There is also a belief shared at least by some of the participants [of the NDN Annual Conference] that Democrats have ridden for too long on what are the fumes of the New Deal and the Great Society, which sustained Democrats for half a century.
Amen. Dan Balz writes about two new Democratic publications — The Democratic Strategist I cited in yesterday’s post and The Democracy Journal, which appears at first blush to focus more on policy than political strategy.
Those in the middle of these [two publication launches] share a similar conviction, which is that for too long Republicans have been winning the battle of ideas (and often campaign strategy) in American politics, in part because conservatives invested in what is now a well-funded infrastructure of organizations that have produced ideas, thinkers, publications, strategists, and politicians who now control the White House, Congress and increasingly the federal judiciary.
…[Democracy Journal Co-Editor Kenneth] Baer offered a sharper critique of the politicians, criticizing as poll-driven and uninspired the 2006 campaign agenda issued by congressional Democrats. “You could go through it line by line and write the poll questions that generated each line,” he said.
One concern I have about The Democratic Strategist is found on its “Write for Us” page.
The first three types of “categories of material will particularly be sought:”
· New opinion polls and analyses
· Strategy papers based on opinion data
· Surveys and reviews of the available data and current strategic debates in specific topic areas
Are all of our ideas to be driven by polls?