No Left Turn

Democrats are fighting again over their party's direction. We think that's a good thing.

The 2004 presidential nominating process is the first big chance Democrats have had to define the party in a dozen years. This definition will determine whether our candidate can defeat George W. Bush. For party and country, the stakes couldn't be higher, so we've urged candidates to follow President Clinton's strategy and seize the vital center, not veer left.

To some on the left, that advice is "fighting yesterday's wars." We only wish it were so. Despite the unprecedented progress the country made under a Democratic president in the '90s, no Democrat will take back the White House in 2004 unless he recaptures the trust of ordinary Americans as Bill Clinton did in 1992. We're all for turning out the Democratic faithful, but energizing the liberal base is not enough to win nationally. For a decade, the electorate has been 30% conservative, 20% liberal, and 50% moderate. There's a reason Mr. Clinton was the only Democrat elected and re-elected president in 60 years: he inspired Democrats, but also went after the independents and moderate Republicans he needed to win.

The doubts Democrats worked so hard to put to rest in the '90s -- that we love government and taxes too much, and care about security and values too little -- are back. Twice as many Americans think Republicans, not Democrats, have a clear vision for the country. Three out of four voters trust Republicans more than Democrats to keep the country safe. No wonder that this year Gallup has consistently found more Americans identifying themselves as Republicans than Democrats. We won't overcome those odds by continuing to preach to the converted, only louder. Democrats need an agenda that not only excites the core, but also benefits ordinary Americans with no ties to either party.

We don't have to compromise our principles to win. We simply need to live up to our best traditions: Jackson's belief in equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none; Roosevelt's passion for reform; Truman's tough-minded internationalism; Kennedy's civic obligation; Mr. Clinton's insistence that opportunity and responsibility go hand in hand. A Democrat in that tradition who is not afraid to use U.S. power in dangerous times; who wants to reform government, not just expand it; and who offers a plan to grow the economy and increase middle-class incomes, not the middle-class tax burden, can beat Mr. Bush. A Democrat who fails to overcome doubts about security, or who raises new doubts by promising to increase government as dramatically as conservatives hope to shrink it, will not.

Mr. Bush's record -- shafting the middle class and helping the wealthy -- will do more to get our core voters to the polls than overheated rhetoric and promises. The Bush White House desperately hopes that Democrats will make the election an ideological contest between liberals and conservatives. That's the one battle Republicans know they can win -- without having to answer for the worst economic record since Hoover. So for some, sounding the alarm about the urgent need to expand Democrats' appeal may seem like yesterday's war. To us, it's the only thing that will keep Democrats from becoming yesterday's party.

Messrs. From and Reed are, respectively, founder/CEO and president of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Updated July 2, 2003