Broder on Blogs

Back when I was living in DC until 1991, David Broder was already the dean of the WaPo news office, or at least its most respected elder statesman. Broder still keeps diligently turning out his trademark, moderate Democratic commentary at the Washington Post and today has an article that shows that, despite being long in the tooth, David still keeps abreast of new attempts at bolstering Democratic moderation.

First, of course, he makes the amazing discovery:

the blogs I have scanned are heavier on vituperation of President Bush and other targets than on creative thought. The candidates who have been adopted as heroes by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the convention's leader, and his fellow bloggers have mainly imploded in the heat of battle -- as was the case with Howard Dean in 2004 -- or come up short, as happened to the Democratic challengers in special House elections in Ohio and California.

Or in about a dozen and a half other special races across the country, including some against Democrats insufficiently radical according to the Kossack POV. Sounds like Robert Shrum has a new rival waiting in the wings for the title of biggest jinx of the Democrats' electoral hopes. Broder notes the "nutroots" are not the hope of the future, but neither is Pelosi/Reid, the two girlie-men in charge of Dems congressional hopes.

Fortunately, there are others than these "net roots" activists working on the challenge of defining the Democratic message. I do not include the Democratic congressional leadership in the hopeful camp. The new legislative "agenda" that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Co. trotted out last week was as meager as it was unimaginative.

However, one called the Democratic Strategist is damned by faint praise:

Promising as they are, the two publications also show just how hard it is to break free from conventional wisdom without leaving the universe of realistic policy.

The Democratic Strategist, the new online publication, comes with highly reputable sponsorship. Its editors are William Galston, a former Clinton White House policy adviser now at the Brookings Institution; Stanley Greenberg, the pollster for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore; and Ruy Teixeira, an author now affiliated with two think tanks, the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation.

They declare that "The Democratic Strategist will be firmly and insistently based on facts and data. It will seek strategies rooted in empirical research from the fields of public opinion research, political demography and other social sciences and will avoid empty rhetoric and abstract theorizing."

Would that it were so. That kind of intellectual discipline is sorely needed in Democratic debates. But the first issue is filled with pieces in which familiar Democratic names take up familiar positions, with few of them bothering to adduce any evidence to support their views.

Thus, we have blogger Jerome Armstrong, a Kos partner, arguing for mounting campaigns everywhere, no matter the odds; Robert Borosage of the leftist Campaign for America's Future inciting Democrats to take on Big Oil and all of corporate America; civil rights activist Donna Brazile plumping for cleaning up elections; and the Kennedy School of Government's Elaine Kamarck arguing that Dukakis-style "competence" should be the Democrats' battle cry.

To be fair, some contributors, such as columnist Harold Meyerson and union president John Wilhelm, do root their arguments in solid economic or demographic trends. But as Galston conceded in an interview, the editors and the readers will have to be more insistent that future authors live up to the promise of the reality-based publication.

The Democrats were the party of ideas back in the day when I was involved in their campaigns. But the Repubs have followed the conservative mantra to success under Reagan until the neo-cons snatched the vanguard from classical conservatives [where I more often than not hang my hat]. So if the Strategist is just more socialist clap-trap with a few new bells and whistles, what about the second one?:

The other new entry, called Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, is edited by 33-year-old Kenneth Baer and 30-year-old Andrei Cherny, both former speechwriters for Gore. Their first issue is really impressive.

The lead article, by Jedediah Purdy of Duke Law School, explores the demographic trends around the world. It discusses the implications of population decline in Europe and Japan and how the abortion-influenced gender imbalances in China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan result in a "surplus" of millions of single men in those fragile democracies or authoritarian states.

Purdy ends by suggesting a long-term bargain between Europe and Asia, or maybe between the United States and India, in which the advanced nations pump development money in now, in return for future help in financing their retirees' pensions.

As Baer and Cherny told me, "this is the kind of idea no politician could put forward now," but it points to a real problem -- and challenges people to think creatively.

Despite the Gore background, these kids are addressing issues ten years or more down the pike, as the present boomer bulge hits the golden years and beyond. Also, the mag has Michael Lind, whose writings I like. Check out the two at the sites below:

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (at http://www.democracyjournal.org/ ) and The Democratic Strategist (at http://thedemocraticstrategist.org/ ) are welcome additions.