IF YOU'RE a dedicated Democrat, take a second to remember where you were two weeks ago when you heard that (now former) House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had been indicted for criminal conspiracy.
Just for a moment, tap into that glee, that all-is-right-with-the-world feeling of comeuppance accompanying the news that Hammer finally got nailed.
Feels good, doesn't it?
As it turns out, the average American has absolutely no idea what that feels like. They don't really care to, either. According to a Rasmussen poll taken right after the indictment, only 40 percent of Americans disapprove of Tom DeLay -- outpaced by the 43 percent of Americans who have no opinion or no idea who he is. More than a third of those interviewed (36 percent) couldn't name DeLay's party, and a majority (55 percent) say that the Congressman is "about as ethical as both parties."
In other words, put the cork back in the champagne. Fair or not, many Americans look at the downfall of DeLay not as a sign to start voting blue, but as one example of an endemic ethics deficiency on Capitol Hill. And while folks at progressive PACs and the Democratic campaign committees have been entertaining sugarplum dreams about the 2006 implications of how-low-can-you-go approval ratings, little attention seems to be directed at the fact that Congressional Democrats aren't polling so well themselves.
It is difficult to tell Democrats not to celebrate the current situation. With DeLay indicted, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist under investigation and the shady tricks of White House guru Karl Rove finally coming to public attention, those left in the wake of the slash and burn, ethically dubious tactics of the W-era GOP are certainly entitled to a little appreciation over the irony of the party of moral values exposing itself as a sham.
But schadenfreude doesn't win elections, and the GOP leadership getting its just desserts doesn't improve life for a single American. No one's kids will get a better education, no soldier will be home from Iraq faster and no one's total at the gas pump will be cheaper as a result of DeLay's indictment. The Democratic leadership must understand this; if their party is going to once again be the majority party, it will have to once again become the party of ideas. Candidates running with a D next to their name must be able to tap into a platform that presents hope and ingenuity, rather than one which simply "isn't the bad guys."
To his credit, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) seems to have recognized this fact. In a recent face-off with his Republican counterpart, Tom Reynolds (R-NY) on "Meet the Press," Emmanuel answered questions about the ethics collapse not just with condemnation, but with a brisk five point plan of ideas to make the nation healthier and more fuel independent, among others. If Democrats are going to make inroads with 2006 midterms voters, this outline -- not negative attacks on GOPers -- must become the drumbeat, gathering in synchronicity from every corner of the party apparatus. The message must be persistent, and it must be fearless; good ideas will continue to be derided as tax-and-spend by the right's noise machine, as they always have been, but putting righteous, hypocritical fury on the defensive rather than the offensive is half the battle. Until Americans can unthinkingly rattle off what Democrats stand for the way they can for Republicans (small government, strong defense, moral values), they may well continue to vote for the devil they know.
If the domestic and foreign crises of the last few months have proven anything, it is that the Republican agenda has failed this nation. Yet it would be a grave mistake indeed to think that the toppling of figureheads fixes a deeply broken government. Perhaps Democrats will have the further pleasure of watching Tom DeLay's complete undoing, but perhaps the former insect exterminator will be able to scuttle away from the harsh light of accountability and survive to see another term in Congress -- either way, it matters little. The crumbling of the GOP leadership is only the beginning. The hard part is offering the alternative of construction, and Democrats must prove that they have a few hammers of their own.
Katie Cristol's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She is the Research Coordinator for the University Democrats. She can be reached at kcristol@cavalierdaily.com.
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