Member-only story
Time for Democrats to play hardball
A legislative strategy for Joe Biden
For the past few years, Democrats have been completely outmaneuvered by Republicans. Don’t believe me? Consider that in the last fifty years, Democrats have nominated and confirmed only four Supreme Court Justices. Despite losing the popular vote in 6 of the last 7 elections, Republicans have appointed 15 of the last 19 Supreme Court Justices. Legislatively, we’re getting killed.
I would argue that the key moment this trend started was under the leadership of Tip O’Neill (D-MA). According to his autobiography Man of the House, then-Speaker O’Neill believed Americans would rebel against the drastic cuts in services proposed by then-President Ronald Reagan. As a result, he and the Democratic-controlled House passed Reagan’s budget package. O’Neill miscalculated, however, and the public did not have any sympathy for the poor and disabled who bore the brunt of Reagan’s cuts.
Since then, Democrats have been playing catch-up to Republicans. Even when we were in control of the government, such as after the 1992 and 2008 elections, we squandered our opportunity to achieve real change because our leadership was too timid to take on the ideological hegemony established by the Republicans.
