Stem Cells & Party Politics

The last few years have seen some dramatic changes in the ways Democrats and Republicans function as parties. While the Republicans gained control of both chambers in 1994, it was not until Bush's first term that they began acting like the majority party. That change was seen dramatically today when the House of Representatives voted 238-194 in favor of lifting the embryonic stem cell research funding ban. This required that a number of Republicans broke from the party to pass it. Bush has sworn to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk, and 290 votes are needed to override the veto, so we can't expect this to go anywhere, but that's not the important fact.

Korea (the one on the south side of the 38th Parallel) has recentlly announced dramatic developments using embryonic stem cells, and it may well be that the ideological isolationism Bush has pushed is crumbling. See, majorities feel secure, especially when their party has the White House. The recent elections in England have created discussion similar to this one: Blair's New Labor majority in the House of Commons recently shrank to fewer than 70 seats from more than 160, but that comfortable margin had allowed members of New Labor to disregard whips when they wanted to make statements on specific isssues. The votes still went New Labor's way, of course, and the individual MPs had their say and looked good to their constituents. This is what the Republicans appear to face more frequently now.

As they looked to a nation that has fewer so-called "safe seats" for national office, the individual members have to do what they can to please the people who elected them rather than the parties to which they belong, and that means that the whips have a harder time keeping order among the ranks. Bush will get his bulletproof veto if the Senate passes a similar bill and can work it out in a compromise committee with the House, but such a vote puts Bush on the record with this issue in a way he has so far avoided.

While I may have allowed a touch of glee to shine through in this writing, don't think I am doing this because I am not a Republican. I'm not, but neither am I a Democrat. I am registered as an independent, having more in common with socially liberal Libertarians than any other party. I'm pleased whenever a dogmatic hegemony shows signs of crumbling. The Democrats needed the kick in the ass, and now they are rediscovering themselves. The tides will turn with the Republicans, too, though probably not until they lose one or both side of Congress. If I had my druthers, we'd have at least a third viable party, but short of a change to a parliamentary system, I don't see how that will happen any time soon.