There’s a teeny, tiny chance the Democrats will learn the right lesson from this election (stop acting like Republicans and trying to position the party wherever we think the people want us to be), and a much bigger chance that they’ll learn the wrong lesson (we lost because of "moral values"? you want us to be a values party? just wait and see!). I’m waiting with not-very-bated breath to see what happens, since I strongly expect it’ll be the latter. And here’s one of the first indications that that’s just what they’re going to do (from a story entitled, "Should Democrats Get Religion?"):
Now some in the party are saying that the Democrats need to reach out to these voters with a faith-based appeal. "I don’t hesitate to stand up in a crowd and express how important faith is in my life. It is important to be able to express that in a way that is believable, and Democrats have to get comfortable doing that," Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., told the Washington Post.
And this:
"We Democrats better think long and hard about what happened … and how our party is going to connect with the hopes and aspirations of the people," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., after watching Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., an 18-year Senate veteran, go down in defeat. "We have lost the ability to connect with people’s value systems and we’re going to have to work to get that back."
And Michael Lerner of Tikkun is pushing the same message in slightly more touch-feely fashion (predictably taking the opportunity to pimp his own "politics of meaning" as well):
Tens of millions of Americans feel betrayed by a society that seems to place materialism and selfishness above moral values. […] They want their lives to have meaning–and they respond to candidates who seem to care about values and some sense of transcendent purpose.
While I don’t disagree with Lerner’s core message in this article, if trying to position themselves strategically on the "moral values" issue is the only thing the Democrats do as a result of the 2004 debacle, they’re in for a lot more pain–and so are we all. And pushing them on just this one front from the left (and thus effectively enabling their delusion) will only make it that much easier for them to get it wrong.
The Distant Ocean 