PARTISAN REVIEW
11
than upwards and towards the private sector. Enough of them felt
pinched by inflation and sluggish growth to offer him the opportun–
ity to try to turn the economy around even if it meant trimming the
welfare state. Roosevelt, by contrast, in the much worse economic
crisis of 1932 was elected by roughly the same proportion as Reagan
(of a smaller electorate) , and he notoriously failed to propose any of
the reforms that later came to be known as the New Deal. The com–
plaints about Reagan's lack of a mandate are bad political science, at
best a form of pardonable wish-fulfillment , at worst mere
kvetching.
The Democrats may make political gains in 1982 and even
recapture the presidency two years later - the notion that 1980 was a
"realigning" election has no foundation. But they are not likely to
revive the economy and thereby overcome the decade-long political
stalemate between the parties if they fail to transcend their own
brand of special-interest politics . Pledges to restore the Reagan
budget cuts in an effort to revitalize the old New Deal coalition of
assorted underdogs will scarcely suffice . The very welfare state
programs initiated by past Democratic administrations have
reduced the size of the voting groups to which the Democratic party
has traditionally appealed, and population shifts have eroded its
regional base. More important, the problems of the economy are
located in the sphere of production - on this the supply-siders are
right - rather than of distribution at the same time that Keynesian
demand-management has foundered on the reefs of inflation. Nor is
the strident rhetoric emanating from the left about the menace of the
New Right and the imminence of a new McCarthyism, led by a few
antediluvian Republican senators from the South, capable of forging
a formidable electoral alliance. A certain kind of leftist almost
instinctively responds to political defeat by proclaiming that
"fascism" is on the march and requires a popular front with yester–
day's liberal enemies in order to oppose it. Usually, this is a
calculated political strategy rather than a genuine fear.
It
is unlikely
to work at the present time: the recent outburst against the New
Right by Barry Goldwater, of all people, suggests that the "social
conservatives" are becoming an embarrassment to the Republicans
themselves.
The Democrats' best opportunity lies in taking advantage of the
incurable anti-statism of the Reagan administration to propose a
national plan for economic revival . Such a plan should include an
incomes and prices policy, the allocation of energy resources , a pro–
gram such as Felix Rohatyn's for creating a new Reconstruction
