weeks but who is a fast learner of the language of liberalism, crammed the words "inclusion" and "diversity" into a statement denouncing the flying of Confederate flags on public buildings.

This pettiness preoccupies would-be presidents as the markets, responding to the fastest quarterly growth of the economy (7.2 percent) in 19 years, are ascending — NASDAQ up 55 percent from its low this year, the Dow up 30 percent and as of Tuesday just 142 points shy of recrossing the 10,000 threshold. The Democratic candidates seem not to understand that as the economy becomes a smaller issue, the election becomes bigger.

It does because the election becomes almost entirely about a single large question: What should be America’s role in the world? The Democratic candidates’ answers, other than Joseph Lieberman’s, range from incoherence to ruinous clarity.

The incoherence is: We favored removing Saddam Hussein, but oppose having done it without the cooperation of other nations who made it clear they were never going to participate. We support the troops in the field but oppose the money for them to continue what they are in the field to do, which is complete the emancipation of Iraq from tyranny’s aftermath.

The ruinous clarity is: Come home America. That is the pole toward which Dean, and the declining saliency of domestic issues, is pulling the Democrats, who are not having a happy autumn.

Until Oct. 7, 26 states with 46 percent of the nation’s population had Republican governors. Then Californians remembered that they really wanted a Republican governor after all. Then on Tuesday Mississippi and Kentucky elected Republicans to replace Democrats. When all three are inaugurated, and if Republicans on Nov. 15 retain the Louisiana governorship, the GOP will govern 29 states with 60.6 percent of the population.

On Monday, Florida’s Sen. Bob Graham joined South Carolina’s Fritz Hollings, North Carolina’s John Edwards and Georgia’s Miller as the fourth Southern Democratic senator to announce that he would not seek re-election. Louisiana’s John Breaux may be a fifth. That is one way for Democrats to avoid the shame of receiving votes from people with politically incorrect pickups.

George Will’s e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Saturday, June 14

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

AP government students at Henry M. Jackson High School visited the state Capitol this spring and watched as a resolution they helped draft was adopted in the Senate as part of the Building Bridges Future Leaders Academy. (Josh Estes / Building Bridges)
Comment: Future leaders learn engineering of building bridges

Here’s what Jackson High government students learned with the help of local officials and lawmakers.

Comment: Early cancer diagnosis can be key in saving lives

An act in Congress would allow Medicare coverage for early-detection tests for a range of cancers.

Comment: In wildfire crisis, options for forests, communities

By thinning threatened forests, mass timber can use that material for homes, businesses and more.

Forum: Everett’s land-use plan should keep affordable housing tool

Its comprehensive plan should keep inclusionary zoning, setting aside housing for working families.

Forum: Advice to young adults, focus on your best ‘person’

Past generations focused on the character aspects of gender roles, but something more basic is necessary.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Friday, June 13

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

In a gathering similar to many others across the nation on Presidents Day, hundreds lined Broadway with their signs and chants to protest the Trump administration Monday evening in Everett. (Aaron Kennedy / Daily Herald)
Editorial: Let’s remember the ‘peaceably’ part of First Amendment

Most of us understand the responsibilities of free speech; here’s how we remind President Trump.

The Buzz: ‘Your majesty, the peasants are revolting!’

Well, that’s a little harsh, but we’re sure the ‘No Kings’ protesters clean up well after their marches.

Schwab: Why keep up nonviolent protests? Because they work

Our greatest democratic victories came on the heels of massive, nationwide demonstrations.

Bouie: Trump’s weaknesses show through theater of strength

His inability to calmly confront opposition and respond with force betrays brittleness and insecurity.

Add your voice to protect freedoms at No Kings Day protests

Imagine it’s 2045. Nationwide, women have been fully stripped of rights to… Continue reading

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.