The Republicans' agony of governing.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.

From 1969 to 1993, the Republicans were the presidential party and the Democrats the Congressional party. Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush made their major imprints in foreign policy. In domestic policy, they could sound broad themes, but it was the Democrats who controlled the play. Without a majority in Congress, no president can sustain or control the domestic agenda. Reagan's victory on taxes and the budget in 1981 was an exception. The rule was that Republican presidents bent to a Democratic Congress. Nixon accepted their environmental program; Reagan did not touch entitlement spending; and Bush caved in on new taxes.

As a seemingly permanent Congressional majority, the Democrats set the tone for domestic policy for decades. They continued the pork-barrel spending and protected the sacred entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. This strategy worked in their districts and allowed the Democrats to maintain their majority. In presidential elections, however, it availed them little. In that arena, broad issues determined the outcome and the Republicans had the advantage. Nixon, Reagan, and Bush (at least in 1988) understood the themes voters wanted to hear -- social conservatism, military strength, and lower taxes.

Since the 1994 Congressional election, the parties have reversed their roles. Democrats have won two consecutive presidential elections for the first time since the 1960s, while the Republicans have controlled two consecutive Congresses for the first time since the 1920s. From all appearances, it seems as if the Democrats have adapted to this reversal more readily than the Republicans. Now it is a Democratic president who is sounding the broad themes of fiscal restraint, community responsibility, and social compassion, protecting Medicare, education, and the environment from the Republicans in Congress. When he signed the Welfare Reform Bill, odious to many of his constituents, Clinton claimed that the Republicans made him do so and that he would fix it later.

Clinton, who avoids difficult decisions when possible, seems comfortable above the fray in a world of photo-ops with foreign dignitaries and at disaster sites, as well as TV chats with Larry King, who specializes in softball questions. The economy is going well; he has faced no foreign policy crisis to test his mettle; and the scandals have yet to affect his poll ratings. Since his party does not control the Congress...