Why We Liberals Are Losing

There was an article today in nytimes.com about how a pro-choice group called Naral is running an ad denouncing John Roberts for arguing against an abortion clinic's right to seek anti-discrimination protection from vigilante groups, whose activities include bombing. Naral is attracting some harsh criticism for misrepresenting the facts and failing to make clear the various nuances and subtleties concerning Roberts' involvement with this case.

I haven't seen the ad and therefore can't judge how misleading it is, but I have to ask: isn't this the kind of thing that the Republican party has always excelled in? How else did they win the elections if not by oversimplification, sensationalism, and patronizing? And yet, the Democrats will never get away with playing by those self-same rules...because of immediate opposition, not from the right, but from their own ranks. One of the minuses to being (traditionally) the party of the intellectuals is that your peoples will scrutinize everything, and put a stop to an obvious dirty trick. Of course, the other minus is that we then lose elections.

The right will be quick to launch a counter-offensive. I think this little bit illustrates excellently that the majority ideologists are above no hypocrisy. Even the group's name is a manipulation, intentionally oblivious to the traditional political meaning of the word "progressive":

'A conservative group, Progress for America, said it would spend $300,000 to run ads, beginning Thursday, on the same stations on which the Naral ad is appearing. "How low can these frustrated liberals sink?" its advertisement asks.'

Oh yes, that's much more nuanced.

PS - If you ask me (though no one ever does) the left should just start a campaign praising Roberts for advocating gay rights. Let conservatives bury conservatives.