“Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview.”--Karl Rove
Democrats’ domination of Washington has been pretty thorough since 1932. If we award two points for every year a party controlled the White House, and one point for its control of each house of Congress, the Democrats earned 120 points to the Republicans’ 24 between 1932 and 1968. That domination was enough for Democrats to lay down some pretty deep tracks, including permanent control of the bureaucracy and the courts.
Since 1968, the score is more even—Democrats 72, Republicans 80. That’s enough balance to make Republicans a real factor on the Potomac, but not enough for the GOP to dominate the power structure. Not only do Democrats hold on to the bureaucracy and the courts, they also, as we have seen, control private sector institutions that rely on government largesse or protection: academia, entertainment and the arts, the Third Sector, and the media. Collectively, these institutions make up the American establishment. Like all establishments, this power structure finds change threatening, and hangs on to the status quo.
9/11 proved to be a very serious threat to the establishment after the mid-term elections of 2002, when Republicans successfully used the war on terror to gain simultaneous control of the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1954. Again in 2004, Republicans used the war on terror to retain the White House, the Senate and the House. Why, then, would Democrats identify in any way with a post-9/11 politics that has cost them power? Of course, Democrats want the status quo ante; a return to the issues of pre-9/11.
They want the good old days. Clinton in the White House. Congress Democratic. The leadership class leading.
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