Liberal Lament

For aspiring politicians and convention delegates Matthew Yglesias has some words of warning.

The explanation for the lack of "community development" on the Left, I think, has its roots in the traditional dominance by the Left of the Congress and the marketplace of ideas in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Liberals defined the debate in those days. They had no need to promote their ideas with think tanks, internships, and what not.

Conservatives, on the other hand, languished in the Wilderness. The torching of Barry Goldwater in 1964 taught Conservatives that they'd better improve their game. One way of getting better was to attact smart people to their cause. Conservative think tanks, like madrassas in Afghanistan, sprung up to inculcate a whole generation of young conservatives. However, the dividends of such forward thinking didn't pay off until the 1980's and beyond.