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The Squandered Mandate
By Doug Patton
July 29, 2002

Other than my wedding day and the birth of my two sons, few events have ever ranked higher on my thrill meter than what happened on November 8, 1994.

That was the day we changed America. Republicans won the House and the Senate that day. A sitting Speaker was defeated. Even Mario Cuomo went down that night. The people had spoken. Our mandate was clear. We even called it "The Republican Revolution."

In two years, the revolution will be complete, we told ourselves, when a discredited Bill Clinton joins every Democrat president since FDR by failing to win a second term or refusing to try.

Suddenly, the young conservative I had just helped elect to Congress became a component of something much larger.

My younger son was a senior in high school in 1993-94, which should have made that a year filled with a proud father's memories. But because of my commitment to that campaign, I regret to say that I scarcely remember it. I consoled myself at the time with the thought that I had done my part to preserve freedom for him and for his brother.

Many Americans made similar sacrifices that year, volunteering for candidates all across the country. I was a full-time speechwriter at the time, but I understood the heart of those volunteers. They loved their country, and they were alarmed at what they saw happening to it. Their excitement was inspiring. The national media grumbled that 1994 was the year of the "angry white male." In truth, it was the year of the grassroots.

But something happened on the way to the revolution. Although most of the "Contract With America" passed the House, it immediately died in the Senate, where GOP bluebloods turned on their party's grassroots as surely as the nobles betrayed William Wallace on the bloody fields of Bannockburn.

Bill Clinton blamed Republicans for shutting down the government, and brazenly took credit for such GOP initiatives as welfare reform. The response was to nominate our oldest and weakest candidate, Bob Dole, the consummate Washington insider, because it was "his turn."

Then came impeachment. For the valiant House managers, forced to prosecute their case before a hung jury, it was their finest hour. For Trent Lott and his Senate cohorts, who chose to ignore the mountain of evidence and conduct a made-for-television melodrama instead of a trial, it was a betrayal of duty bordering on treason.

The resulting whitewash cleared the way for Hillary's election to the Senate, the pardon of more felons, the shameless looting of our White House and the promise of fat book deals and ridiculous lecture fees.

Conservatives clung to the hope that George W. Bush might combine the principled leadership of Ronald Reagan with the spirit of the class of '94. Eighteen months of "compassionate conservatism" has caused that hope to evaporate.

My conservative young friend left Congress after two terms. This year, more than half of his colleagues from that historic class of '94 declined to seek re-election.

Stalwart conservative Sen. Jesse Helms is retiring, to be replaced no doubt by the always-moderate Elizabeth Dole. House leaders Dick Armey and J.C. Watts are leaving. Meanwhile, the visionless Dennis Hastert presides as Speaker, while Trent Lott clings to his position in the Senate.

Is this the legacy of a revolution? Was it for this that I sacrificed the memories of my son's last year at home with his mother and me? It's as though we have awakened from a dream and realized that on that heady November night in 1994, we were perched precariously on the bow of the Titanic shouting, "I'm the King of the World!"

The dream is becoming a nightmare, where Hillary Clinton sits in the Oval Office, Dick Gephardt wields the Speaker's gavel and Charlie Rangel writes our federal tax law.

Rarely have so few affected so many by squandering so much so quickly.