Tell the Story Right You Damn Lefty
I'm not much of a big Seth Godin fan (he's attracted far too many wonks and fan-boys for my tastes) buuuuut that's not to say that I couldn't totally appreciate his perfect assessment of what plagues the Democratic Party. In a word, lack of good succint heart-tugging storytelling. All of us so-called intellectual leftists like to talk the talk about how we think the fluff is just that, but if you look to pop culture you know that the masses don't think that "Ulysses" was a great book--in fact no one really SHOULD, since all you're bragging about is how you totally "got something" that no one else possibly could, since you're all too brilliant and yadda yadda uppitty uppitty. It's all in that same sense of irrational urgency to show off how fucking brilliant you are that folks lose touch with reality. Yes I know that I subscribe to the belief systems that indeed many in academia hold true as well, but why would I waste my time trying to impress how undeniably well-read I am or how much better I am than some inferior wonk that doesn't subscribe to the anti-pop culture iconoclast way of life. I guess in essence those that follow that yawning path of mental masturbation are indeed just pushing an agenda that is their own lame clique's version of pop culture.
But getting back to the Democrats.
This is their problem, they try to speak to the masses with garbled nonsense and solely without any sort of heart-wrenching fortitude. That's not to say they need to tell the stupid stories that Republicans say--you know all "oh my what if this snowflake baby was used to further research that could benefit millions" and moral relativity nonsense--but instead they could do what former Senator John Edwards did and talk about what a lack of a true health care system has on America. Or bad immigration policies. Or the lack of stem cell research. Etc. Etc.
It's not hard, you just have to release yourself from the think tank mantra.