"The problem with the Democratic Party is that they (party leaders) haven't figured out that no one is going to vote for a moderate conservative when they can get the real thing,'' says the third-term congressman from Chicago.

There's not much question that Bill Clinton and Al Gore have governed for the past eight years as moderate conservatives. This is the administration that ripped the aid to dependent children safety net for urban America and farm support safety net for rural America, that advanced and implemented Wall Street's agenda on free trade with NAFTA and GATT, that increased defense spending at the same time it was crying poor when calls came for increased social spending on the domestic front.

As long as Newt Gingrich and his mean-spirited minions advanced an extreme right-wing agenda, Clinton and Gore were able to get away with governing pretty much as Gerald Ford or George Bush the Dad did. Now, however, with a "compassionate conservative'' challenge coming from George Bush the Son, however, Al Gore is suddenly finding that there may be a political price to pay for the tepid agenda of the Clinton-Gore administration.

New television advertising campaigns from the Bush campaign and the Republican National Convention don't just criticize Gore's campaign promises on issues such as health care and the development of a prescription drug benefit program for seniors; they note that during the Clinton-Gore administration things got worse on both the health care and prescription drug fronts.

"Under Clinton-Gore, prescription drug prices have skyrocketed -- and nothing's been done,'' claims a new Republican Party ad. A new Bush ad notes that, during the past eight years, the number of Americans lacking health care benefits has risen dramatically.

Both ads are disingenuous. The Clinton-Gore administration has tried to address both issues, only to be hamstrung at every turn by a Republican Congress that has been militant in its opposition to efforts to extend health care protections and to take on the pharmaceutical corporations. The GOP attempt to blame Bill Clinton and Al Gore for a lack of progress on these issues represents the worst sort of political deception.

And, yet, for many voters the GOP messages will ring true -- not because they're accurate but because, well, it is true that during the Clinton-Gore years America's health care crisis steadily worsened. And, for too much of the past eight years, Clinton and Gore seemed to be far more concerned about delivering on corporate America's trade and economic agenda than on leading the fight for real health care reform.

Now that he is locked in what may turn out to be the tightest presidential campaign since 1968, Al Gore is starting to sound like a fighter. He is talking about taking on HMOs and drug companies, and promising to tackle the health care deficit and provide a real prescription drug benefit.

When all is said and done, Gore may succeed in convincing American voters with his newly populist message on health issues. But the task would be a far easier one if the Clinton-Gore administration had governed as progressive Democrats -- rather than as moderate conservatives.

Copyright 2000 The Capital Times

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