“This.” It’s pretty depressing. In the last few days I saw (but lost) something else worth considering: the Dems won’t win back all the fabled constituencies they’ve shed because, when you boil it down, they’re inveterate liars. They make all kinds of progressive-sounding noise but mostly deliver minor variations on the status quo. The resulting credibility problem explains — much better than communications theory twaddle — why rightist attacks are so effective. If you want evidence, look no further than the mishsmash of milquetoast actions of the Dem congressional leadership. In the face of all kinds of real crises, they’re doing what? Attacking anyone who proposes concrete action or anything with a whiff of leftist politics. Why would anyone really believe them? It doesn’t have to be this way, but change will require ousting the top several levels of Dem leadership. That won’t happen anytime soon, and it’ll require a real crisis, as in one whose outcomes can’t be predicted.