custom ad
OpinionOctober 17, 1994

Six years after he quit Washington to ride off into the sunset of his beloved Rancho Cielo near Santa Barbara, Calif., the shadow of Ronald Wilson Reagan gets longer still. Truly, truly it must be admitted: This extraordinary leader, who enjoyed the inestimable advantage of being underestimated by every opponent he ever had, transformed American politics for the long term as has no leader since FDR...

Six years after he quit Washington to ride off into the sunset of his beloved Rancho Cielo near Santa Barbara, Calif., the shadow of Ronald Wilson Reagan gets longer still. Truly, truly it must be admitted: This extraordinary leader, who enjoyed the inestimable advantage of being underestimated by every opponent he ever had, transformed American politics for the long term as has no leader since FDR.

Two years ago, Bill and Hillary Clinton ran for president. Their explicit goal: to overturn what was left of Reaganism after George Bush had fecklessly abandoned its impregnable fortress. After two years of the Clintons and six years into the Bush-Clinton years, Democratic candidates are fighting for their lives against an anti-liberal tidal wave that threatens to swamp their heaviest hitters and brightest stars. From Maine to Hawaii, from Florida to California, these panic-stricken Democrats are sounding Reaganesque themes. It is beyond contest: This is the sincerest form of flattery.

The Washington-New York media elite, both print and electronic, still don't get it. Incessantly, they chatter to each other about how mad Americans are at incumbents. "It'll be a bad year for incumbents," they intone gravely, meaning for so many of their friends, as nearly all nod in agreement.

Excuse me, but may we let a little reality intrude? Not all incumbents are in trouble. The list of those who are reads like a Who's Who of American liberalism, as Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Jim Sasser (Tennessee), Harris Wofford (Pennsylvania) and Dianne Feinstein (California) fight for their political lives. Look across the map, however, at Reagan conservatives, and nearly all are coasting. Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott is cruising toward a landslide re-election victory, as are Richard Lugar of Indiana, Connie Mack of Florida and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Up in Maine, retiring Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell is having no luck picking his successor. His seat will be filled by GOP Rep. Olympia Snowe.

Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!

Or consider the governors' races. While liberal pinups Mario Cuomo (New York) and Ann Richards (Texas) fight for their lives, California's Pete Wilson, given up for dead 18 months ago, is sweeping to an easy victory over former Gov. Jerry Brown's sister, Kathleen. In the crucial presidential battleground -- the Great Lake/industrial states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois, where Bill Clinton swept everything in 1992 -- incumbent Republican governors are sweeping to landslide re-election. In particular, in Michigan and Wisconsin, Govs. Engler and Thompson are aggressive, in-your-face conservatives. Michigan is especially instructive.

In an era of blow-dry media-savvy candidates, Gov. John Engler is Broderick Crawford, plump and balding in a rumpled suit. Elected in 1990's most astonishing upset, he has governed as perhaps the most aggressive conservative governor in America. He has confronted the state's most powerful single-interest group, the Michigan National Education Association, mother of the national NEA. A supporter of full parental choice and charter schools, Engler has earned NEA enmity and trounced them. In the bargain, he is transforming Michigan politics as his hero, Ronald Reagan, did America's.

Meanwhile, the embattled liberals, nearly everywhere under siege, are sounding conservative themes. There are those who one wag dubbed the Quayle Democrats, as, like Clinton himself, they have discovered religion, prayer in schools and family values. Or there are the born-again tax cutters, such as Cuomo, or the new-to-the-altar death penalty supporters, nearly everywhere. In a dodge reminiscent of 1988's Michael Dukakis, all deny they are liberals. Where is the forthright, stouthearted man of the left who will stand up and declare: "I am a liberal"? Liberalism is the philosophy that dare not speak its name.

It is all enough to remind you of Joe Sobran's Law of Politics: When a politician tells you he's neither liberal nor conservative, he's liberal. And that has to be sweet revenge for a much-maligned, 83-year-old former president, sitting out in California, watching as his declared enemies ape his themes, in desperate pursuit of victory.

Peter Kinder is associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.

Story Tags
Advertisement

Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:

For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.

Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!