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In the past few years, Democrats have gotten pretty good at mimicking Republicans. They’ve been training college activists, establishing think tanks and, more generally, trying to turn their party into a movement — just what conservatives did during their years in the pre-Reagan wilderness. As John Podesta, head of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told the New York Times Magazine a while back, “I describe myself as having a master’s degree in the right-wing conspiracy.”
Imitation may be flattering, but in this case, it comes with a large scoop of irony. Because while Democrats are enrolling in GOP 101, the GOP itself is in free fall. According to a recent NBC- Wall Street Journal poll, only 28 percent of Americans view the party positively. Asked which party they’d like to take the White House in 2008, respondents favored the Democrats by almost 20 points. To recover, Republicans will have to do something they haven’t done in decades: learn from the other guys.
Democrats 101 starts with a little history. In the 1980s, it was Democrats who were politically radioactive. They were hemorrhaging swing voters, especially independents and the young. And on such issues as welfare and crime, the party’s activist base imposed litmus tests that rendered Democratic presidential candidates unelectable in most places south and west of Harvard Square.
