No Organized Party

Will Rogers once quipped, famously: “I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat.” The humorous remark speaks to one of the problems of the Democratic Party today: While the Democrats control both houses of Congress and the Presidency, the party is decentralized, with the President and each house of Congress appealing to different constituencies and promoting different agendas. While President Obama is currently strong enough to lead the Congressional Democrats to support his agenda, his continued success in this regard is dependent on the success of his overall policies.

President Obama shattered various assumptions in his quest for the White House. Building upon the pioneering work of the Howard Dean campaign in 2004, he ran the first successful, interactive “Facebook” style presidential campaign, amassing both large numbers of volunteers and enormous sums of funds. He deliberately sought to win the votes of groups who had not voted Democratic in recent elections, and he was successful in doing so. According to one study, Obama outperformed John Kerry in most demographic groups with the exception of those over 65 and gays and lesbians..http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/obama-outperforms-kerry-among-virtually.html
He picked up states that had long been considered safely “red” and increased Democratic majorities in states previously considered “swing,” such as Wisconsin.

Given the nature of his victory, Obama has a strong need to maintain a presidency of outreach and accommodation as much as possible. As a result, he has nominated 3 Republicans to his cabinet, and he has made extraordinary efforts to reach out to the Republicans as he pursues his stimulus package. That the House and Senate Republicans have largely rebuffed him is immaterial; by making the EFFORT at bipartisanship, he has already enhanced his image with HIS constituency—http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/2/9/-obama-beating-republicans-on-economic-stimulus-polls-show.html

The House Democrats’ actions must be understood in terms of their very different situation. Appealing to very narrowly-defined districts, largely gerrymandered to perpetuate their incumbency, House Democrats see little need for, or value in, compromise. They want a stimulus bill as laden as possible with benefits for their districts, and they are irritated with their President for his efforts at accommodation.

The Senate Democrats, with the support of their moderate Republican brethren (and sisters) have crafted a less ambitious, cheaper bill, and this largely reflects their different political realities. As representatives of entire states, with more diverse constituencies, they feel more of a need for compromise and less of a need to appeal to the most partisan groups within their states.

Clearly, despite some initial missteps, President Osama seems to be in charge of his party at this point, given his high approval ratings and his ability to “go over the heads of the Congress” and appeal directly to the American people via social networking and barnstorming tours such as the one he is currently conducting. As long as he remains popular, congressional Democrats will need to temper their criticisms and match their agendas with his as much as possible. This could change quickly, though, if the stimulus package proves to be unsuccessful or if economic or other conditions grow worse.