Democrats Miss Solutions in Denver

By Jessica Peck Corry, 9-02-08

Enough change already. Two days into their national convention in Denver, Democrats proclaimed a need for change with a passion seen only from the aggressive panhandlers staked out on the 16th Street Mall a few blocks away.

But behind all of the rhetoric of new beginnings, an aged policy platform has emerged. As eight U.S. Senate Democratic women took the stage Tuesday afternoon to present their “checklist for change,” it was hard not to feel sorry for them.

The act was about as organized and sophisticated as sorority girls trying to get us to rush their house.  It was as if they’d thrown it together over lunch at the Brown Palace. If this is their party’s best sales pitch, I am staying home on bid night.

“We believe it is time for a change in Washington: a change in tone and change in the level of commitment to addressing America’s priorities,” proclaimed the coalition of female U.S. Senate Democrats.

On paper, it appears that the “checklist” is a half-hearted attempt to mimic Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” a 1994 plan to limit the government’s role in our lives. But for Democrats, more government equals better lives. And in this case, Democrats remain in search of viable solutions to the problems we face.

In person, the checklist is feeble. Heading up Tuesday’s speeches was Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland senator and “dean” of the Senate’s female members.  With 37 years in elected office — 22 in the U.S. Senate - she is hardly the spokeswoman they should have selected to represent a fresh start for America.

Mikulski squandered her opportunity in the limelight — choosing to mislead viewers about the so-called gender wage gap. If Mikulski is to be believed, women earn at least twenty cents less on every dollar compared to men.  Her proposal for change: more federal legislation, and specifically, the passage of the Fair Pay Restoration Act.  In truth, the wage gap is a fallacy.  Women earn less because they take time off to have kids, are less aggressive in salary negations, choose safer jobs over more dangerous — but more lucrative — ones, and choose lower-paying professions.

Choice, traditionally the banner for Democratic women, apparently didn’t make the checklist’s cut.

Without skipping a beat, the women talked about small businesses and the need to keep good jobs in America.  But ask any small-business owner and she’ll tell you: high taxes, the threat of litigation and the cost of regulation are at the top of the list when it comes to sources of sleepless nights.

But “Protecting the family checkbook” isn’t referenced until the last action item on the Democrats’ 10-item checklist.  Fiscal accountability is only ninth. Later in the evening, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage.

While Clinton’s speech was well delivered — only occasionally aided by a teleprompter — her attempt to give a lasting civil rights speech was also riddled with old ideas that were packaged under the new “change” banner.

She started out strong: “I ran for president to renew the promise of America, to rebuild the middle class and sustain the American dream, to provide opportunity to those who are willing to work hard for it and have that work rewarded, so that they could save for college, a home, and retirement, afford gas and groceries, and have a little left over each month.”

Too quickly, however, Clinton digressed into a wish list longer than my three-year-old daughter’s.  “[I ran] to promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green-collar jobs, to create a single health care system that is universal, high-quality, and affordable, so that every single parent knows their children will be taken care of.”

Clinton told us that she wants “to create a world-class education system and make college affordable again, to fight for an America that is defined by deep and meaningful equality, from civil rights to labor rights, from women’s rights to gay rights…”

But what Clinton fails to consider is that the death of so many American dreams has come from too much government intervention.  Easy access to credit — fueled in part by government mandates and bailout programs — has driven up the cost of just about every good and service an American can possibly need or want to consume.  Health care has become prohibitively expensive because federal statutes prohibit the free market from working.  Families are choosing between groceries and gas because of continued Congressional resistance to domestic energy production.

In 2008, Democrats — including Clinton—have successfully identified a multitude of problems we face as a nation. For solutions, however, they’ve come up empty handed. Given this, maybe voters should have thrown some change toward the Pepsi Center. Democrats could use a new strategist or two to come up with some real policy solutions.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry’s weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics’ “Diary of a Mad Voter” feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. For more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter. And for more information on each of the bloggers, click here.