Too Many Democrats Are 1994-Phobic

[Yavin4]

Many Clintonistas will tell you that the worse thing to happen to them was losing the majorities in Congress in the 1994 mid-terms. Why? Once the Republicans gain control of the Congress, they used their committees to go on witch hunts against the Clinton administration. Every allegation from the White House Travel office to Whitewater to Paula Jones was investigated ad nauseum, which ultimately lead to the phony and ridiculous impeachment of Bill Clinton. All veteran Democrats point to that loss in 1994 as the seeds of their demise.

The Dems blame their 1994 loss primarily on the following: (1) Clinton's initial openness to allow Gays to serve openly in the military (2) Hillary's healthcare plan (3) Clinton's tax hikes to balance the budget (4) Somalia and (5) fear mongering on gun rights. Ever since 1994, Dems have taken center right stances on these issues. They've dragged their feet on DADT. They're stalling on the public option on healthcare. They voted for military intervention in Iraq in 2003, etc.

Ironically, voting them out of office in 2010 would only reinforce their phobia, for they will blame Obama's spending and his push for a public option.

[X_Digger]

1. Even Clinton blames the stance on guns..

Tip of the hat to benEzra for digging up the quotes..

"Just before the House vote (on the crime bill), Speaker Tom Foley and majority leader Dick Gephardt had made a last-ditch appeal to me to remove the assault weapons ban from the bill. They argued that many Democrats who represented closely divided districts had already...defied the NRA once on the Brady bill vote. They said that if we made them walk the plank again on the assault weapons ban, the overall bill might not pass, and that if it did, many Democrats who voted for it would not survive the election in November. Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from Texas, told me the same thing...Jack was convinced that if we didn't drop the ban, the NRA would beat a lot of Democrats by terrifying gun owners....Foley, Gephardt, and Brooks were right and I was wrong. The price...would be heavy casualties among its defenders." (Pages 611-612)

"On November 8, we got the living daylights beat out of us, losing eight Senate races and fifty-four House seats, the largest defeat for our party since 1946....The NRA had a great night. They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks, two of the ablest members of Congress, who had warned me this would happen. Foley was the first Speaker to be defeated in more than a century. Jack Brooks had supported the NRA for years and had led the fight against the assault weapons ban in the House, but as chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had voted for the overall crime bill even after the ban was put into it. The NRA was an unforgiving master: one strike and you're out. The gun lobby claimed to have defeated nineteen of the twenty-four members on its hit list. They did at least that much damage...." (Pages 629-630)

"One Saturday morning, I went to a diner in Manchester full of men who were deer hunters and NRA members. In impromptu remarks, I told them that I knew they had defeated their Democratic congressman, Dick Swett, in 1994 because he voted for the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban. Several of them nodded in agreement." (Page 699)

--William J. Clinton, My Life

I don't want to destroy the good atmosphere in the room or in the country tonight, but I have to mention one issue that divided this body greatly last year. The last Congress also passed the Brady Bill and, in the crime bill, the ban on 19 assault weapons. I don't think it's a secret to anybody in this room that several members of the last Congress who voted for that aren't here tonight because they voted for it. And I know, therefore, that some of you who are here because they voted for it are under enormous pressure to repeal it. I just have to tell you how I feel about it.

-- Bill Clinton's 1995 State of the Union

[OHdem10]

2. IMO, we are putting too much emphasis on the Clintons.

The Democrats on the Hill are doing the same same old .

Trying to be Republicans.

The People voted for change. They voted for Democrats. Obama
got a smashing amount of capital.

The Democrats have done everything to prove they are NOT Democrats.
This is a losing proposition.

Next Election. The Fickle Americans will vote for the Real Thing
when given the choice between a real Republican and a Fake Republican.

The Democrats had best get out front and start being Real Democrats
instead of fake Republicans. The American People know the GOP
is the party of Business and Business will come first.

The American People thought the Democrats were the party of Middle Class. This was the line in the Campaigns. Not to much care
for Middle Class shown so far.

Wall Street still runs things. They hold out their hand and wow
the billions are there. The Democrats are so indebted to Drug
and Insurance Companies, they cannot even cover the American People
with Health Insurance. "It may take 10 years". Trust is being
thrown out the window.

[sisters6]

3. Recall the many influencal Democrats helped defeat the Clinton

health plan-like Patrick Monynahan who thought it was to big and too much gov. interference.