Democrats Still Don't Get It

Democrats are working hard on making a comeback in 2006 and 2008. But it is not clear that
they really have something new to excite the voters.

As Jonah Goldberg writes, there may be a lot for Republicans to be gloomy about
right now, what with scandals as far as the eye can see, high gas prices, and a bulge in inflation.
But Democrats really haven’t come up with anything new. With the encouragement of the progressive
George Lakoff, they have gotten the idea that their problem is that they have been stuck
with the wrong metaphors. “Trial lawyers” should really be called “public protection attorneys.”
Good try, George. Your Philosophy in the Flesh was a great introduction to your day job, as a
professor of cognitive science at Berkeley. But the metaphor game in politics needs to start after
you have come up with some good ideas, not before.

It is Third Way analysts Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck that have a better take on the Democratic problem. They argue in
The Politics of Polarization
(pdf here)
that the Democrat problem is too much metaphoric polarization and not enough
thoughtful analysis of the needs of the American people. They identify four myths that have stymied
the Democrats.

• The myth of mobilization is the belief that the key to Democratic victory is to energize the base and bring them to the polls in record numbers.
  
  
• The myth of demography is the view that long-term, ongoing changes in the U.S. population - such as an increase in the number of Hispanic voters and female professionals - will secure a Democratic majority for decades to come.
  
  
• The myth of language holds that the problem with the Democratic Party is not what it advocates, but rather how it speaks.
  
  
• The myth of prescription drugs is shorthand for the theory that the Party can win national elections by avoiding cultural issues, downplaying national security, and changing the subject to domestic issues such as health care, education, and job security in the post-9/11 world.
  

In other words, they are in a whole heap of trouble.