A turn to the left—or is it?
November 9, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
While many of the Democrats who won election on Tuesday are avowed leftists—House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is one of the chamber’s most liberal members—a sizeable number of the freshman Democrats will be far more conservative. This is certainly good news for the conservative movement.
“The incoming class of freshman Democrats,” Heritage vice president Mike Franc wrote in The Baltimore Sun, “bears little ideological resemblance to the next House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and her incoming cast of old-left chairmen. Nowhere, they will realize, are those differences more apparent than with respect to questions relating to limited government.”
The new Democratic majority in the House “will quite likely give Speaker Pelosi an unanticipated headache,” Franc writes in a separate article on National Review Online. “[W]hile she may realize her much coveted numerical majority, she will not enjoy an ideological one.” Though many in their party may be subjected to pressure from radical activists, the 25 to 40 Democratic moderates “will resist certain prerogatives of the left.”
The Democrats, who have in the past embraced the radical left, might be recognizing at last the strength of conservative ideas. The New York Times ran a story last week explaining that “[i]n their push to win back control of the House, Democrats have turned to conservative and moderate candidates.” Party officials admitted to the Times that the only way to actually win in many parts of the country was to seek out candidates with more conservative views on issues like spending, gun rights and abortion.
The election results themselves appear to support this analysis:
- The “Blue Dog” caucus of more conservative Democrats expanded. Several incoming House freshmen, like Brad Ellsworth of Indiana and Heath Shuler of North Carolina, are more fiscally conservative than the bulk of their party, and hold traditional views on moral issues and gun rights. Jim Webb, the next Senator from Virginia, resigned from his position in the Reagan administration because he believed the defense budget was too small.
- Though the far left remains powerful, Tuesday’s results suggest they continue to have a tough time winning state-wide elections. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, running as an independent, won reelection despite a challenge from radical liberals.
But while the “influx of moderate Democrats will soften the edges of a new Democratic House majority,” Franc warns, it will not be “enough to avoid some real and lasting harm being done.” Liberals, he explains, are poised to act on several issues important to conservatives: “immigration reform, trade agreements both big and small, and the perennial effort to increase the minimum wage.”
The Heritage Foundation will reach out to these moderate Democrats with policy ideas and solutions that are consistent with their campaign principles. As we have in the past, we will invite all new members of Congress to our New Member Orientation early next year. We look forward to explaining our conservative ideas and principles to the next generation of leaders.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
