MIA in the Marketplace of Ideas

Here’s the opening sentence from an AP story titled “Dems criticize Bush on State of the Union”:

Democrats came out swinging at President Bush's policies and plans but used his State of the Union speech on Wednesday more to hurl criticism than offer specific alternatives.

I’m sorry to fixate on this issue of the downward spiral of the Democrats but the problem is not that the Democrats have bad ideas: it’s that they have no ideas. They now criticize President Bush for purely political reasons while offering no constructive viewpoint of their own. A cornerstone of a democracy is the concept that the electorate is presented with competing positions and the people (through their representatives) choose the best course of action. The Democrats are utterly absent from this Marketplace of Ideas.

Take Social Security which, by all accounts, will be a centerpiece of tonight’s State of the Union. First of all, no responsible member of Congress will deny there is a problem in that the Social Security Trust Fund will be completely empty in 2042 or so. Furthermore, it would be unjust to tax all the workers in their twenties today then, 37 years later, take away 20-25% of their promised benefits. What should be done?

Whether you think it’s a wonderful program or a fool’s errand, President Bush’s plan to institute voluntary personal accounts is a plan. It has a purpose, a mission, and a framework. It is subject to debate.

On the other hand, the Democrats have offered no coherent vision on what is arguably the jewel of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. They snipe and kvetch and demagogue, but they have no alternatives. I absolutely guarantee that in the Democratic response tonight, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will offer up only the blandest and amorphous of generalities about Social Security. There will be no calls to raise the retirement age, or recalculate benefit COLAs, or raise payroll taxes, or anything whatsoever that might actually help to stave off the fiscal trouble ahead.

That’s an abdication of leadership that has relegated the Democrats into the political wilderness and about two steps away from the Whig Party.