Despite his constant wanking, it is hard to really pin down what exactly David Broder believes in. The closest I can come, is that he believes in the institutions of government. He wants the American people to trust and respect the President, the Congress, the Courts, the military, and the bigfoot press that covers them all. His problem with Bill Clinton was about decorum, not policy. Broder was a big supporter of Hillary’s health care plan. But he didn’t think the Clintons had any class. The Bush family was Establishment. They knew how to conduct themselves. Higher Broderism is a very elitist school of thought. The government can do all kinds things wrong or incompetently just because they are the government and they have the power to do things wrong and incompetently if they want to. The press and the Congress, for Broder, should not dwell on bad behavior and performance in government because it undermines the people’s faith in government.
Thus, he pens an editorial today that details all the reasons that Democrats have a large and widening popularity gap over Republicans, but concludes with this:
But a word of caution is in order. There is little here that suggests voters’ opinion of Democrats is much higher than it was when they lost Congress in 1994. It seems doubtful that Democrats can help themselves a great deal just by tearing down an already discredited Republican administration with more investigations such as the current attack on the Justice Department and White House over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
At some point, Democrats have to give people something to vote for. People already know what they’re against — the Republicans.
That’s the problem with Higher Broderism. It will look the other way when it sees the government lying, carrying out corrupt acts, showing abysmal leadership…because it harms the image of government. But, act like trailer trash in the Oval Office? Broder wants you outta there.
I think the reason the American people don’t respect our present government is because our government is not worthy of respect. I think the people have it right. Broder doesn’t care if they are right. He just wishes they thought differently. Like sheep.
We need to expose the wrongs we have done and then reject them. Sweeping Bushism under the rug is no way to restore honor and integrity to the Oval Office and Capitol Hill.
