How the Democrats could win again, if they wanted Thomas Frank

[alarimer]

3. Really like Thomas Frank

But we couldn't talk about it before the election (not that it would have done any good) because he "bashed Democrats".

This is a salient point for me:

I doubt it. Liberalism today is an expression of an enlightened professional class, and their core economic interests simply do not align with those of working people. One thing we know about professionalism is that it exists to shield insiders from public accountability. If coming up with a solution to what ails liberalism means listening to people who aren’t part of the existing nonprofit/journalistic in-group, then there will be no solution. Liberals would rather lose than do that.

Professional liberals (in the press, at think tanks, and as advisers to campaigns) are completely and utterly out of touch with what people really want. And almost all campaigns surround themselves with such people. They are the ones who go on the chat shows (that is, when the chat shows invite as "balance" against the scores of right wing nuts they typically talk to). This is why I think Democrats as a whole need to abandon the focus groups and the white papers and just talk to people in the trenches: labor activists, activists of all stripes actually, people doing the organizing.