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November 21, 2004
American Prospect Hosts Debate on Tactics for the Dems
A November 19th debate in The American Prospect between Terence Samuel, chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and American Prospect staff writer Matthew Yglesias considers alternative strategies for the Dems. Here’s a taste of the exchange:
Terence Samuel:
For Democrats trying to figure out what they need to do as an opposition party, there should be little confusion about how to approach the new role, or the newly acknowledged role. They have to come out slugging.
Republicans didn’t just let the Democrats dig their own grave, though that wasn’t an implausible strategy. They knew what they wanted and they fought for it… They actively went out and undermined and discredited the very foundations of the Democratic Party, slowly disassembling its coalition and appropriating its power
Matthew Yglesias:
On the point that the Democratic Party needs to fight, you'll get no argument from me. The question is which battles to fight and in what way. The model of the past four years has been characterized by the Republicans -- not unfairly -- as obstructionism, trying as hard as possible to block as many administration proposals as possible…
A better path would be to dedicate the bulk of Democratic time and attention to fulfilling the role played by opposition parties in the parliamentary democracies that the United States increasingly resembles. In other words, to outline an alternative agenda for the future.
There’s a lot more and it’s worth reading
Posted by EDM Staff at 07:29 PM | link
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