Why Congressman Dan Boren Should Challenge Obama for the 2012 Democratic Presidential Nomination

In the 19th century, the Democrats were the party of limited government, and the Republicans were the party of big government and crony capitalism. As I argue in my new book, Covenant of Liberty, Grover Cleveland, who was in office from 1885-1889 and 1893-1897,  was the last President who could accurately be described as a Constitutional Democrat. He was famous for vetoing Republican efforts to give federal funds to special interest groups. He was also a free market proponent, who strongly advocated the reduction of protectionist tariffs supported by the Republicans. Little wonder that Cleveland is one of Congressman Ron Paul’s heroes, so much so that I’m told a photograph of Cleveland hangs in Congressman Paul’s office.

Then came Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the party leadership of the Democrats abandoned the limited government traditions of Jefferson, Madison, and Cleveland.

A few limited government Democrats remained in steadfast opposition. One of them was a Democratic Congressman from Oklahoma, Lyle Boren. First elected in 1936,  family tradition claims that he posed this question to some of his fellow Congressmen in 1938:

“The greatest problem in America today is to erase the question in the minds of men, ‘What is the government going to do for me?’ and replace it with the question, ‘What can I do for my country?’”

I don’t know if this quote reflects an apocryphal family tradition or not, but it accurately expresses the sentiment of “pre-dependency state” Democrats during the era when the modern Big Government Leviathan first emerged.

Lyle Boren was defeated for re-election in the Democratic Primary in 1946 by a more liberal Democrat who fully embraced the New Deal. But the Boren family legacy of support for a more limited role for government continued. Lyle’s son David was elected to Congress and the Senate from Oklahoma. Now serving as the President of the University of Oklahoma, his son Dan has served in Congress (the only Democrat in the Oklahoma delegation) since 2002.

Recently, Dan Boren announced he would not seek re-election. While in Congress, Dan Boren has been a “Blue-Dog,” and perhaps the only Democratic member of Congress whose voting record reflects the 19th Century tradition of the party’s commitment to limited government. He was one of only 37 Democrats to vote against Obamacare, for  instance. In fact, Boren has opposed almost the entire Obama agenda, with the exception of the unwise $800 billion Stimulus program, which he supported.

Those of us in the Tea Party have often marveled that, while the average Democratic voter probably shares many of our limited government sentiments, the leadership remains steadfastly committed to a far left,  socialist, and  redistributionist vision of the world. A Congressman Dan Boren primary challenge to Obama would test this hypothesis.  Are all Democrats socialists like the leadership, or are there closet tea party sympathizers among the rank and file? I, for one, am curious to see what the outcome of such a challenge might be.

Michael Patrick Leahy is the editor of the Voices of the Tea Party e-book series and co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter and the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. His new  e-book, I, Light Bulb: A Death Row Testimonial, will be published in July, 2011. His new book, Covenant of Liberty, will be published by Broadside Books in spring, 2012. He can be reached on Twitter at @michaelpleahy .