Shaping 'New Democratic' Illusions

As pundits eagerly prepare to trash Bill Clinton's first hundred days in office, the most vociferous criticism probably will come from two sources: people who feel that the president is too liberal, and those who believe he is not liberal enough. In either case, disappointed Americans are realizing that the Clinton campaign was founded on a series of illusions, which were nurtured by the naivete of some voters and the cynicism of others.

The first illusion was that Clinton was New Democrat, a moderate unafraid to challenge liberal interests and unwilling to coddle criminals or pamper the poor. During the campaign, Clinton demonstrated his independence by insulting Jesse Jackson, executing Arkansas convicts and catering to the "forgotten middle class" while ignoring the poor.

These symbolic actions and omissions obscured the only substantial difference between this New Democrat and the old ones: Clinton was unwilling to let principle stand in the way of victory.

But before jumping to condemn Clinton for the lies we eagerly embraced during the campaign, we should consider our own role in disseminating the illusion. Moderate voters--the famous Reagan Democrats--were disenchanted by Bush and ready to accept Clinton's claim to moderacy.

The warning signs that he was a liberal existed even during the campaign, in the form of a thousand quiet promises made to liberal interest groups: promises to increase AIDS research funding, to end the military ban on homosexuals, to guarantee a woman's right to choose abortion, to welcome Haitian refugees and to penalize China for its human rights violations.

But anyone who believed Clinton would fulfill every promise he made during the campaign--anyone who believed he would cut the deficit in half, dramatically redistribute America's wealth, reverse twelve years of misguided spending priorities, reform health care and tax only the wealthiest Americans--anyone who bought this illusion was pathetically naive. Ronald Reagan should have been lesson enough for the American electorate.

Of course, many people suspected all along that Clinton was a closet liberal, and that the New Democrat rhetoric would fade after January 20. These cynical liberals were complicit in the hoax because they forgave Clinton for saying whatever it took to be elected. Their suspicions have been vindicated--Clinton's liberalism has not taken long to emerge. But liberals remain unsatisfied because Clinton has failed to adequately compensate them for their complicity by fulfilling all of his campaign promises in his first hundred days.

The expectation that the entire Clinton agenda would be enacted by now was fostered by a second illusion on which Clinton founded his campaign. This illusion, which even Clinton may have believed, was the assumption that everything could be accomplished with a presidential command. It was common during the campaign to hear candidate Clinton promise that within his first months in office he would sign an order repealing this Bush policy or reversing that Bush decision.

But since Inaugural Day, we have all learned that presidential will is not always enough. Perhaps we were naive to believe, for example, that the military would voluntarily abandon its bigotry simply because the Commander-in-Chief issued an executive order ending discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Similarly, it may have been silly to assume that it would only take a presidential signature to end the ban on HIV-infected immigrants.

But when Congress preempted the president by over-whelmingly voting to codify the ban into law, Clinton got a slap-in-the-face demonstration of the limits to presidential power.

These limits guarantee frustration for the president and his supporters, and they diminish the possibility that he will fulfill all of his promises soon. Furthermore, the third illusion that Clinton's campaign fostered makes it even less likely that the electorate's high expectations will be satisfied.

This illusion pretended that if Democrats controlled the presidency and Congress, gridlock would end. During the campaign, liberals could list the well-intentioned legislation that had been passed recently and sigh, "If only Bush hadn't vetoed it...."

With Clinton in the White House, the argument went, Congress could pass all this legislation again, and this time the president would sign it.

The theory sounds good, but it ignores politics. Under Bush, congressional Democrats often passed laws they didn't fully support because they knew the president would veto them--the goal of the legislation was simply to underscore the evils of gridlock and emphasize the divide between Democrats and Republicans. Now that they know Clinton will sign the legislation, moderate Democrats are much less willing, for example, to approve a law codifying the unrestricted right to abortion.

The Single Party Illusion also ignores the Senate's rules: Because 60 votes are necessary to end debate on a bill, the 43 Republican Senators can filibuster and defeat any Democratic legislation they strongly oppose. The demise of Clinton's $16 million economic stimulus bill last week was a politically painful reminder of this limit to the president's power.

Because Clinton is weakened by Republican opposition and Democratic non-cooperation, he needs to choose his battles carefully. He has wisely chosen to focus on two monumental tasks: passing a budget that essentially reverses the Reagan Revolution and enacting health care reform that may be unprecedented in U.S. history.

If he is to be successful, he cannot afford to squander more political capital than he has already wasted.

As a result, the president's first hundred days are not nearly as impressive as he promised they would be. Moderates may be enraged that the illusion of a New Democrat evaporated, revealing a tax-and-spend liberal. And liberals may be disappointed that the fights they have pursued for twelve frustrating years cannot end with the stroke of a presidential pen.

But if Clinton deserves blame for deceiving the electorate, voters are guilty of nurturing the deception. Reality has shattered the illusions and demonstrated the difficulties that Clinton confronts.