Have vouchers hurt Democrats?

Most of my friends who are active in Democratic politics or serve in the legislature seem to believe that, whatever the merits of the voucher program for schools, they have not hurt Democrats politically. As evidence, they point to the fact that few of the legislators who represent the inner city neighborhoods where most families benefiting from vouchers live supported expanding enrollment in the program.

So far, at least, the beneficiaries have not been organized into an effective electoral force. In part, this reflects the fact that they are by definition low-income and political participation is inversely proportional to income. It also reflects the fact that Republicans have taken too many positions that repel minority and inner city voters to win them over on this one issue. These Milwaukee seats are among the safest for the Democrats anywhere in Wisconsin.

Yet control of the legislature is not determined in Milwaukee. It is determined by a relatively few seats where support for the two parties is evenly matched. And even thought the Democrats narrowly won Wisconsin for John Kerry, they continued to lose these marginal seats, further strengthening the Republicans' grip on the legislature.

In looking at the puzzle of why the Democrats continue to lose in the legislature, I have become increasingly convinced that their opposition to vouchers undermines their ability to present themselves as the party of vision, of idealism, and of solutions. It does this in several ways:

• It undermines one of the Democratic Party's core values, the concern for the underdog, one that dates at least from the New Deal. When FDR saw one-third of the nation ill-clothed and ill-fed, he did not add that they should be ignored because they did not vote.
• It supports the charge that Democrats are a party of special interests, in this case WEAC.
• It strengthens the suspicion that Democrats like government institutions because they like government, rather than using government to solve problems.