Kevin Drum: How come people won't vote for us?

"Let's try to figure out what the hell is wrong with Democrats these days. How come people won't vote for us?" wonders lapsed catblogger Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly [via The Blogometer at National Journal's The Hotline]. "I don't actually know the answer [He never does. --ed], but I think I've collected the leading candidates," he adds, inviting readers to vote for one of ten possible answers.  The correct answer -- at least the first sentence -- is #7 (or #8, "offer fresh, original ideas," a variation of #7):

Too shortsighted. Need to create liberal versions of the Heritage Foundation to help us build long-term vision.

Had old Kevin been reading this blog on a regular basis -- instead of wondering why there were so few woman bloggers in the top tier of the Ecosystem -- he would have realized long ago:

Leftists have become soft and flabby in their thinking over the last 20, 30 or more years because their fellow travelers in the mainstream media -- supposed to be keeping them honest -- have been giving them a free ride, even as thinkers of the right, not enjoying such reflexive support, have been honing our debating and intellectual survival skills. That leaves the left soft and lazy and the right battle ready.  Enter the bloggers, stage right.

Drum's #10 possible answer to what's wrong with Democrats -- "It's the media's fault" -- comes to mind, although no doubt for reasons opposite to what he had in mind. While liberals slept, conservatives put on their thinking caps. Belatedly -- just the other day -- "at least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades," but for Darwinian reasons, it probably won't work. TigerHawk explains:

Historically, liberals have gotten their best policy ideas from universities. Conservatives only built up their own "infrastructure," if that is indeed the word for it, because universities are so tilted toward the left. Not only were universities not pumping out a lot of policy ideas useful to conservatives, but conservative scholars found them to be increasingly difficult places to work. They had to go somewhere.

Liberals, though, are naturally at home in universities. Why would any good liberal scholar leave a top university to go work for some think tank?

Update:  'Forgot to mention our indebtedness to Mr. Drum. As fellow Cotillion Babe Zendo Deb of TFS Magnum reminded us this afternoon:

In February of this year, Kevin Drum wondered where all the women bloggers were. (Something that men seem to wonder about every 90 days . . .) Anyway, various bloggers took exception to this article, and one of the results was The Cotillion -- a networking group of conservative women bloggers who have banded together to promote each other's writing, share our political views, and generally have fun.

Shall we dance?

Cross posted at sisu.