Sara Robinson has a three-parter at Tom Paine.com, "Learning from the Cultural Conservatives," which should be of interest to Dems concerned with longer-range political strategy.

Part I, subtitled "Messing With Their Minds," examines the animating vision that powered the conservative political takeover of the 1980's. Part II, "Talking Up The Worldview," takes a thoughtful look at "the specific communications strategies conservatives adopted to increase the appeal of their ideas, and embed them deeply in American mass culture." In Part III, "Taking It To The Street," Robinson discusses how the ideological right sank roots in local institutions to hardwire their messaging and how we might go about creating new progressive traditions to promote a more favorable worldview. Robinson's series is more focused on strengthening progressive movements than building the Democratic Party. But she does provide some interesting ideas for Dems interested in Party-building.