The DNC Gets It Right — Finally

by Stuart Shapiro

I haven’t been a big fan of the DNC since Howard Dean left but yesterday’s announcement shows a sharp awareness of the best tactic to fight the fall elections.

The Republican Tea Party Contract on America is a compilation of GOP leaders’ top priorities, providing Americans with a clear outline of just what the Republican Party will have to offer this fall. Republican leaders and Tea Party-supported Republican candidates from Nevada to Utah and Kentucky to Florida can now rally around the Republican Tea Party Contract on America.

Ardent liberals and conservatives hate to hear it but elections are won by appealing to the voters in the middle.  Now let’s assume that you agree that President Obama has pushed far-left policies (I don’t; I think health care and financial reform can have tremendous appeal to moderate voters, if explained well).  If this is the case, then the only way to win in November is to convince moderates that the Republicans are further from the center than the Democrats.

Fortunately, as several posts on this site have noted,  Republicans have given Democrats a huge gift, the Tea Party.  Emphasizing what the Tea Party stands for (such as privatizing social security and supporting BP)  and forcing Republicans to support it and lose moderates ,or oppose it and lose true believers is outstanding politics.  And it’s what will keep Democratic losses in November to manageable levels.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.