From The Wall Street Journal:
WASHINGTON – Democrats were crowing yesterday about snatching a U.S. House seat in South Dakota from Republicans. But to 2,000 liberal warriors gathering for a conference here called “Take Back America,” the result is just a tiny rumbling of something much bigger.
On the defensive for more than a generation, the American left is seeing signs of political revival. Recent polls show more Americans are calling themselves “liberal” — a term that had been considered something of an epithet — and fewer are identifying themselves as “conservative.” Liberal groups, from the National Organization for Women to Moveon.org, are enjoying a big fund-raising surge. The flagship publication of the left, the Nation, claims to have captured the highest circulation of any weekly political magazine.
“The plates have all moved,” argues Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. The combination of hostility toward President Bush, anxiety about the war in Iraq and concerns about tax cuts and other economic issues “make it possible for something fundamental to happen in this election,” he says.
Republican strategists say liberals are delusional. Since Republicans seized Congress in 1994, Democratic predictions that they would recapture control have repeatedly proved false.
Still, the proportion of Americans calling themselves “liberal” edged up to 21% in Mr. Greenberg’s May poll from 16% a month earlier. Self-identified “conservatives” dropped to 37% from 41%. Similarly, last month’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed 42% of voters identifying themselves as Democrats, compared with 39% who say they are Republicans. Two years earlier, Republicans had a 37%-to-36% edge.
The same Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed Mr. Bush’s job approval rating at 47%, the lowest of his presidency.
Liberal organizations devoted to feminist, labor and environmental causes are displaying unusual coordination in hopes of electing John Kerry. Sen. Kerry drew $31 million in donations in April, doubling the take of the President Bush, as liberal groups like Moveon.org, whose antiwar membership helped fuel Howard Dean’s political rise in 2003, ape the aggressive funding and recruitment tactics that helped Republicans mobilize grass-roots support in the 1980s.
The National Organization for Women reports daily contributions up to roughly $22,000 from $17,000 a year ago, and estimates attendance at its recent abortion-rights march on Washington was one-third higher than a similar event in 1992.
Liberals also see hope in more anecdotal evidence. Books attacking President Bush, with titles like “Worse than Watergate” and “The Politics of Truth” are selling briskly. The Nation has seen its circulation grow to 160,000 from nearly 140,000 in mid-2003 and just over 102,000 in June 2001. The latest figure exceeds the circulation of longstanding conservative stalwart National Review, which is roughly 155,500, down from about 159,000 in mid-2001.
“When the other side’s in power, your people get angry,” laments National Review editor Rich Lowry. Under Republican rule, “liberals have become more muscular,” argues David Corn, the Nation’s Washington editor and author of “The Lies of George W. Bush.”
And activists were cheered by the squeaker in South Dakota Tuesday night, in which Democrat Stephanie Herseth edged Republican Larry Diedrich in a special election. That win, like the victory of Kentucky Democrat Ben Chandler in special election earlier this year, came in a state that Mr. Bush carried in 2000 over Democratic nominee Al Gore.
Readers of my new book:
already know that I’ve anticipated this leftward shift and explained why it’s occuring and will continue to do so. Moreover, I also explain how the left and Democrats can exploit disgust with the Republicans to recapture Congress as well as the White House this November and in future election years.
