Role of the Minority

For those who ask why the Democrats seem to complain or fight on every issue, instead of presenting "new ideas,” I offer you this quote:

"When you're the minority, you need to fight. When you're the governing majority, you need to produce."

This doesn't come from Harry Reid or Howard Dean. It comes from Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker.

The minority party fights because it has no other option. It does not have enough votes to pass anything relating to its agenda, it doesn't get to have a representative chairing the committees, and it has few opportunities to voice its side of an argument.

The majority produces because it has to. It can override a veto, its agenda becomes national news, and polls/opinions/commentaries are based on its actions (or inactions).

From this prospective, the actions we've seen in Congress make more sense. House Republicans had to attack Clinton during the Lewinsky Scandal because they were in the majority and their constituents demanded it. The product was impeachment. By the same token, it should be no surprise that Senate Democrats were threatening to filibuster the President's more controversial judicial nominees; they're in the minority and fighting was their only weapon of choice.

So please, no more talk about "being obstructionist" whenever a Democrat (the current minority) decided not to bend over and accept what the Republicans (the current majority) are doing. Their role is to fight, and we should hope that we'd act no differently if someone in power was attempting to do something we thought was wrong.