The Defeat in Victory

The Democrats lost by winning.

The War, Bush, a disgruntled conservative base, frustrated independents, moderate Democratic candidates, Congressional corruption--all these brought sweeping Congresssional victory to the Democrats. The 110^st Congress will be the first Congress the Dems can call their own since the Republican Revolution of 1994. A huge vicotry.

Or was it?

Had the Democrats won the House but lost the Senate, here's what they could have done:

• Played the role of a fierce opposition, fighting the mighty Republican empire, plagued with corruption, ineptitude, and general evil.
• Laid the blame for all things Iraq at the feet of Republicans.
• Maintained the brilliant political tactic of vague and loud opposition to the war, without having to articulate any clear, unified position for what to do about it.
• Kept beating the drum of "change for the sake of change" going into the presidential election in 2008
• Continued the strategy of attack, name-call, and paint the world in the colors of negativity

Being in the minority is always easier that being in power. Majority= you are always on defense, justifying your positions and proving that you have produced results. Minority= playing offense (yell and scream about everything; say how horrible the world is). This past election the Democrats were even decrying the economy as terrible, even though unemployment is nearing record lows, the Dow is setting record highs, and household income is on the rise. Yell. Scream. The sky is falling. That's what's great about being in the minority.

They've lost that edge.

The grand prize is now only two years away. The candidates' exploratory committees are being formed (McCain went public with his on Friday). The race has begun. To win the White House the Democrats will now have to produce results in the next two years. Now they must share in the solution. It would sure be a lot easier to just name-call for the next two years. They have lost that freedom. If they offer a solution to Iraq and it fails, they are at fault. If they offer no solution, they are at fault. Iraq is a nightmare from which we will not awake in the next twenty-four months. Had they not won the Senate, the Dems could have kept their hands much cleaner than the Republicans'. Now they'll get to play in the dirt, too.

In case their twelve year journey in the political wilderness has caused them to forget, the lesson they are about to re-learn is this: governing is hard. They are in for a jolt of reality. The Red Team tried to call the Blues "obstructionist" when they couldn't produce results. America didn't buy it. The electorate will be equally unforgiving of a Blue Congress that doesn't produce the goods.

I'm still convinced, as I suggested in this post, that the Dems aren't stupid enough to move to the far Left, cause voter backlash, and blow their first shot at power in a long time. But this is clear: their road to the White House was made more difficult the second George Allen hung up the phone after conceding Virginia's junior Senate seat.

The Democrats lost by winning.