Will More Money Help?

Democrats seem convinced that they don’t have the resources to get their message out. So
Democratic strategist Rob Stein is putting together a Democracy Alliance of liberal givers
to raise $80 million for a series of liberal think tanks, according to
Thomas B. Edsall.
Stein believes that the Democrats need to replicate the policy think tanks that dominate the right:
The Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise Institute, and the libertarian Cato Institute.

But these Democrats miss the point and misunderstand their position. Their strategic focus
must always be on defending their existing programs, the hundred of billions of dollars that flow
out every year to Democratic voters, from Social Security to Medicare, to the myriad of social services,
to education, to the research community and to the government health system. Next to that, the
need to develop exciting new programs that catch the enthusiasm of the American people is a very
low priority.

Actually, the Democrats already have a magnificent system, with ample funding, that defends vigorously
any and all attempts to “cut” their programs. They’ll find, if they think about it, that constructing
a new layer of Democratic advocacy may just muddy the waters. The one and only thing that Democrats
should concentrate on is defending Democratic programs from the attacks of Republicans.

The trouble is that the great creaking monopoly of Democratic programs is slowly delivering less and
less while gobbling up more and more resources. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse. But why
worry? Any collapse can only happen in the far distant future. Right?