The Economic Debate: Fear vs. Corruption (Page 2)

Not surprisingly, polls show Democrats with double-digit leads on most economic issues, from healthcare to energy to education. Voters think corporations have too much power in Washington. Large majorities favor more regulation and accountability. Large majorities think the current Congress is out of touch with people like themselves. CEOs are about as popular as Mafia dons. Even on taxes, polls show Democrats well ahead of Republicans.

Fanning fear of taxes is the strongest card conservative incumbents have in a weak hand. Republican strategists hope the recent decline in gas prices, after a large and painful increase, will take the edge off what they call the "cost-of-living issue," and that fear of taxes can distract from their mismanagement of the economy, just as fear of terrorism will distract from the failure in Iraq. A New York Times analysis of ad purchases in eleven competitive Senate races shows that taxes are featured in the highest percentage of Republican ads, far more than security. Healthcare, energy, the economy and jobs lead Iraq in Democratic ad buys.

For Republicans, "they'll raise your taxes" is an attempt to connect your pocketbook with their growth strategy--lower taxes, smaller government, deregulation, etc. Generally absent on the Democratic side is any deeper grappling with the failure of these policies over the past quarter-century--or clarity in proposing a bold alternative. During the Bush years, conservatives have mortgaged the store. They've racked up record foreign debt and record budget deficits. We have the lowest interest rates in memory, but we're still hemorrhaging private-sector jobs. Emerging threats like catastrophic climate change have been scorned. The growing deficits in public investment--from schools to alternative energy to competitive broadband--have been ignored. The corporate unraveling of the employee safety net--healthcare benefits, stable jobs, pensions--has been callously celebrated as the dawn of an "ownership society," as in, "I've got mine, you're on your own."

Democrats are tongue-tied on these larger issues. The Wall Street/New Democrat wing of the party is still wedded to the conservative budget, trade and deregulation policies of the past. Bold new initiatives are strangled by the timidity, ingrained during the Clinton years, of tactical retreat. The New Directions platform promises to rectify the excesses of the right, but it doesn't connect this pledge to a new growth strategy for the economy.

If populists like Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Bernie Sanders in Vermont and Jon Tester in Montana are elected, they could help crystallize this debate before 2008. And if Democrats succeed in taking the House, progressive committee chairs like George Miller and Barney Frank can begin that bigger conversation through hearings, investigations and legislative battles. The AFL-CIO is leading an effort to develop a broader economic alternative to the failed conservative agenda.

In 2006, however, voters looking for answers on the economy will have a hard time finding them. Headlines from Iraq and the din of the war debate drown out economic issues. Republican incumbents are advertising their new-found independence from the President, blurring differences and going negative, often in direct personal attacks on their opponents. Neither party is offering voters a strategy for dealing with the growing structural insecurities of today's economy. Neither rouses the country to a new vision of a more just, more prosperous society.

But beneath the clamor, there will at least be a clear choice between the two parties. Democrats promise to reverse the costs of Republican corruption. Republicans promise to stop Democrats from raising your taxes. Both appeal to your pocketbook. Democrats will rely on the growing sense that it is time to throw the bums out. Republicans will stoke fears that change will lead to something worse. No wonder turnout is likely to be low.

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