A lot of ink has been spilled over the incredible collapse of the “hopey, changey thing” that Democrats rallied around two years ago.<\/p>\n
It’s one of the most remarkable turn-abouts in American political history, one that I certainly didn’t foresee.<\/p>\n
The humbling of Barack Obama’s movement is the more stunning because it comes at the hands of a Republican political party that is itself deeply unpopular.<\/p>\n
It’s not terribly original to suggest that a major weakness of the Democratic approach over the last nineteen months has been a lack of big-picture vision.<\/p>\n
But as Democrats work to rebuild ahead of the big 2012 vote, there is no more crucial mission for their leadership.<\/p>\n
Here are the big agenda items they’ll have to tackle:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Paint a clearer picture of how our lives get better.\u00a0 Polls show that individual Democratic policies are popular, but it’s unclear what it’s all supposed to add up to.<\/p>\n
Republicans are offering a very attractive vision:\u00a0 more individual freedom, more entrepreneurship, a path to prosperity.<\/p>\n
In frightening times, that’s very attractive — even if the details remain pretty fuzzy.<\/p>\n
Unless the Dems can rally around a similar agenda, it’s hard to see how they can recapture the momentum.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 Find more charismatic and confident leaders.\u00a0 Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are accomplished legislators.<\/p>\n
A generation ago, that would have been enough.\u00a0 Pushing through big bills was the single-minded goal of House Speakers and Majority Leaders.<\/p>\n
But in the post-Gingrich era, in an age of 24\/7 cable, top lawmakers also have to be the public face of their parties.<\/p>\n
Whatever their other qualities might be, Reid and Pelosi have been disastrous standard-bearers.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem here, of course, is that the Democrats are an old-fashioned big tent party.<\/p>\n
The various wings of the movement — from the East Coast MoveOn.orgers to the northern Plains Blue Dogs — don’t agree on much.<\/p>\n
But Democrats have to stand for something going forward, or 2010 will only be a foreshadowing of more dark days in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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