What Democrats must do to win elections

The Powerline crew points us to Washington Times coverage of a report on Democratic strategy for 2006 and beyond.

Written by two veteran Democratic strategists, William Galston and Elaine Kamarck, the report insists that Democrats must truly become centrists if they are to regain majority status. In doing so, the pair highlights a set of 'myths', which have bedeviled the party for years:

• "The myth of mobilization." Democrats are not going to be able to win with the old liberal orthodoxy by simply energizing the party's base and bringing voters "to the polls in record numbers." In an electorate "where conservatives outnumber liberals 3-2 and where ideology so closely predicts voting behavior, Democrats cannot win the game of 'base' ball." • "The myth of demography." Democrats are fooling themselves if they think the population growth among major minorities such as Hispanics "will secure a Democratic majority for decades to come." "Along with rising Hispanic voter rolls has been a dramatic increase in Hispanic incomes, and these newly affluent voters behave more like the rest of the middle-class electorate." • "The myth of prescription drugs is our shorthand for the proposition, which seems to bewitch Democratic political consultants, that Democrats can win present-day national elections by avoiding cultural issues, downplaying national security, and changing the subject to domestic issues such as health care, education and job security."

The report also noted a 'precipitous drop' in support from two critical groups: married women and Catholics. The former group has dropped from +4 Democratic in '96, even in '00, to -12 in '04. The latter group has dropped from +16 Democratic in '96, +2 in '00, to -5 in '04.

Trouble is, the authors wrote similar advice in 1988. Entitled "The Politics of Evasion," that report also charged liberal Democrats with "clinging to a series of myths that thwarted critical thinking and needed change." Powerline notes:

The Democrats didn't listen then; will they now? I doubt it. The Democratic Party has lost much of its influence to far-left grass roots groups like MoveOn.org, which are funded not primarily by the party's traditional constituencies, but by the far left, especially the far-left super-rich. The issues on which Galston and Kamarck urge the party to move toward the center -- the war on terror, the American military generally, and social issues like gay marriage -- are precisely the issues that motivate the most partisan Democrats. I'm not sure there are many Democrats left who are willing to compromise on those core issues, which is one reason I'm not as confident as most people that Hillary Clinton has the '08 nomination more or less wrapped up. Over the last nine months, events have gone about as badly as they could for the Republicans. Maybe yesterday's election in Iraq was the beginning of a turnaround, and prospects will look brighter by next November. But even if the next year proves tough for the Republicans, they will still have their ace in the hole: they get to run against Democrats.

Like death, taxes, and Chad Johnson getting open, this report -- too -- is certain to be ignored.