Professors Starr, Wilentz explore future of Democratic Party politics

While on the surface the path to progressive politics may look grim, participants in a panel Sunday night titled, "The Democratic Party at a Crossroads — Which Way to a Progressive Future?" discussed possibilities for a more promising future and reasons why the Republicans might be the cause of their own demise.

Co-sponsored by the Princeton Community Democratic Organization and Princeton University Democrats, the panel included sociology professor Paul Starr, who is co-editor of "The American Prospect," history professor Sean Wilentz, who is a contributing editor of "The New Republic," and Iver Peterson, a political columnist for The New York Times.

Opening up the discussion, President of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization Andrew Koontz said the idea for the panel grew out of an argument with the organization's previous chair over the success of the past president.

"[The previous chair] said that Bill Clinton was worse than a Republican," Koontz said. "But if Clinton was a Republican, it took a Republican administration to really remind us what a Republican is like."

According to Starr, the Republican representation in Washington has dire implications for those issues supported by the left, such as separation of church and state and a woman's right to choose.

"The Democratic party can not succeed if the different wings of the party are not willing to wait together," said Starr.

While Wilentz agreed that unity among factions of the Democratic party was essential to future political progress, he argued that even at the present moment, Democrats have reason to be optimistic.

After outlining the history of modern Republicanism and President Bush's neglect of the very principles his father helped to establish, Wilentz accentuated how the failures of the Republicans will be the successes of the Democrats.

"The Republicans have a chance to do all kinds of things," said Wilentz, "but not things that are going to be popular with the American people."

Quoting Porky Pig's standard cartoon ending, Wilentz said that in the near future, the agenda of the Republican party will be summed up by, "Th-th-that's all, folks."

Iver Peterson, a New York Times columnist on N.J. politics, said that in order for the Democrats to carry through with their causes, they must first become more adept at winning office.

"People I talk to seem to be movement driven and they tend to be more interested in that than victory for the party," said Peterson, suggesting that Democratic organizations should take a Republican to lunch and listen to him talk about how to win an election.

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Seth Green '01, a member of the Princeton College Democrats who attended the forum, disagreed that the Democratic party should place more emphasis on campaign strategy than fermenting ideals.

"I think it's a little upsetting that at the crossroads [the Democratic party] still thinks more about winning office than winning ideas," said Green. "Wilentz and Starr call for unity without talking about the principles we should be standing behind."

"I think the Clinton era speaks to the fact that winning isn't enough," Green added. "While [Clinton] changed what liberalism meant, if you look at what Republicans were advocating when they won . . . he adopted a lot of their stuff."

Princeton Township resident Ellen Saxon, who has been a member of PCOD for over 25 years, said she enjoyed learning about the progression of the political parties but was disheartened by the lack of tangible solutions for the present time.

"I really appreciated [Wilentz] giving the history of the demise of modern Republicanism," said Saxon. "It's encouraging that you're not battling a real monster, you're battling a ghost."

"But we were disappointed that neither speaker could point out a particular leader [for the Democratic party] we could rally behind.