When my son was 17, he was planning to register to vote as an independent. I told him about how my first voter registration card had arrived while I was away at college, and my dad had opened it by accident (we do share a name). My dad — a Republican committeeman for decades — called me to let me know that there had been some sort of mistake: I had been registered as an independent.
This was a beautifully Bill Wood moment.
I told him I wanted to educate myself before picking a party. He said he saw the wisdom in wanting to learn more, but he also explained to me that independents in Pennsylvania do not get to vote in primaries, and so I should probably pick a party so that I could have a voice in setting the direction of one of the parties.
I shared this story with my son because I want him to have the largest opportunity to shape the course of our local, state, and federal governments with his vote. When he said he wasn’t sure which party better represented his views, I offered him the following observation.
Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all had their first two years to work with a friendly Congress. This being the case, a very good test of each party’s priorities — not campaign promises, but the policies they will actually pursue when in power — would be to look at what the parties accomplished when they had unified control over the legislative and executive branches.
And here’s what happened:
The Democrats used Obama’s first two years to pass the Affordable Care Act. While opponents said there would be death panels and long lines and this would blow up the deficit, voters did not buy it, and the ACA had a thin margin of support: 46% favored it, 40% did not. Today there is a substantial approval gap, with 59% in favor and 39% opposed.
During Trump’s first two years, congressional Republicans — who had voted over 60 times to repeal the ACA while Obama was president — spent months trying to find the political will to cast the same vote when they knew a Republican president would sign the repeal into law. The fact is, the ACA had become too popular in Red states to risk repealing it.
Republicans did pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This brainless child of Paul Ryan had a meager 29% approval rating before it was passed. This law did blow up the deficit and, as a bonus, it largely favored the richest Americans at the future expense of everyone else.
Democrats spent Biden’s first two years passing the American Rescue Plan, a pandemic stimulus plan. Then they passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a long overdue expansion of background checks for gun purchasers. Next up was the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, a huge investment in our country’s aging infrastructure. They followed that with the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Together, these latter three bills are the largest investment we have made in our country’s future since Eisenhower was president.
As important as what these bills accomplished: Every one of them had approval ratings of between 55% and 73%.
So, on the one hand you have a party that passed laws that increased access to healthcare, increased the requirement for background checks for gun purchasers, and invested in our nation’s future, all of which enjoyed the support of the majority of our electorate (that’s how democracy is supposed to work).
On the other hand, you have a party that passed a tax cut that largely favored the rich and tried — but ultimately lacked the courage — to end the ACA. In addition, the Republicans seated three Supreme Court Justices, all of whom indicated at their hearings that Roe v. Wade was “settled law.” That lasted until the first opportunity they had to relitigate the settled law and take away what had been an American right for nearly 50 years.
Not a single one of these things had the support of the electorate.
One party passes popular bills to improve our country’s future, the other pushes an anti-majoritarian agenda that sets us back. It’s a pretty clear choice to me, but I have not peeked at my son’s registration to see if he shares my views or not.
Will Wood is a small business owner, veteran, and half-decent runner. He lives, works, and writes in West Chester.
