Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411170063
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Reports of the death of the Reagan revolution were premature. Given a choice, which President Clinton correctly said this election was about, most voters chose Reaganomics (less taxing, less spending and less government) and candidates who espoused conservative social values over those who were perceived as ideological descendants of FDR and the '60s social revolution.
This was President Clinton's election to lose - and he did. Nearly all of the candidates for whom he campaigned lost. His decision to link himself early on to higher taxes and to the radical pro-abortion, pro-gay rights wing of his party demonstrated he was not the ``new Democrat'' he had claimed to be.
Of special significance is the number of voters who identified themselves in exit polls as conservatives - 36 percent in California, 39 percent in Michigan, 40 percent in New Jersey, 46 percent in Texas. More than a switch in party power, this clear ideological shift amounts to a significant philosophical realignment.
Republicans have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform government and the political landscape well into the 21st century. Newly elected Missouri Republican Sen. John Ashcroft tells me: ``People want government to live within the rules. The frustrated cry from Middle America was that it is tired of government spending more than it takes in.''
Ashcroft says he thinks among the top GOP priorities will be a balanced-budget constitutional amendment and serious welfare reform (spelled R-E-D-U-C-E) to dismantle permanently big government and the welfare state.
Expect Republicans to pass a middle-class tax cut and dare President Clinton to veto it. Tax relief for the middle class was a major Clinton campaign promise and to oppose a Republican version would expose the president to charges of hypocrisy.
Look, too, for Republicans to put the pressure on the Clinton administration as new House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach of Iowa holds credible hearings on the Whitewater and Madison Guaranty affair. Outgoing Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzales' hearings earlier this year were a sham and a cover-up. The new Senate Banking Committee chairman, Alfonse D'Amato, can be expected to light up the sky with Whitewater fireworks.
Democrats, not Republicans, nationalized this election. Conventional wisdom said all politics is local. Not this year. The voters rose above selfishness and pork and voted for principle. People saw a national sickness and, in most cases, their Democratic incumbent as one of the strains in the virus.
This election ensures the 1996 presidential contest has already begun. Former Vice President Dan Quayle tells me he will decide whether he will be a candidate by the first of the year. (``My drop-dead deadline is March 15.'') But in an election-night telephone conversation, it sounded as if he'd already decided. ``This election was good for me,'' he said. ``Values were a big issue. Democrats talked about values, but voters say they didn't believe it. Did you see liberal [Tennessee Sen.] Jim Sasser coming out in favor of school prayer?''
If Republicans deliver on their ``Contract With America'' and nominate a real conservative for president in 1996, we could see not an emerging Republican majority, but the political version of the Dallas Cowboys - a dynasty that wins for years to come.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB