Utah Free Press

Soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy Peloci may find supporting new Dem-Conservative Agenda difficult.

Originally published November 11th, 2006 by Richard Okelberry

On November 7th, 2006, an amazing thing happened at the polls. While Democrat leaders like the New Speaker of the House Nancy Peloci sighted the Democrat sweep of both the House and the Senate as momentous occasion and evidence of a turn in sentiment by the people against the war in Iraq, what really happened was something quite different.

While conservatives lost some ground over the last many years within the Republican Party, they made a huge headway into the Democratic Party. You see the basic concepts of conservative and liberal ideals are not exclusively tied to a single party. This is why we have what are termed conservative or ‘Reagan’ Democrats and liberal Republicans within each of the respective parties. I believe that 2006 will eventually be seen as the year that the entire country moved a little more to the right. Democrats, desperate to regain control in the House and the Senate were forced to promote and nominate more conservative candidates. Extreme liberals like Jack Kennedy and Nancy Peloci can only find support these days within major hot beds of liberalism like Massachusetts and San Francisco. The Rest of the Democratic Party has to be more willing to accept conservative ideals as part of their platform if the want to have any hope of being elected.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a typical example of this. Here is a man running in a largely conservative state and therefore must show him-self as being pro-gun, pro-life and for reduced taxes and smaller government. Of course Sen. Nelson will caucus with the Democrats on some issues it is obvious that the more liberal Democrats won’t be able to rely on Nelson to support what used to be key liberal agendas. This same pattern could be seen through out the entire election and may eventually end up making the more radical leadership at the top of the Democratic Party ask themselves, “What have we done?” I very much expect that considering the current shift of the Democratic Party to the right that those individuals still clinging to the very left edge of the wing will have little hope of holding on to key leadership positions in the house and the senate.

Our representatives know that if they vote for Peloci to remain Speaker of the House that they will forever tie their political future to someone that I like to call “The Crazy Lady.” Now for all you conservatives out there that feel that your agendas and ideals have been derailed, understand that many of your ideals were derailed a long time ago as elected Republicans discovered that they had few obstacles blocking their ability to spend tax dollars on every little project that their supporting special interests wanted to see funded. In reality, while the Democrats do have the majority in the House and the Senate, their majority is far from absolute on many key issues. Also remember that for at least two more years, anything they pass will still have to make it past the President. For example: many Democrat leaders are now calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. In reality only the President can make that decision.

While it is true that Congress can refuse to fund the war, the President could respond by pulling more resources from existing reserves and make it appear that Democrats are turning against the troops by causing economic hardship. Much like trying to cut money to local schools, administrators merely threaten to take the cuts out of the teacher’s salary and benefits to turn sentiment against those trying to make the cuts. Also, remember that many of the newly elected conservative Democrats made promises while campaigning to stand behind the troops and the war and to promote a litany of conservative ideals. Turning against those promises could make for quite a few rolling Democrat heads during the next election cycle. Finally, the shift of the Democratic Party to the right will cause Republican candidates to shift right as well.

You see neither party is the exclusive owner of ideas or ideals in the political arena. Each party ebbs and sways with the times. We don’t have to look too far into the past to see my point. It was not long ago that it would have been nearly impossible to find a southern Democratic leader that didn’t support the segregation of schools. Now days, the Democratic Party prides itself on being the party of diversity. We can argue how diverse they truly are but it’s hard to argue that there hasn’t been a dramatic shift in their stance on race relations and equality. I believe that we now are living during a time where conservatives are enjoying huge victories within both parties. Even stall ward liberals like Hilary Clinton as she begins positioning for a run at the White House on 2008 has begun moving her platform to be more reflective of the nation’s conservative trends. Even she understands that what will get you elected in New York City won’t fly over the fly over states. For all of you die hard liberals out there that are jumping for joy at Democratic victories, you too need to begin adopting a few crucial conservative ideals or you may just find yourself slowly pushed into third party status.