Margaret Johnson, a former party chairwoman in Polk County, N.C., helped elect Representative Shuler but now believes the party would be better off without him. Id rather have a real Republican than a fake Democrat, she said. A real Republican motivates us to work. A fake Democrat de-motivates us. Ms. Johnson is right: Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus. Its a sentiment that even Mr. Dean now echoes. Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done, he said. Since the passage of health care reform, few major bills have passed the Senate. Although the Democrats have a 59-vote majority, party leaders can barely find the votes for something as benign as extending unemployment benefits.
A smaller majority, minus the intraparty feuding, could benefit Democrats in two ways: first, it could enable them to devise cleaner pieces of legislation, without blatantly trading pork for votes as they did with the deals that helped sour the public on the health care bill. (As a corollary, the narrative of Democratic infighting would also diminish.)
Second, in the Senate, having a majority of 52 rather than 59 or 60 would force Democrats to confront the Republicans incessant misuse of the filibuster to require that any piece of legislation garner a minimum of 60 votes to become law. Since President Obamas election, more than 420 bills have cleared the House but have sat dormant in the Senate. Its easy to forget that George W. Bush passed his controversial 2003 tax cut legislation with only 50 votes, plus Vice President Dick Cheneys. Eternal gridlock is not inevitable unless Democrats allow it to be.