Fairness for Democrats

As Democrats struggle to retain control of the Senate and retake control of the House, they are searching for issues to frame their campaigns. With President Obama's low approval ratings, due in large part to poor economic conditions, Democratic candidates won't want to focus on his record. Republicans at least have Obama as a straw man around which to build their campaigns.

The most potent theme that the party has to offer is the issue of fairness, specifically in the area of dealing with economic recovery. Democrats can claim that as Americans struggle to survive in this economy, the party has championed policies that aim to provide support for the middle class in hard times.

The first issue is taxes. Republicans have pushed for Congress to extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Even though taking this step would only aggravate the deficit problem, the GOP has stood firm. This tax position creates room for Democrats to challenge Republicans as being more supportive of helping the wealthy than average Americans. Second, is unemployment insurance. Throughout the past four years, Republicans have presented roadblocks to the extension of these benefits even as Americans have struggled with extraordinarily difficult economic challenges. While many Americans don't like government, many understand and support the need for temporary assistance as people try to make ends meet. This is an area where Democrats can talk about a specific policy and win support for spending from an electorate that might be philosophically opposed to big government. Finally there is health care, an issue that is likely to be part of the campaign if the Supreme Court issues a ruling on the constitutionality of the law before the election. One of the biggest contributions of the program is to extend health insurance to over 30 million Americans who don't have it. Fairness is the theme that offers a struggling Democratic Party the best opportunity to improve its standing in Congress.

This ties into what we have been studying – elections/campaigns for not only the president, but for Congress as well. Congressional candidates are not blamed for the mess of the economy (as president Obama is), but, there is not much they can take credit for to boost popularity – normally incumbents (the person currently holding an elective office) of the House win 60% of the votes and are re-elected. For example, the Super-committee was not able to meet the deadline to cut 1.2 billion from the deficit, and as a result, may have a more difficult time getting re-elected.