We Have an Agenda

I'm tired of this garbage being thrown out by Republicans as a catch-all parry against charges about DeLay, Bolton, Social Security privatization, or whatever else paints them in a negative light. You've heard it, I'm sure. "Democrats don't have an agenda, they don't have any ideas, so they're just blah blah blah blah."

This has cropped up too many times to be coincidental. It's obviously a strategy to paint Democrats as out of ideas, as the party of No!, as therefore valueless. This is obviously picking up on John Kerry's perceived wavering during the election campaign, which was more often than not manufactured by RNC press releases, though Kerry could have been more articulate in many cases. But we need to absolutely push back against this growing meme. Fortunately, it has the aspect of being untrue.

Democrats are out of power. They has no ability to present a legislative agenda on the floor of the Congress in anything but a piecemeal fashion. One of the reasons DeLay is in the trouble he's in now is because of the strongarming of the GOP agenda through the Congress, and the stifling of any contrary views. That's fine; as Majority Leader it's his job to make sure his side's bills get passed (I'm saying it's his ends-justify-the-means techniques that have left him open to ethics criticisms). But it turns this Republican griping about how "Democrats have no agenda" into nothing but a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unfortuantely, casual observers of politics (or worse, Fox News observers of politics) will not see this version of events.

Despite the incredible difficulty of getting bills out of committee, Democrats have been able to get parts of an agenda to the Congress. These include:

-Elements of the GI Bill of Rights (regarding housing for military families and health benefits)
-Playing hardball with China by threatening high tariffs if they don't revalue their currency (Sen. Schumer's bill)
-The Put Kids First Act (Sen. Kerry's bill for universal health coverage for uninsured children)
-Election reform (Sen. Clinton's variety of reform for fair elections)

These are distinct parts of an overriding agenda for fairness, equality, and opportunity. Democrats do need to do a better job of highlighting these accomplishments, and pushing forth their ideas. It's difficult in an environment where the Republicans are given the freedom, by virtue of their position and the slavishness of the corporate media, to set the terms of the debate. But the next time you get in an argument with somebody and you hear the old saw "Democrats have no ideas" you might want to rattle off a few of these listed here.

You might also want to mention that Republicans have no GOOD ideas (at least not for working people).