David Frum is "Terrified."

David Frum, former Bush speechwriter and Fellow of the very rightwing American Enterprise Institute, has told Deborah Solomon of the New York Times (yes, I cancelled my online and weekend subscriptions, but the story has been reprinted) that he is "terrified" that Republicans will lose in '08, lose in '10, and lose in '12--and that, it will take them half a dozen years to rethink what went wrong.

Well, from what I saw at the GOP debate in NH last night, he has reason to be terrified. What a collection of retreads with almost no fresh ideas between them!

But I worry that progressives and Dems will get cocky and lazy. The sea-change we are seeing is a result of a national revulsion and rejection of the road we've been down since 2001. But that will be temporary. Progressives have not yet made the case for a new political center. Demographic changes that currently favor Democrats will change in the 2010 census and subsequent redistricting. We cannot play the old game (so loved by both the Bushies and the Clintonians) of winning 51% and trying to govern a divided nation. Obama is right about that, even if I don't think he has done the work to create the new majority he talks about. And, frankly, the Democratic party is still far too controlled by the corporate Dems of the DLC (some of whom are real DINOS and others of whom just try for incremental reforms). Howard Dean's 50 state strategy is part of the solution--but it has to be accompanied by work in all fifty states to change the terms of debate. We have to build a movement and not just a party--and that will take ideas as well as footwork--and media reform, electoral reform, etc.

It's hard for Democrats and progressives to think in longterm solutions because conservatives and Republicans keep giving us such massive sets of problems (e.g., Fletcher's bankrupting the budget of KY's fair Commonwealth!) that when we get someone in office, even good folk, they spend all their time plugging holes and bailing water--who has time to build a better boat or better levees? But hard as it is, if we want to see real progress, instead of watching our children have to re-fight the same battles, we have to think and work longterm AT THE SAME TIME we are managing the crises we keep inheriting from the Right.