Democrats must avoid arrogance

Two weeks ago, after 29 years as a Republican senator, Arlen Specter crossed the aisle and became a Democrat. This action alone, which gives the Democrats a potentially filibuster-free majority in the Senate, isn’t even the most interesting part. That distinction goes to the reason why.

Justin Covington

According to a CNN.com article, Specter said his move was partially made to ensure that he remains one of Pennsylvania’s senators. The implication is that he would have lost the Republican Party’s nomination for the 2010 elections due to his liberal voting record. Specter is one of three Republicans to vote for President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill.

Combine this with the fighting among Republicans over the future of their party, and a question arises: Are we in an era of pro-Democrats or anti-Republicans?

Some would say the country has turned pro-Democrat. The switch came in the 2006 congressional elections, when Democrats regained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The new Democratic majority in the house allowed Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to become the first female speaker of the house.

Democratic congressional control was solidified during the 2008 campaign, when congressmen and women harnessed Obama’s popularity and George W. Bush’s unpopularity to reach an even greater majority in both houses.

In the executive branch, Obama won in what has been deemed an “electoral landslide.” Obama ran on a message of transparency and change, which offered a clear alternative to the eight years of secrecy during Bush’s terms.

These recent events seem to suggest that the majority of Americans have become slightly more Democratic, but that might not be the case.

A recent article on fivethirtyeight.com, a statistical political analysis site, claims party identification correlates to the time at which a person came of voting age. The author of the article, Nate Silver, gives the example that people who came of age during George W. Bush’s presidency are about eight points more Democratic than the rest of the country.

This suggests that college-aged Americans are weary of Republicanism. The split could be seen anecdotally throughout campus during the 2008 election. The only candidate who seemed to rival Obama’s popularity was Libertarian Party member Ron Paul, not Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Obama and Paul’s popularity correlates with Silver’s analysis — that as a generation, we are more anti-Republican than anything else. Obama won by differentiating himself from the Republican Party that my generation grew up with.

We saw a president, seemingly controlled by his advisors, squander a budget surplus, drastically increase military spending on a war against a subjective idea (terrorism) and engage in domestic culture wars that split the nation rather than united it. We also grew up with a president who holds the distinction of having both the highest and lowest approval ratings of any president.

With all these issues, it is almost shocking that McCain did as well as he did. McCain attempted to spin himself as a “maverick.” He even had a female running mate in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. This simply was not enough to overcome the bad will built up against the Republican Party.

The major loss in 2008 has forced Republicans to rethink their approach to politics. The party has tried, citing Palin, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Republican party chairman Michael Steel as examples of the “inclusiveness” of their party. While each of these people adds a different external appearance, the politics are still the same.

On the other hand, some Republicans are calling for a return to fiscal conservatism, which was sorely lacking from the Bush presidency.

The in-fighting could even potentially lead to a rise in libertarianism, which stresses small government, fiscal responsibility and states’ rights.

Whatever the solution for Republicans is, the Democrats better hope it isn’t figured out before 2010. The winning streak for Democrats is bound to end eventually. After all, they didn’t even earn it on their own merits.

Justin Covington is a State News guest columnist and a political science and journalism major. Reach him at coving27@msu.edu.