QUESTION ASKED: Can the Democrats Start from Scratch?

Look at the Democratic Platform. The preamble has a decent paragraph about stagnant wages, wealth gaps, and Americans feeling like the “system is rigged.” But if you look for an overall vision or statement of values you’ll have to make do with this: “Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls. It’s a simple but powerful idea: we are stronger together.” As the reader may have noticed, these aren’t really ideas, let alone powerful ones. They’re barely slogans. Who disagrees that “cooperation is better than conflict” or that “empowerment is better than resentment”? As for “bridges are better than walls,” okay, that’s deep. I happen to prefer my bathroom to have walls rather than bridges, but progress is progress. Let me also suggest adding “up is better than down,” “light is better than heat,” and “spoons are better than forks.”

In my lifetime, conservatives seem to be more prone than liberals to manifestos. A self-serving explanation for this among liberals would be that manifestos are the work of ideologues and cranks. But the simpler reason is that avatars of prevailing opinion don’t need manifestos. Liberals produced them during the George W. Bush years but got out of the habit once they were back in the driver’s seat. Now it’s time to get back to them. Manifestos are the starting point for movements based on serious ideas, and never are they more crucial than when you’re out of power. So, for the Democrats, let 100 manifestos now bloom.

What’s missing from T.A. Frank’s prescription is the new leadership required to produce new results. But the Clintons are old and out of juice, the Democrat bench is as thin as it’s been in nearly a century, and Barack Obama and his hard-left coterie threaten more — much more — of the same.

That’s not the change Frank can believe in.