By Robert Reich
 |
Instead
of “left” versus “right,” think of two different core competences.
The
Democratic Party is basically a governing party, organized around developing
and implementing public policies.
The Republican Party has become an attack party, organized around developing and implementing political vitriol. Democrats legislate. Republicans fulminate.
The Republican Party has become an attack party, organized around developing and implementing political vitriol. Democrats legislate. Republicans fulminate.
In
theory, politics requires both capacities – to govern, but also to fight to
attain and retain power. The dysfunction today is that Republicans can’t govern
and Democrats can’t fight.
Donald
Trump is the culmination of a half century of GOP belligerence. Richard Nixon’s
“dirty tricks” were followed by Republican operative Lee Atwater’s smear
tactics, Newt Gingrich’s take-no-prisoners reign as House speaker, the
“Swift-boating” of John Kerry, and the GOP’s increasingly blatant uses of
racism and xenophobia to build an overwhelmingly white, rural base.
Atwater, trained in the southern swamp of the modern Republican Party, once noted: “Republicans in the South could not win elections by talking about issues. You had to make the case that the other guy, the other candidate, is a bad guy.” Over time, the GOP’s core competence came to be vilification.
The
stars of today’s Republican Party, in addition to Trump, are all pugilists:
Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio; Florida governor
Ron DeSantis and Georgia’s Brian Kemp; Fox News’s Sean Hannity and Tucker
Carlson; and attack dogs like Rudolph Giuliani and Roger Stone.
But
Republicans don’t have a clue how to govern. They’re hopeless at developing and
implementing public policies or managing government. They can’t even agree on
basics like how to respond to the pandemic or what to replace Obamacare with.
Meanwhile,
the central competence of the Democratic Party is running government –
designing policies and managing the system. Once in office, Democrats spend
countless hours cobbling together legislative and regulatory initiatives. They
overflow with economic and policy advisers, programs, plans, and goals.
But
Democrats are lousy at bare knuckles political fighting. Their campaigns
proffer policies but are often devoid of passion. (Hillary Clinton’s 2016
presidential bid was little more than a long list of detailed proposals.)
Democrats seem stunned when their GOP opponents pillory them with lies, rage,
and ad hominem attacks.
This
has put Democrats at a competitive disadvantage. Political campaigns might once
have been about party platforms, but today’s electorate is angrier and more
cynical.
Policy ideas rarely make headlines; conflict does.
Social media favor explosive revelations, including bald lies. No one remembers Hillary Clinton’s policy ideas from 2016; they only remember Trump’s attacks on her emails.
Policy ideas rarely make headlines; conflict does.
Social media favor explosive revelations, including bald lies. No one remembers Hillary Clinton’s policy ideas from 2016; they only remember Trump’s attacks on her emails.
As
a result, the party that’s mainly good at attacking has been winning elections
– and pushed into governing, which it’s bad at. In 2016, the GOP won the
presidency, along with control over both chambers of Congress and most
governorships.
On the other hand, the party that’s mainly good a governing has been losing elections – pushed into the role of opposition and attack, which it’s bad at. (House speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, seems to have a natural gift for it.)
On the other hand, the party that’s mainly good a governing has been losing elections – pushed into the role of opposition and attack, which it’s bad at. (House speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, seems to have a natural gift for it.)
This
dysfunction has become particularly obvious – and deadly – in the current
national emergency. Trump and Senate Republicans have let the pandemic and
economic downturn become catastrophes.
They have no capacity to develop and implement strategies for dealing with them. Their knee-jerk response is to attack – China, Democrats, public health officials, protesters, “lazy” people who won’t work.
They have no capacity to develop and implement strategies for dealing with them. Their knee-jerk response is to attack – China, Democrats, public health officials, protesters, “lazy” people who won’t work.
Democrats
know what to do – House Democrats passed a comprehensive coronavirus bill in
May, and several Democratic governors have been enormously effective – but
they’ve lacked power to put a national strategy into effect.
All
this may change in a few months when Americans have an opportunity to replace
the party that’s bad at governing with the one that’s good at it. After all,
Joe Biden has been at it for most of the past half century.
Trump
and the GOP will pull out all the stops, of course. They’ve already started
mindless, smarmy attacks.
The
big question hovering over the election is whether Democrats can summon enough
fight to win against the predictable barrage. Biden’s choice of running mate,
Kamala Harris, bodes well in this regard. Quite apart from all her other
attributes, she’s a fierce fighter.
He is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 17 other books, including the best sellers "Aftershock,""The Work of Nations," "Beyond Outrage," and "The Common Good." He is a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentaries "Inequality For All," and "Saving Capitalism," both now streaming on Netflix.