Futures past and present

Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and former Congressman Richard Armey are no longer members of the House, but they are still breathing down our necks. The engineers of the so-called Republican Revolution of 1994 rejected Lyndon Johnson's opinion "I'd rather be inside the tent pissing out than outside, pissing in."

Gingrich and Armey have no intention of losing either the Congress in 2006 or the White House in 2008.

"How, Now?" you ask. "There is crime and corruption and disarray in their party. What chance do they have of holding on to something that is, as we speak, slipping away?"

I think that these two will become the biggest cheerleaders for rooting out the rot in Congress. They're betting their last dime that the voters will prefer to reward the party that gets its own house in order, over an opposition that the public suspects is only wanting to come in and gather its own plunder.

Armey wrote the "Contract With America", borrowing heavily from Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union address. The Republicans guessed right, it seems, that the same things that had Americans steaming in 1985 were still hot issues in 1994. The contract stuck with
what-were- referred to as 60% issues -- issues that were important to at least 60% of American voters.

The most important issue to most Americans, then (and now) was the economy. At the top of their priority was a massive federal budget deficit. Either by coincidence or by intention, their agenda and President Clinton's were curiously similar. Clinton was acutely aware that the validity of his Presidency depended on addressing the issues that were important to the people, those same 60% issues.

With both parties (and both the legislative and executive branches) aimed in the same direction great strides were made.

Still, there were failures, including Clinton's attempt to establish Universal Health Care, and the Conservatives attempt to privatise Social Security. These occurred either because they were truly unpopular with the public, or more likely because the "fourth branch of government" i.e. the lobbyists managed to neutralize these efforts.

This essay is an attempt to warn Democrats in office, and seeking office. The work of the Contract on America is NOT done. There are still 60% issues out there that MUST be addressed. We need to get in there first and best, policing our own ethics, offering the best solutions, and establishing a Congress and a White House that can GET THINGS DONE.