Banner Year for Democrats?

A banner year for Democrats or a banner year for Liberals?

A lot of people in the proverbial liberal blogosphere have looked at the recent victory by the Democrat in the Mississippi special election as evidence of the impending liberal landslide in the fall. I think many in the blogosphere are conflating a Democratic landslide in the fall with a liberal landslide in the fall. They are two different things, and this distinction needs to be constantly kept in mind or liberals are setting themselves for grand disappointment in 2009 when their agenda doesn't get enacted in its entirety. Now, normally, I don't care about individuals' levels of disappointment. However, in this instance, I think this issue is important because of what it can mean for the Democratic party. To provide an alternative to the Republicans the Democratic party needs to show itself to be different in many ways. Simply becoming doctrinaire and dogmatic as to what the party believes is a surefire way to repeat the mistakes of the Republicans. The Democratic party needs to be inclusive of those more moderate to conservative members of the party who are going to be entering it as the Republicans continue to collapse. Part of the distinction the Democrats can draw is as a party that respects intellectual and political difference within reason and as a place of respectful discussion of issues and national policy. I am not talking about tolerating Joe Lieberman's though. Lieberman is a specific example of someone who has used his position as a Democrat (in the past) to attack other Democrats, and the Democratic agenda, by playing to the repentant sinner archetype in American politics.