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April 03, 2005

Putting Democracy Back In The Democratic Party

In a thoughtful editorial, Joe Klein asks, "Is it time for Democrats to embrace Democracy?":

The Schiavo case has provoked a passionate American conversation, which is taking place on a more profound level than the simple yes and no answers of the polls. Yes, the vast majority disdain the politicians who chose to exploit the case. And yes, a solid majority would not want their own lives prolonged in a similar situation. But the questions that cut closest to home are the family issues. What would you do if Terri Schiavo were your daughter? Why couldn't Michael Schiavo just give custody over to the parents? What do we do about custody in a society where the parent-child bond is more durable than many marriages? The President's solution, to "err on the side of life," seems the only humane answer—if there is a dispute between parents and spouse, and the disabled person has left no clear instruction.

The Democrats' relative silence on all this has been prudent, but telling. Their implicit position has been to err toward law. "The notion that Florida failed to do its job in the Schiavo case is wrong," said Congressman Barney Frank, one of the few Democrats willing to speak about the case. "Procedurally, there was a great deal of due process." Frank was right, but it was a curiously sterile pronouncement, bereft of the Congressman's usual raucous humanity. It exemplified the Democratic Party's recent overdependence on legal process, a culture of law that has supplanted legislative consideration of vexing social issues. This is democracy once removed.

Klein points out, rightly, that the Democratic reliance on the courts to effect social change harks back to the civil rights era, when the courts led the way in enforcing landmark desegregation decisions. Few today would argue with the rightness of those actions, even were the hated term 'judicial activism' applied. But what started from necessity soon became habit, as the courts began flexing their newfound muscles in all walks of American life. In the ultimate of unintended consequences, representative government was gradually supplanted or overruled by increasingly proactive and intrusive judges who seemed to view themselves less as interpreters of the textual Constitution than as social reformers. Klein points out the fly in the judicial ointment:

Many of these were worthy decisions, but they were never voted on. Over time, as the Democrats became the minority party, their efforts to hold on to this last area of solace became more desperate.

This reluctance to submit things to a popular vote is highlighted in the current battle over the filibuster, in which the Democrats have prevented a vote on federal judges who possess enough support to withstand debate and a full vote of the Senate. This is truly the tyranny of the minority, no matter which party engages in it. And the public is beginning to notice: the "party in opposition" is becoming known as the "party of obstruction". Klein notes:

Oddly, a solution to the Dems' dilemma may be on offer from liberal academia. "The hot new idea in liberal law journals is called popular constitutionalism," says Paul Gewirtz of Yale Law School. "It argues that legislatures and voters should have more control over government, and the judiciary should take a more subsidiary position." In other words, issues like abortion should be put to a vote. This is an idea unthinkable to most Democratic politicians, who believe the right to an abortion is tucked somewhere in the Constitution—and also to the more extreme religious conservatives, who believe abortion is murder. That leaves the rest of us. And I imagine most of us would prefer some good, messy legislative compromises, hammered out at the state level, with the unimpeachable imprimatur of public approval. Perhaps it is time, finally, for Democrats to embrace democracy.

What a concept.

Posted by Cassandra at April 3, 2005 01:47 PM

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» Democracy And Power from Riehl World View
Villainous Company has an interesting post having to do with the state of democracy within the Democrat Party. I think the concept of the career politician also contributes to this issue for obth parties. Not wanting to be too controversial [Read More]

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Posted by: William Teach at April 3, 2005 07:01 PM

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