• Featured Content
• Conservative claims of vote fraud have just become vastly more sinister. Activists have committed criminal vote fraud to "prove it's possible." The next logical step will be to commit fraud, blame Dems and use the fraud to try and overturn elections.
• Romney's Extremist Agenda Often Overlooked
• The Flawed 'Book' on the GOP's Strategy vs. Obama
• Roberts Court Thwarts Economic Fairness
• Democrats: all of a sudden a new breed of non-Democratic "moderates" and "centrists" are popping up like mushrooms. Here's an ironclad way to smoke out the phony crypto-Republican shills and double-talking sanctimonious hypocrites hiding among them.
• The Civil Rights Movement's success was based on a coordinated three-prong strategy of civil disobedience, grass-roots organizing and mass boycotts. To achieve similar victories, a national "We are the 99%" movement must adopt and apply that same approach
• Ohio Lessons Can Help Obama Win Working Class Votes
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: Two New Polls Show Why 2012 Will Be an Ugly Election
• Wake up, commentators. The most dangerous group of "right-wing extremists" today is not the grass-roots tea party. It is the financial and ideological leaders in the Republican coalition who have embraced the extremist philosophy of "politics as warfare."
• Challenging the GOP's Juggernaut Coalition
• 'Liberal Media' Myth Shredded...Again
• The Battle of Ohio
• Has the GOP's Southern Hustle Peaked?
• Needed: An "American Jobs Movement"
• Imaginary "Centrists"
• Dem Goal for 2012: Bust Some GOP Trifectas
• The Referendum on the New Deal and Great Society
• Dawn of the Deniers
• Republican War on Voting Exposed
• Are "Right-Center" or "Insurgent-Establishment" Distinctions Useful For Today's Republicans?
• Obama's Personal Favorability Cushion
• Progressives, let's face the fact: the "bully pulpit" is not a magic wand. It's time to stop reciting those two words as if they were a magical incantation that can transform public opinion.
• TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira: Obama's Unhealthy Obsession With Independents
• The "Deal" In Context
• GOP Voter Suppression Scams Spreading Fast
• P.R. Campaign Needed to Check Government-Bashing
• Scratch 'Entitlement' from Dem Vocabulary
• Bowers: concentrate progressive resources on strategic elections
• Silver: Conservative Domination of GOP Verified by Data
• What Do Conservatives Really Want? And Does It Really Matter?
• Cut, Cap, Balance: Zero To Do With Deficits
• Democrats: Hang on a minute about those "anti-Keynesian" voters. There is indeed a large group who can accurately be described that way but they are not a "majority" and Democrats can still reach them - but not by repeating the traditional clichés
• When the Center Has Finished Shifting, It Gets Quiet
• Kicking the Unemployed When They Are Down
• GOP Immigration Policy = Labor Shortages + Rotting Crops
• Deficits Still Don't Matter to Republicans
• Political Case for Afghanistan Drawdown Coming Into Focus
• FL GOP War Vs. Dem Voters Intensifies
• Obama has made strategic mistakes, but waiting until the Republicans revealed their extremist agenda before presenting his own more rational alternative was not one of them.
• Can Dems Retake the House?
• Ryan Proposes End to Great Society (Except for the War Part)
• A "common-sense populist" Democratic Communication Strategy for Re-building Public Trust in Government
• Repeat After Me: It's Not About the Money!
• GOP 2011-12 Agenda: Union and Voter Suppression
• Culture Shock
• Leveraging the Latino Vote in '12
• Roots of Reaganolatry
• Snore or Snare?
• A Budgetary Bait-and-Switch: But Which?
• Enhancing "civility" in politics is too broad a goal to be enforceable by public pressure and "eliminating threats of violence" is too narrow to stop extremist rhetoric. Here's a proposal for what opponents of extremist political oratory should demand.
• In Praise of Damage Control
• Lessons Learned in 2010, Part 2: Managing a Big Tent Party Against a Small Tent Opponent
• Lessons Learned in 2010, Part 1: Fundamentals Matter
• The Democrats' Challenge to Winning Back the House, Pt. 1: Manufacturing, Race, and Education
• TDS Contributor Mike Lux: An Open Letter to the President
• TDS Contributor Alan Abramowitz: Poll Shows Americans As Ideological Conservatives, Operational Liberals
• Why Obama Won't Face a Primary Challenge
• Beyond "sabotage" - the central issue about the growing political extremism of the Republican Party is that it's undermining fundamental American standards of ethical political conduct and behavior. It's time for Americans to say "That's enough".
• Is the Electorate Moving to the Right? Ruy Teixeira Says No.
• An urgent TDS Strategy Memo: Democratic Unity after the Elections
• TDS Co-Editors William Galston and Ruy Teixeira Break Down Election 2010
• A Wave (With an Undertow), But No Tsunami
• Time For a New Theory?
• Should Dems Want a Smaller Tent?
• Why It's Easier For Conservatives To "Brand" Themselves
• Turnout Strategy Choice: New Voters vs. Older Reliables
• Siliver Linings?
• Once More, With Feeling: The Enthusiasm Gap In Context
• Democrats: a very dangerous threat is coming into view - faked incidents of "voter intimidation" on Election Day. We have to be ready with a clear and effective strategy to respond.
• TV Still Rules Political Ad Wars
• Democrats: calm down and regain some perspective. Yes, we'll suffer losses this fall, but there's actually not any profound Anti-Obama or pro-Republican attitude shift going on. This may sound wildly at variance with the polls you've seen, but it's true.
• The Midterms, Too, Shall Pass
• Structural Causes of the "Enthusiasm Gap"
• The Conservative Politics of Common Purpose
• The Prophet Glenn
• In Weighing Obama's Strategic Performance, Context Is Everything
• Polls Hint At Need For Stronger Dem Memes
• Four Frontrunners
• Argument for 60-Vote Cloture Threshhold Busted
• Private Affluence, Public Squalor
• Watch out Democrats: the exposure of the dishonest manipulation of videos shown on Andrew Breitbart's websites will not moderate conservative attacks. On the contrary, it will intensify the search for new and even more aggressive tactics to employ.
• Obama the All-Powerful?
• "Big Government's" Two Problems
• 2010 Mid Terms: Shades of '82, Not '94
• Tactical Radicalism and Its Long-Term Implications
• Anti-Anti-Racism
• Southern Republican Focus on Immigration Intensifies
• Three Reasons Dems in Better Shape Than in '94
• How can Democrats combat the "Enthusiasm Gap" that threatens to cause severe Democratic losses this fall? The first step is to ask the right question --- why is Republican enthusiasm so high this year rather than why is Democratic enthusiasm so low
• Clarifying the Progressive Challenge
• More Protection for Money Talking
• Progressives need an independent movement, but not because Obama "failed" or "betrayed" them. Progress always requires an active grass-roots movement and the lack of one for the last 30 years is the key cause of progressive "failures" and "defeats"
• Countering the GOP Spill Spin: BP Mess is 'Cheney's Katrina'
• Move Right and Lose: Evidence from the 2000-2008 U.S. Senate Elections
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: Why Immigration Reform Is Bad Politics This Year
• New TDS Strategy White Paper: Beyond the Tea Partiers
• Elections Show Emerging Trend Favoring Dems, Progressives
• The Latino Edge: Will Dems Handle It Well?
• Could Meg Whitman Lose Her Primary?
• The Power of Freedom: A Response
• Freedom, Politics and Government: A Summary of the "Freedom Forum" So far
• Touting his 50-plus years as “an old-school conservative”, right-wing activist Richard Viguerie gives the Tea Party the benefit of his experience
• Chickens-for-Checkups and Conservative Hostility to Health Insurance
• Midterms: Playing the (Middle) Age Card
• The New Prop 187?
• The Florida Circus
• 2012 Will Be a Very Different Election
• The Heart of the Republican Dilemma
• Urgent: A TDS Strategy Memo on the Supreme Court
• Senior 'Persuadables,' HCR and November 2
• Redistribution, Growth and Morality
• Obama's HCR Win Rooted in Emotional Appeal
• A Major Teachable Moment
• Tea Party: Still the Republican Right
• Did progressives suffer a “set-back” or even a “defeat” in the health care campaign? A progressive “movement” activist from the 1960’s, waking up today, would find this view not simply wrong, but literally incomprehensible. Here’s why
• Will Dems Opposing HCR Lose Support in November?
• Inverted Hubris
• Progressives and Poker
• A Timely Reminder on Health Reform
• Likely Voters, Elections, and "Plebiscites"
• Win Dixie
• Pro-Reform Majority?
• An Open Letter to the Democratic Community: Don’t Get Sucked into the Beltway Proxy Wars
• The Republican Civil War: Your Guide To This Year's Primaries
• Post-Summitry
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: The Republican Sprint Away From Sanity
• TDS Co-Editor Stan Greenberg: Avoiding Another 1994
• Obama's Two-Front Offensive on Health Reform
• G.O.P = Gridlock, Obstruction & Paralysis
• Playing Chicken
• Defanging America's Hard Right
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: Freedom Agenda
• Obama Doubles Down
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: WWRD: What Would Reagan Do?
• Supremes Blow Up Corporate Spending Ban
• Brown's Inroads with Workers Key in Massachusetts
• The Uneasy Marriage Between Tea Partiers and the GOP
• Clintonomics, Bushonomics, and the Politics of Economic Decline
• Bowers: Hostage-Taking Doesn't Work
• Go Comparative, Democrats!
• Is "The Party Base" Fed Up With Obama? No.
• The Y2K Decade
• Taking Strategic Differences Seriously
• Left-Right Convergence?
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: The Courage of Our Contradictions
• Democrats who disagree with Obama’s Afghan plan face a difficult choice – They can categorically reject and oppose the administration or play a role in the coming struggle between those who seek a political solution to the conflict and a military one
• Zero For Thirty-One: Lessons From the Loss in Maine
• Democrats – Don’t be misled. The media is going to call Obama’s new Afghan strategy a “betrayal” of the Democratic base – but it’s not. It’s actually a decisive rejection of the Republican/Neo-Conservative strategy of the “Long War”
• Blue Dogs Have Shot at Redemption
• More Evidence to Support Health Reform
• Military Strategy for Democrats: The key issue in Afghanistan isn’t the number of troops we send, it’s the mission that they’re given – and that’s why the military doctrine and strategy of “counterinsurgency” is totally inadequate as a guide
• Military Strategy for Democrats Part 2: The key issue in Afghanistan isn’t the number of troops, it’s the mission that they’re given – and that’s why the military doctrine and strategy of “counterinsurgency” is totally inadequate as a guide
• Job Tax Credit As Second Stimulus
• The Case For a Public Option -- On a Fast Track
• Next Challenge For "The Progressive Block"
• State-Based Health Reform and 2010
• Watch out Dems -- the Town Hall protesters are not accurately described as “racists”. They are xenophobic “nativists” and Dems will shoot themselves in the foot – and screw themselves in 2010 – if they don’t see the difference
• TDS Strategy Memo – Part III -- Dems must develop local activities that can evolve into enduring local community social and cultural institutions
• TDS Strategy Memo – Part II -- Dems must develop a deeply committed and highly organized group of volunteers specifically dedicated to representing and advocating a core message
• TDS STRATEGY MEMO: the strategic failures this summer were the combined result of three different mistakes, not just one. They involve more than just the health care campaign and require a coherent, multi-pronged Democratic strategy to correct
• Where does the conservative Tea Party movement go from here?
• Obama Turns Corner in Health Address
• Closed Vote
• The Attack On "Redistribution"
• After Kennedy: Obama's Burden...And Ours
• Don't Sweat It
• Can Co-Ops Be a Public Option?
• Right Beneath the Surface
• A simple suggestion for how to handle the Town Meetings on Health Care
• Kill Health Reform, Save Granny, and Stop the Nazis
• A quick lesson: how to misinterpret a poll to prove that Democrats are as nutty as Republicans
• What Makes Dogs Blue?
• Bring on the Fire, Mr. President
• Is Obama Redefining Bipartisanship?
• Let’s be honest. In international affairs, beneath clichés of “strength” versus “weakness” there are hard, inescapable military realities. It is these realities – not political rhetoric – that define what America actually can and cannot do
• Fun For Fiscal Hawks In California
• The Less-Information Lobby
• How Stupid Talking Points Get Started
• Seizing the "Historic Moment"
• What happened yesterday in Iran?
• The Palin Cult Kicks It Up a Notch
• Needed: Simplified Framing for Health Care Reform
• Strrength and Strategy
• Obama's Third Option In Iran
• Health Care "Swing Vote"
• No Time For Caution
• The Progressive Block
• Why Rove Failed
• Gallup on Ideology: Nothing To See Here, Folks
• Virginia Primary Post-Mortem
• Obama and the Left (Part 432 and Counting)
• Toward Single-Payer Reform--Step by Step
• 2010 Cycle Heating Up Early
• Obama's Republicans
• Rational and Non-Rational Arguments Against Gay Marriage
• Strategy Memo: the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. Democrats must start now to prepare for the coming Republican smear attacks that will try to blame Obama for whatever goes wrong.
• The Abortion Issue and Democratic Strategy
• "Millenial Generation" Leads Pro-Democratic Shift
• Now for the Hard Part
• The GOP's New "Evil Empire"
• An Open Letter From Stan Greenberg to Ed Gillespie, head of Resurgent Republic
• Reality Check for Republican "Reformers"
• What is "right-wing extremism?"
• Democrats: Let’s face it: the two terms “the left” and “centrists” have become so vague and imprecise they no longer have any use in serious discussions about Democratic strategy. They degrade the clarity of any argument in which they appear
• Obama's "Third Way"
• The “Movement” Roots of Obama’s Political Strategy --- Martin Luther King’s campaigns in Birmingham and Chicago and the congressional campaigns of King’s Top Aide Andrew Young
• Part II -- The new CAP report on American Political Ideology reveals the existence of a substantial group of “ambivalent” or “inconsistent” voters – Here’s what Democrats need to know
• The new Center for American Progress report “The State of American Political Ideology 2009 reveals the existence of a substantial group of “ambivalent” or “inconsistent” voters – Here’s what Democrats need to know in order to understand them
• Whither the "Bayh Group"?
• Is the Senate a Field of Broken Progressive Dreams?
• Obama Af-Pak Strategy Gains Qualified Support
• "Democrats in Disarray!"
• Republicans and the Bristol Palin Vote
• Rand and Conservatives: A Reminder to Galt Fans
• It’s time to shine a light on the decentralized but reinforcing smear campaign against Barack Obama – a campaign that stretches from the extremist fringe to leading conservative political commentators
• The Ultimate David Brooks Column
• Get Ready, Democrats -- Obama’s opponents are getting set to “Unleash Hell”
• Right-Wing Populist Illusions
• Redefining the "Center"
• Uptick In 'Symbolically Conservative, Operationally Liberal' Constituency May Steer Future
• Worst Numbers Moving Up
• The military way of thinking about “strategy” may help Democrats to figure out their own
• Does Obama Need a "Loyal Opposition" From the Left?
• On "Ending the Culture Wars"
• Let’s face it. All too often Democrats end up just yelling at each other when they try to discuss long-term political strategy – with the challenges that confront us, it’s urgent that we figure out how to do better.
• Obama and Grassroots Bipartisanship
• A Special Message from Bill Galston, Stan Greenberg and Ruy Teixeira
• The GOP and Two Democratic Reform Models
• The relationship between Obama and the Progressives – is it a “battle for the President’s soul” or a “natural division of labor?"
• Anatomy of Conservative Self-Deception
• Predictive Theories: How Did They Grade Out?
• All the Polls Can Tell Us
• The Futility of "Redistribution" Attacks on Obama
• Look Out Dems: Here Comes the Mother of All Smear Jobs
• The New "Welfare Queens"
• Is There a Psychological Explanation For John McCain's Recent Behavior?
• The Best Sound-Bites and Brief Quotes From the Democratic Convention in Denver
• Karl Rove’s Strategy for Attacking Obama -- How Democrats Can Respond
• How to Attack John McCain--What Would Rove Do?
• Obama and Iraq: A General Election Strategy
• Winning the Hispanic Vote in 2008
• Democrats and Military Strategy: A Series
• Understanding the White Working Class
• Swing/Base Roundtable
• "Poetic License" On Complex Issues
• Political Poetic License
• A Brief Note About the So-Called "Conservative Movement" and the Democratic Party
• McCain Versus Campaign Finance Reform
• Who's More Electable?
• Uniting the Party: Who Faces A More Difficult Task?
• Close Race, Two Paths To Victory
• Obama and the Blogosphere
• Immigration, Open Borders and the "Reagan Democrats" - Devising a Democratic Strategy
• Partisan Differentiation on National Security
• Who Lost America?
• Populist, Social Democrat or Progressive? The Democrats' Choice on Trade
• Learning from the 2006 Midterm Elections
• The Black and Hispanic Vote in 2006
• The Role of the Netroots in Democratic Victories
• Polarized Politics?
• Forging the Ties that Bind: Reaching Out to the MySpace Generation
• The Hidden State Legislative Victories
• Let's Back Up
• Office Workers of the World Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Cubicles
• Minding Our P's and Q's: Professionals, Portability and Quality
• Unionizing the White-Collar Workforce
• The Fair Trade Sweep1
• Purple Reign
• Abstinence Education
• Racial Animosity as a Value, The Cherry Pick, and the Democratic Diamond
• Progress Toward a New Synthesis
• How Democrats Won the 3rd National Security Election & What We Must Do Now
• The Role of the Economy in the 2006 Elections:
• What happened to the immigration wedge?
• The Battle to Make 2006 a Meltdown Election (excerpt)*
• De-Alignment
• The GOP's Deflated GOTV
• Lessons Learned From the State of the Art in Local Polling
• Don't Ignore the Moderates!
• It's The Economy, Schaller!
• Democrats Should Listen To Schaller -- But They'll Have to Get Past the Media First
• Other Narratives
• Winning in the Emerging Suburbs
• What's Left?
• Winning in the Emerging Suburbs
• The Demographic Case for Whistling Past Dixie
• Messaging, Policies, and Principles
• The Role of the Economy in the 2006 Elections
• Winning the Third National Security Election
• The Purple-ing of the Democrats
• Flanking the Immigration Wedge
• Scandal and the 2006 Election
• A Progressive Narrative or a Hegemonic National Greatness Narrative?
• What to Say versus What to Do
• Standing Principled for a World of Liberty under Law
• Seeing the Battle and the War
• Getting Down to Specifics: Core Principles and Policy Reforms
• A Progressive Battle Plan for National Security
• Authoritarianism and the American Political Divide
• Letters Never Sent
• I Guess Walking and Chewing Is Just Too Hard
• Real Optimism
• Poles Apart?
• The Clinton '92 Approach: Tap Economic Anxiety and Instill Hope
• A Focus on Insecurity Is Not A Catalogue of Woes
• Focusing on Security Need Not Be Pessimistic
• Truth and Opportunity
• Will the Real Middle Class Please Stand Up?
• Message of Truth: Security and Opportunity Go Hand-in-Hand
• Time to Move beyond the Clinton Playbook:Don't Neglect Economic Security
• A Happy Face Isn't Enough
• Truth-Telling, Populism and Inspirational Politics
• Message of Misery
• Sorting Out A Few Straw Men
• OK, But Dems Could Benefit from Strategic Redistricting
• Compete and Reach Everywhere
• More on the Redistricting Myth
• The Benefits of Long-Term Thinking
• The Redistricting Myth
• Do We Care About the Future?
• Raid the Red Zone
• Give “Competence” Another Try: This Time it Might Work.
• Democracy Must be Won Here at Home
• Had Enough?
• Swing Ideas, not Swing Voters
• Replacing the Battleground Mentality with the Mapchanger Attitude in the Democratic Party
• The Party of Prosperity?In the age of globalization, what's a Democrat to do?

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• Featured Content
• Conservative claims of vote fraud have just become vastly more sinister. Activists have committed criminal vote fraud to "prove it's possible." The next logical step will be to commit fraud, blame Dems and use the fraud to try and overturn elections.
• Romney's Extremist Agenda Often Overlooked
• The Flawed 'Book' on the GOP's Strategy vs. Obama
• Roberts Court Thwarts Economic Fairness
• Democrats: all of a sudden a new breed of non-Democratic "moderates" and "centrists" are popping up like mushrooms. Here's an ironclad way to smoke out the phony crypto-Republican shills and double-talking sanctimonious hypocrites hiding among them.
• The Civil Rights Movement's success was based on a coordinated three-prong strategy of civil disobedience, grass-roots organizing and mass boycotts. To achieve similar victories, a national "We are the 99%" movement must adopt and apply that same approach
• Ohio Lessons Can Help Obama Win Working Class Votes
• TDS Co-Editor William Galston: Two New Polls Show Why 2012 Will Be an Ugly Election
• Wake up, commentators. The most dangerous group of "right-wing extremists" today is not the grass-roots tea party. It is the financial and ideological leaders in the Republican coalition who have embraced the extremist philosophy of "politics as warfare."