Abigail Philip
Power and Politics
Professor Karras
11/02/06
Current Events Assignment 3
The name of this article found in the New York Times is “In Key Races,
Democrats Run to the Right” by Shaila Dewan and Anne E. Kornblut. The article is dated
October 30th 2006. The issue that the article is discussing is the Democrat’s push to win
back control of the house, and in key races they are running to the right. The issues at
hand are the Democrats tactics to hopefully gain more of the voters trust and sway some
Republican votes their way by having candidates that have some beliefs of Republicans.
The issue is that the Democrats are now turning to more conservative and
moderate candidates who fit the profiles of their districts more closely than the profile of
the national party. In the article they discuss different candidates running on the
democratic ticket. One candidate in particular that’s mentioned is Heath Shuler. He was
approached by the Republican Party to run for office in 2001. He refused and is now
running on the Democratic ticket in the 11th Congressional District in North Carolina.
This is now interesting because Mr. Shuler is an evangelical Christian and holds fast to
many conservative social views, like opposition to abortion rights.
The parties that are involved with or affected by the issue are the Democrats, the
Republicans and the American public. The two sides or more to the issue is Democrats
running to the right to gain control of the house, and the other side is the affect that those
new tactics or new Democrats running to the right will have on the old liberal members
and voters. The argument is if candidates like Mr.Shuler help the Democrats gain
majority control of Congress, it would most likely come at a political price. This price
would be that it may cause or include tensions in the party between its centrists and its
more liberal political base. However, while some of these Democratic leaders have gone
through great lengths to promote the views of these candidates some like Mr. Shuler have
views on issues such as gun control and abortion that are far out of step with the
prevailing views of the Democrats who control the party. It is even said that on some
issues they may even be expected to side with Republicans and the Bush White House.
The Democratic official’s stance on this issue is that they were searching for
candidates with the greatest possibility of winning against Republicans it just so
happened that they had a number who reflected more moderate views. It is said that this
new group could tilt the balance of power within the party which has been struggling to
define itself in recent elections. Some of these candidates are said to fiscally conservative
and moderate or liberal on social issues, while some on the reverse. These are said to can
influence negotiations with Republicans on a variety of issues including Social Security
and stem cell research.
The article mentioned two main groups of moderate Democrats in the House: the
Blue Dog Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition. The differences of the two are the
Blue Dogs are more rural and Southern, with occasional alliances with Republicans,
while the New Democrats are more suburban and wealthy and place a premium on party
loyalty.
The side of the argument that makes most sense for me is the fact that the
Democrats are trying something new and different to gain more votes in the elections and
to win back control of the House. The fact that they are seeking persons who fit the
profiles of their districts is very good so that this way the field may be more level. There
are persons who would love to vote for the democrats but do not believe in all their
policies and some persons may have religious beliefs that cause them to vote the
Republican way or not vote at all. It makes sense that they are trying to get control of the
house but I have one problem and this is the fact that if some of these candidates have
views as the Republicans and the Republicans gain back the House, and then they would
more or less be voting with the Republicans and not with the Democratic Party. This
especially if the issue is something like abortion and the person is religious and is against
abortion like most Republicans. Overall I think that it’s a good idea because it may
encourage or sway some votes the Democrats way but then again it may alienate the
more liberal supporters of the party so this is a disadvantage and a chance that the party
will be undertaking.
The conclusion that I drew from my reading of this article about how the
American political system works is that there is always an issue to debate and that there
will always be two sides of an opinion or views on the issue, the Republican’s view and
the Democratic view. Also politicians are always looking for new ways to win and be
successful, and we as a people must be involved and listen to both sides and make
decisions based on the information and facts given to us and have our own opinions.