Democrats: Now the Morning After

"The election was only the beginning. If we don't perform, we'll be held accountable—and we should be."

— Democratic National Committee Chairman Robert Strauss

Democrats could have danced all night, and some of them did, as the champagne corks popped and the band played on in hotels and headquarters across the nation on Nov. 5. But on the morning after their sweeping election victories, most Democrats recognized that they had received no mandate from the American electorate. Because of Watergate and the economy, voters either protested by staying home or indicated with their ballots that at this particular point in the life of the country, they surely loved Republicans the less but not necessarily Democrats the more.

Even if no one could be sure whether the people had spoken or merely cleared their throats, the expanded Democratic majorities in the House and Senate forced on the party the challenge —and the burden—of coming up with answers to inflation, recession and the nation's manifold other problems. Clearly, if Democrats fail to act decisively over the next two years, they could in turn become the victims of voter rebellion and dissatisfaction with the way they are being governed. Declared Minnesota Senator Walter F. Mondale, a possible candidate for President in 1976: "The heat's on us now."

Public Outrage. Thus for Democrats, last week's euphoria was short-lived, even though they had scored their greatest mid-term election triumph since 1958. In the House, they apparently increased their control by 43 seats, to a total of 291, or one more than the two-thirds required to override vetoes. In the Senate, they added three seats —and possibly four, depending on the outcome of the close race in North Dakota—to their existing majority of 58. Further, the Democrats wrested nine statehouses from Republicans, while giving up only four of their own, not including Alaska, where the race was still unresolved. That meant that Democrats will govern at least 36 states, including eight of the ten most populous. Democrats also gained control of eight additional state legislatures, upping their total to 36. No wonder that when one top adviser to President Gerald Ford was asked for his reaction to the election results, his response was to gulp down a bicarbonate of soda. Two other White House aides tried to come up with some heartening words for reporters, then glumly agreed on the obvious: "Just say that we took a beating."

The direct causes of that beating were easily stated, indeed inescapable: the public outrage over Watergate, Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, double-digit inflation and worsening unemployment. These overriding issues coalesced to shape a generally sour mood on the part of voters that contributed either to the defeat of Republican incumbents or to the narrowness of many of their victories, whatever the quantity of purely local concerns.