Democrats the Party of Memories

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven -
All's right with the world!

--Robert Browning (1812-1889)
“Pippa Passes” (1841) pt. 1,l.221

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) said every polity tends to have a party of memory and a party of hope. Democrats are the party of memory. They don’t think so, of course. But look. They believe the natural order of things is Democrats running the country, the way America was before Vietnam and 1965, the liberal America of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson; of New Deal, Fair Deal, New Frontier, Great Society; of ending depression, minimum wage, fair labor laws, social security, the G.I. Bill, FHA-backed home ownership, Medicare, Medicaid, immigration reform, civil rights legislation, equal rights for women, minorities, gays, environmental protection.

Good government in charge, making life better for common people. “God in his Heaven, A Democrat in the White House, All’s right with the world!”

“All’s right” when the national elite holds power, our philosopher-kings, working through government controlled by Democrats, ruling on behalf of the common people.

At one time, Democrats were the party of hope, Republicans the party of memory. But Democrats held power most of the time from 1933 to 1981, 48 years, and reshaped America so that Washington replaced dozens of small cities as the elite’s cradle of power. “Inside the beltway” describes the culture that gained control during the Democratic years.

Because of Democratic errors, Republicans made their presence felt in Washington in the years following 1980. But they never dominated the city on the Potomac, only occasionally sending power back to the provinces. Nevertheless, particularly under Reagan in 1981-86 and George W. Bush in 2001-06, with working Republican majorities in Congress, it felt as though the country had passed beyond the natural order of things—America’s liberal elite in control.

The elite has fought back hard. As we have said before (here and here), quoting Cornell economist and author of Luxury Fever Robert Frank, "Animals will fight viciously to protect territory that they hold, but they won't fight nearly as hard to extend their territory." Democrats fought hard to build America into a big government nation, and they work even harder to retain their elite, government-based status. But isn’t it old fashioned to think a relatively small group of us knows better than do the people, a mass of individuals each with their own brains and skills, how best to make and spend the nation’s resources?

“Hope” means wanting more democracy, more capitalism, more individual decisionmaking (linked to the right to fail, learn, succeed) for everyone. Everyone living here, in the greatest experiment in individual power the world has ever known—America.

Democrats live on their memories of a time when their own good elite replaced a bad elite and ran everything. But the world never stands still, and it never goes back. Republicans must now be the party of hope for the rest of us, helping move America beyond elite rule to true democracy.