Democrats to Push Forward Their Agenda for America!

But only, apparently, if the Republican leadership in the Senate insists on pushing ahead with the so-called “nuclear option.” In a press release guffaw, Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid is quoted as saying,

If Republicans proceed to pull the trigger on the nuclear option, Democrats will respond by employing existing Senate rules to push forward our agenda for America.

“That’s right Republicans! If you dare push your right wing judges on us we will be forced to respond with…a Democratic Agenda!” And we thought this whole time that Democrats were already fighting for that. Am I the only one that finds this amusing? (more in expanded post)

Apparently, Reid is referring to relatively obscure Senate rules that allows him to place bills on the Senate calendar; he points specifically to “Rule XIV” in his press release. Of course, such a rule allows little more than a moral victory since Democratic sponsored bills probably won’t even come up for a vote.

Joking aside though, Reid does attempt to articulate an agenda in his press release. While the agenda isn’t exactly new, the funny quote brings up an interesting question. When will the Democrats begin to wage a fight against the Republicans based on something other than responding to Republican initiatives? I don’t mean this in a condescending sense – of course Democrats have core principles that they always do fight to uphold – but at what point will they coalesce around a clearly articulated vision and present it to the American people?

It doesn’t necessarily need to take the form of the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America, which Reid’s agenda resembles in style, but I think that it will need to occur at some point in order to show Americans, especially those in “purple” states that are trending Republican, that there is more to being a Democrat than opposing Republicans. When Howard Dean says that he wants his country back, he needs to be able to point to clear policy proposals that would not only return it where he would like to see it, but that would move beyond that point – a real Democratic Agenda.

I don’t know what the agenda should consist of in order to be effective, I’d love to hear your thoughts, but I do know that it shouldn’t take Republican actions to force the Democrats to provide a unified vision. One would hope that the political necessity of the moment, being the minority party, would be a compelling enough reason.