How Bush Could Lose Part IV: Domestic Policy

In theory Democrats are suppose to be for the little guy. If the focus is on this rather than on what they have been doing for the last 70 years, they could have some real breakthroughs in this area, for it would really play to one of their big strengths. The main problem Democrats face here, particularly at the national level is that Democrats often seem to be the advocates of government, more than the advocates of the little guy.

Put simply most “solution” Democrats propose for these problems involve more or bigger government programs. But most voters do not like the idea of a bigger government for most do not like government to begin with, seeing it more as a necessary evil than anything else. This is especially true given the long and well established history of waste and failure in government programs, something Republicans have gotten very effective at exploiting.

Thus what it is needed is a truly new and innovative approach to these issues that will allow them to make the same appeals, without the same baggage. Current most of the really innovative solutions are coming from Republican, and it is one of the reasons for their success in recent decades, but there is no inherent reason why this must the case. In theory Democratic can be just as innovative as Republicans.

The main problem here is that the current Democratic party has such strong ties to special interest groups that are tied to the status quo such as government and teachers unions that innovation is difficult. But if the democrats were to nominate a candidate with innovative approaches, they would make major gains as this is traditionally a strong area for them. They would be playing to their strengths while at the same time defusing one the main criticism against them.