Turn your red state blue

The Democratic Leadership Council and beltway pundits incorrectly subscribe to the depressing notion that the electorate has become more conservative and can't be converted to a progressive philosophy.

Joe Conason argues, to the contrary, that "Whether they now describe themselves as liberal or not, most Americans remain strongly progressive in their views about taxation, health care, education spending, Social Security, environmental protection and corporate regulation."

Endorsing Conason's thesis, Christopher Hayes asks, "What profit a party if it gain a majority and lose its soul?" The Democratic Party can't only want to win elections. It needs to build a constituency that it can use for cover to implement a progressive agenda. It needs to recruit activist missionaries who meet the challenge of converting souls by pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, and affirming people's core beliefs. "If a political party's job is to win elections by doing what is politically expedient, the activist's job is to make doing the right thing politically expedient," Hayes writes.

Hat tip to Atrios for finding the Hayes story.