One Cheer for the Democrats

...In Pennsylvania, massive job losses in steel, coal and apparel put a Democrat in the state house to replace a Republican...

...Those who wish to protest are propelled to the polls, hence the man in the White House consistently loses Congressional seats...

...We do not feel inspired, as in the early days of the Republic or of the civil rights movement...

...The "self-selection" process was similar to that in traditional midterm elections...

...In the battle for control of the Senate, the Republicans got money and the Democrats got votes...

...I was not elected to be a six-year President,' he declared repeatedly duringthecampaign, and once more called upon the voters to "do it for the Gipper...

...We don't even feel deeply divided, as in the Civil War or the Vietnam War...

...The country could not make up its mind: The White House moved from Whig to Democrat and back again and back again...

...And so it went...

...These and similar aches and pains goaded the "antis" to the polls, while more than 60 per cent of the eligibles stayed home...

...The rising capitalist class opted for a strong king who could put together a nation with safe highways, no internal tariffs, a uniform currency...

...is Assistant President and Educational Director of the II CIIX . selected sample of " the people...

...As a result, we are living in an economy financed by debt— private and public—with little hope that we can do anything except accumulate more debt, until the bubble bursts...

...The last nine Presidential contests have produced five party turnovers: from Harry S. Truman (D) to Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) to John F. Kennedy (D) to Richard M. Nixon (R) to Jimmy Carter (D) to Ronald Reagan (R...

...This is far less true today, and is daily becoming ever less so...

...Of the multiplicity of new problems being generated as the economy goes global, the most dangerous is planetary polarization of income and wealth...

...Ahalf century ago, the United States could be master of its own economic destiny...

...Rather, as the ship of state lolls lackadaisically in a Sargasso Sea of minutiae, we are becalmed...

...It was effective briefly, then required repeated injections...

...both together will cut total spending and speed us on our way to the cemetery...

...But beneath the fair exterior factional fires were kindling...

...Now corporations can dictate to governments: "Do it our way— or else...

...We could very well end up with a fairer distribution of less and less...

...Election Day itself was a time of torpor...

...Some of the funding was legal, some illegal, and some in-between...

...If the bucket continues to leak, the improved buying power of the lower income households will not do much to stimulate economic growth...

...Southern resentment against Reagan's veto of the textile/apparel trade bill won the Democrats three House seats in the Car-olinas and the Senate race in Georgia...

...The nature of the illness has changed...

...Nor is either party likely to provide a program to save the government $150 billion a year by reducing official unemployment from 7 to 2 per cent...

...Since then, the tax issue has been settled, at least politically if not economically, by the recent bipartisan tax measure...

...Mondale was for talking to the Russians and Reagan was not...

...The laws limiting sums for campaign contributions were drowned in a flood of funds, with Republicans—by and large—out-spending Democrats several times over...

...When did the Federal government ever run a deficit of more than $200 billion in one year—a mega-megashot of stimulants...

...We need policies that recognize the profound, primary impact of factors outside our borders...

...After all, those who came out to vote were a small, selfGus Tyler, a long-lime contributor to the NL...

...It is likely that more money was spent per voter than ever...

...In California, the black vote saved Democratic Senator Alan Cranston...

...Unfortunately, they don't anymore...

...The rise of the global enterprise and the simultaneous decline of national power have two inevitable consequences: First, countries that have established high humane standards are hard hit as corporations move out of such jurisdictions to unburden themselves of govern-mentally imposed requirements...

...Even a more equitable distribution of income (the less publicized half of the Keynesian equation) wouldn't make a difference over any length of time, desirable as it is...

...What is more, nations are discovering that they cannot control their own economic destinies as they move to bring equilibrium to world trade...

...In Richmond, Virginia, 17 souls came out to mark the ballot...

...The nation-state—Washington—has had a say in the running of businesses...

...Yet it is precisely this failure to bring the American economy up to its potential that makes it impossible to cope with the problems of the budget, manufacturing, agriculture, oil and coal, environmental clean up, education—or crime...

...Farm discontent sent Democrat Tom Daschle to the U.S...

...in South Dakota, a Republican Governor and a Democratic Senator...

...Senate from South Dakota...

...Gov ernment spending has been supplemented with private spending...

...Amegadosage of Keynesian stimulants won't help either...

...and they locate their production as they wish, generally preferring countries with cheap labor and low or no taxes...

...Instead of looking at the "business" they are supposed to be running (the economy) and asking whether it is expanding fast enough to meet the needs of a growing nation, they assume that the business will somehow take care of itself and that their only responsibility is to keep the books balanced...

...These corporations are internationally owned by investors from many lands...

...and Reagan has been talking to Soviet Party chief Mikhail S. Gorbachev, making offers—wittingly or unwittingly—that Mondale would never have dared to suggest...

...So we try to deal with the situation by playing around with currencies and exchange rates...

...Undaunted, Reagan announced cheerfully that his party was now in a stronger position to retain the White House in 1988...

...they move mountains of capital across national lines daily...

...It happened early in Britain and France, and only a century or so ago in Germany and Italy...

...Once again our economic forms have changed, and we must find appropriate political forms for maintaining that ever-delicate balance between public and private power...

...Today, we are back in the political doldrums...

...To protect workers, consumers and the community against capitalist abuses, the separate states were endowed with "police powers" to regulate industry...

...A more equitable distribution of income—a difficult political feat in a time of slow growth or no growth—would similarly not rescue the economy...

...They can thumb their noses at any country—and they do, albeit politely...

...The Democrats will charge that the President is spending too much on arms...

...A mere 37.3 percent of the eligibles voted—one of the lowest turnouts ever...

...All was well with the world...

...One more consultation with Clio...

...We are also losing control of our economic destiny in another major respect...

...In Alabama, voters chose a Republican Governor and a Democratic Senator...

...cutting expenditures will cut public spending...

...Right now there is no political counterweight to the global corporation, nor are there adequate international political institutions for regulating currencies, interest rates, deficits, growth rates, inflation, or unemployment...

...The nondifference between the parties compelled Robert M. La Follette, the progressive Wisconsin Republican Senator, to break from his party and launch a third-party candidacy with minimal success...

...The claim was based on a net gain of eight governorships by the Republicans...

...At the instance of Treasury Secretary James Baker, a handful of the major industrial democracies met last year at the Plaza Hotel in New York to "devalue" the dollar...

...Black anger with the White House elected three Democratic Senators in the South who received a minority of the white vote but were rescued by sweeping black majorities...

...corporations: Social security taxes, unemployment insurance, worker compensation, minimum wages, no child labor, maximum hours, overtime pay, occupational safety andhealth, fair employment practices, environmental protection—to name a few...

...they pick up their raw materials anywhere...

...If they go beyond the daily details to discover the root of many of our present and coming difficulties, then two cheers...

...His Democratic opponent in 1924 was corporate lawyer John W. Davis...

...In addition, he attempted to invoke the spooks oi l 980 with slashing attacks on Jimmy Carter, timed to Iran's release of David Jacob-sen just a few days before the balloting...

...They go at the debt like accountants, not like economists...

...Each dollar would have stimulated more dollars as Americans bought what Americans made...

...Neither party is likely to come up with a plan for expanding our underutilized $4 trillion economy to a $6 trillion economy that would yield an additional $500 billion a year in Federal revenue, taking care of all present needs and then some...

...Although the midterm election as a whole was without a theme, there were many distinctive noises and strains amid the cacophony...

...They ignore the disease (a weak and weakening economy) while they try to eliminate the irritating symptoms of too little revenue and too great expenditures...

...Perhaps Clio, that informative Muse of history, can tell us whether the sorry scene suggests "death" or "transfiguration" for our democracy...

...But to set interest rates, it was necessary to agree on government deficits...

...In part, that was because voters do not pay it much mind...

...When nations were beset by such perils in the past, they could use their political power to intervene...

...he cut taxes...

...The big loser was Ronald Reagan, because he tried to make the election a referendum on his Presidency...

...There was the pre-Civil War era, from 1840-60, when the nation was torn between the rising capitalist North and the stagnant plantation South...

...Getting the right answers won't be easy...

...In the following midterm election of 1926, an all time low of 35.2 percent of the eligibles bothered to vote...

...In the next Presidential race, Republican Herbert Hoover rolled up 444 electoral votes against his Democratic opponent's 87...

...Still others referred to the"theme-lesselection...

...But that power is slipping away as global corporations break out of previous boundaries and bonds...

...There was the period after World War I when the Republicans announced that we were "back to normalcy...

...There was, for example, the Era of Good Feeling when James Monroe ran for a second term unopposed in 1820...

...cuo SAYS One Cheer for the Democrats BY GUS TYLER The big event in this year's election was the recapturing of the United States Senate by the Democrats, who ended up with 55 seats and thus overturned a 53-47 Republican majority...

...Clearly, we do not feel challenged, as we did in the Great Depression or in the war against fascism...

...It will be impossible if we enter the next century without a radical re-examination of concepts born in this century...

...Henry Clay was the hero of the hour as he pasted together one compromise after another...

...In some ways, the period resembles the years leading up to the Civil War, with its revolving door to the White House...

...If they find a way to inspire hope and begin to cope, then three cheers...

...In oil-distressed Texas, the opposite happened: A Republican replaced a Democrat...

...Particularly for a midterm election, the effort to get-out-the-vote this year was mighty...

...When capitalism came to Europe it found the old political structure, based on a feudal economy, intolerable...

...Periods such as the present one have occurred repeatedly in our annals as a nation: the lull before the storm, the seeming consensus before the crisis...

...The symbol of the quietude was "Silent Cal," whose slogan was "Stay Cool with Cool-idge...

...Special groups with special interests made extra-special efforts this year to raise dollars to help finance incredibly expensive television campaigns...

...We have entered the era of the global economy, a time when we can no longer go it alone...

...Reagan has tried it like nobody ever has before him: He loosened the money supply...

...Raising taxes will cut private spending...

...And so it came to pass that the modern state was born...

...Monroe advised Andrew Jackson that the "existence of parties is not necessary to free government...

...Consider just three concrete circumstances...

...Both houses of Congress are now in Democratic hands, as they have been for 43 out of the last 53 years...

...And after that, the rebirth of a nation...

...In this sort of economy, we arc pouring economic stimulants into a leaky bucket...

...Once governments could dictate to corporations...

...Unless we begin to do so, we are likely to suffer a painfully long period of discomfort and disorder as Republicans and Democrats take turns in office monkeying with minutiae while a top-heavy world economy, including ours, teeters and topples...

...As voters recall it, in 1984 Walter Mondale was for raising taxes and Reagan was not...

...The "big" issues of the last Presidential campaign no longer appear to be of consequence...

...Although it was the single greatest concern of the last Congressional session and will be of even greater concern to the 100th Congress (the deficit continues to grow, despite Gramm-Rudman), thequestion hardly surfaced in the campaign...

...In part, it was because everybody is agreed that "something must be done about the deficit.' In part, it was because the revenue side of fiscal policy was theoretically settled by the tax reform...

...The debate on the subject in the 100th Congress is predictable...

...in California, a Republican Governor and a Democratic Senator...

...The real strength of the Democrats was in conditions, often of a regional nature...

...In the gubernatorial contests, the Democrats had 27 state houses at risk against the Republicans 9; the Democrats took a licking...

...The United States is the great world market...

...With Democrats winning the Senate and Republicans gaining state houses, toward which party did the country actually move...

...It was a game of trivial pursuits...

...And why, if interest was that low, were there people prepared to contribute so heavily to the campaigns...

...The election this year was in that midterm mode—except more so...

...The electorate was as cool as Cal...

...But, as it happened, the Teflon man also had Teflon tails...

...the GOP took a licking...

...But to fix exchange rates, it became necessary to agree among the powers on interest rates...

...Moreover, our best efforts for racial integration are frustrated in a society where opportunities are far fewer than they should be and can be...

...Can we manage to adjust...

...But when the Great Depression came it was clear that our economy had outgrown the states—just as our modern economy has outgrown the nation—and that the Federal government had to assume major responsibility for overseeing the private sector...

...In retrospect, some future historian may therefore describe ours as a time of transition, the calm before the storm—as were the 1820s, the 1840-50s, the 1920s...

...In the third quarter of this year, when disposi-ble income rose by 2.2 per cent, consumer spending rose by 7.25 per cent...

...The Republicans will charge that the Democrats are spending too much on alms...

...Parties" became the engine of democracy...

...Coolidge received twice as many votes as his opponent...

...The White House and Congress—Republicans and Democrats—cannot come up with good answers to the problem because they have not been asking good questions...

...Why...

...second, income is polarized on a global basis as wealth accumulates in the hands of the global supercorporation and as wages fall to the lowest common denominator...

...In the United States, our initial economic activity was fairly local...

...But to do that, it was necessary to agree on national economic growth rates, on inflation, on unemployment...

...Democrats, whose traditional constituency reminds them that all is not well in the world, are the legislative majority...

...Nevertheless, without a mandate from the people, without serious public debate on this key issue, without even an elementary insight by Congress into the systemic character of the problem, our $2 trillion debt may well bring on the "storm" brewing amid our present "calm...

...It was a time of indecision and confusion until the "irrepressible conflict" flared in the War Between the States...

...That would have done wonders in an earlier decade...

...They knew they were dealing withaninertelectorateandhoped to thus bring out their kind of voters...

...No party served continuously for more than eight years...

...economy, thejob-less rate should be close to zero...

...The naysay-ers had their hour...

...he borrowed to spend...

...Over the last half century, our government has been able to set certain standards for U.S...

...So one cheer for this year's election outcome...

...But the money that consumers borrow does not necessarily end up buying goods made in the U.S., so the multiplier effect is not there...

...This happened in Alabama, Louisiana, and North Carolina...

...On the contrary, the prevailing wisdom is that reducing unemployment would be bad because it would be inflationary...

...its parochialism...

...Money alone, however, couldn't do it...

...In the next election four parties took to the field, and since none got a majority, John Quincy Adams was chosen by the House of Representatives...

...Those with faith in the incumbent President, secure in the knowledge that everything will go well so long as their man is up there, relax and stay home...

...Lowering the deficit by raising tax rates and cutting expenditures is bad medicine...

...The results were nonpartisan in an "anti" sort of way...

...Yet never did so many dollars do so little to move so many people...

...There have, of course, been dibs and dabs of medicines that once worked...

...The world of the 1980s is not the world of the 1930s...

...Others called it the year of the " negative campaign," noting that candidates pointed to their opponent's sex habits, or sex, or penchant for driving a car without a license, or proximity to Jane Fonda...

...even the raucous hype of TV's election night coverage smelled as if it had just come out of a can...

...With the kind of stimulants currently pouring intotheU.S...

...If our economy goes under so does the world economy...

...Now . nearly $200 billion dollars is the size of our trade deficit as Americans use their money1 to buy stuff made overseas...

...Consumers did it by borrowing so heavily that the ratio between debt and income in the United States is the highest ever...

...Thecartoonist Rigby put it all into a drawing that showed a stray cat walking into an empty polling place as the election clerk asks, "Are you registered...

...International agreement was necessary because one country alone cannot lower its currency if other countries do the same...

...In the senatorial contests, the Republicans had 22 seats at risk against the Democrats' 12...

...It will be doubly difficult if we do not ask the right questions...

...Now it was an Era of Bad Feeling...

...In New York, for instance, two-thirds of the voters backed Democrat Mario Cuomo for Governor and two-thirds backed Republican Alfonse D'Amato for Senator...

...At the moment, though, we are in an age of electoral apathy...

...That is one of the reasons why huge sums of money poured into campaign coffers...

...The British Economist, which often helps us "see ourselves as others see us," put it pungently: "The 1986 Senate race wins medals for its unpredictability, its cost, its nastiness, and...

...Few felt the need to vote...

...The question itself may be wrong, since it implies that the voters were choosing between the two parties, when there is much evidence that they were not...

...The only lower years were 1942, when many eligibles were in military service, and 1926, a year that strongly resembled 1986—as we shall see shortly...

...In seeking the answers to these related questions we may uncover more than the oddities of one election, we may get some clues as to the times in which we live...

...The development reflects changes in transportation and communication that make all the important factors of production portable on a planetary scale...

...Yet this probably tells us less about the mood of the nation than at first glance appears to be the case...

...in Pennsylvania, a Democratic Governor and a Republican Senator...

...In sum, in attempting to shape macro-economic policies, the great powers found they had to act in concert...

...But the total amount was awesome...

...Yet if we are unable to plug our "leaky bucket" we will sooner or later be drained of our energies...

...Four years later, Jackson won as a people's President, breaking the grip of the Virginia and Massachusetts aristocracy on the White House...

...Each walled city was a sovereignty unto itself, with its own taxes, toll roads, tariffs, currency...

...Missing from the discussion of issues was the Federal deficit...

...In some ways, our present mood resembles the eras of good feeling when Presidential candidates, like Monroe and Hoover, were elected nearly unanimously...

...Then, in the very year that Hoover was inaugurated (1929), Wall Street crashed (death) and in 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to bring a New Deal (transfiguration...

...voters are either not interested, or too involved with themselves, or just plain confused...