Triangulation Kicked Out Of The Public Square

At several points [1] in the presidential campaign [2], I noted the unity among Democratic voters and candidates on the issues [3], a unity around a populist progressive platform that even spilled over into the Republican primary. [2]

Sure there's been lots of talk about disunity, and open displays of friction among passionate supporters of candidates. But the hard-fought Democratic primary was not fought on a fault line separating different philosophical, ideological visions for the Democratic Party or America.

It could have been. The corporatist "">Democratic Leadership Council [4] responded to Sen. John Kerry's presidential defeat by hysterically urging Democrats [5] to be the party of Harry Truman and John Kennedy, not Michael Moore," since "America is at war, and the public isn't yet convinced that Democrats have the stomach for the fight ... Are they the anti-war party or the party of tough-minded liberals, the party of Gov. Howard Dean or the party of Sen. Joe Biden?"

But no one responded to the DLC call. The DNC named Dean as Chairman. Biden ran for president, but on a plan to end the occupation of Iraq, as did every other Democratic candidate.

Not even Sen. Hillary Clinton. The DLC fueled Bill Clinton's rise to the presidency, and Sen. Clinton is still touted as part of DLC's leadership team. [6] Yet she did not adopt the DLC "triangulation" approach for her campaign.

"Triangulation" was coined by President Clinton's former political adviser Dick Morris, who said [7] that his view of winning was not to "mobilize the liberal constituency and win the true battle," but to triangulate, meaning "take the best of each party and combine them."

But in the conservative wreckage of the last eight years, there has been no "best of" to take from the other side.

Following the firing of the conservative congressional leadership in the 2006 elections, top residential candidates Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama responded to public sentiment. They rejected continued occupation and offered far more bold and comprehensive domestic proposals -- on issues like health care and global warming -- than any candidate had offered in decades.

When they fought, it was rarely over whose ideology was best, but over who would be the most populist and progressive. Whose health plan covered the most people? Who hated the anti-consumer bankruptcy bill more? Who was the most sincere in calling for reform of unfair trade deals?

In fact, Sen. Clinton's criticism of NAFTA -- quintessential triangulation from President Clinton's administration -- sent the clearest signal that the era of triangulation had passed. Democrats were going to offer a policy vision that provided a clear contrast of principles to their opponents, instead of trying to blur the lines.

Granted, in the waning days of the campaign with time running out for Sen. Clinton to find an advantage, triangulation had a final spasm. The gas tax holiday. The threat to "obliterate" Iran. They proved ineffectual.

At the end, the Democratic Party contest only reinforced unity on the big issues, a unity based on its own vision and its long-held principles of active government.

As Sen. Clinton said during the campaign, [8] "we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.” And as Sen. Obama said [9], "I want to make government cool again."

These are not the triangulating sentiments behind President Clinton's famous declaration, "The era of big government is over," which only served to wrongly equate small government with effective government.

This is not to say that the Democratic Party has suddenly become pure and above political calculation. There will never be perfect in politics.

This is only to note that triangulation -- which eats away at the policy principles that define a party -- is no longer the organizing principle of the party,

Meaning the voters will have a clear contrast of visions to choose from in the fall.

Unless Sen. John McCain -- after surveying the wreckage left by eight years of conservatism -- starts to see the merit in triangulation. (Hey, he's already triangulated his website design [10].)