Q&A Friday #56: Will The Democrats Overreach?

05 Jan, 2007 by John Hawkins

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Question: “A lot of left wing blogs are talking gleefully like they have a generational majority after winning an off year congressional election. Do you think this kind of thinking will cause the democrats to overreach?” — RtWingNtCase

Answer: Will they overreach? Oh, absolutely. This agenda they came in with? Nobody voted for them because of it. In fact, most people who aren’t political junkies had probably never heard of it until they got into office. All they did was poll test a bunch of ideas that wouldn’t nauseate their base, like raising the minimum wage, plugging the Medicare Prescription Drug gap, etc., found what polled well and decided to support it.

But, their radical base is all about tax increases, impeaching Bush, socialized medicine, killing the war in Iraq, hampering the war on terror, and maximizing the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country — and they will be howling like a pack of wolves for the Democrats in Congress to move on those issues.

So once the Dems are done with the fluff and start getting into those big, controversial issues, they’ll start doing what their base wants and you’ll get to see the raving, full on crazy, authoritarian side of the left on full display. It won’t be a pretty picture.

How much that will impact things in 2008 is an open question, however. The gap in the House is probably too big for the GOP to make up in a single year unless the Dems completely melt down, there will be more vulnerable Reps than Dems in the Senate in 2008, and unless President Bush brings his approval rating up, he’ll hurt the chances for the next Republican nominee for the Presidency.

So yeah, they will overreach, they almost always do, but it remains to be seen how much of an impact their overreach will have weighed against all the things that are in their favor right now.