Washington is a strange town. It is insular and inbred, with its own narrative that is foisted upon the rest of us by a complicent news media. This conventional wisdom is almost always wrong, yet there is no accountability for these failures. Democrats are now in danger of falling for another of these and it could be quite costly to the party and the nation.
First, a few examples of beltway and pundit wisdom, just so everyone gets what I am saying here. The "serious people" insist that Social Security must be cut in some form (whether by raising the eligibility age, chained CPI, privatization, or some other method). This is utter bullshit. Another nugget we hear all the time, that Democrats must continue to move to the right to win elections. Free Trade is another one with a lot of gross misinformation floating around (all deals must be fast tracked, negotiated in secret, and given a quick up or down vote, always for approval).
The one that I will address here, however, is the meme that demographics is destiny, that Liberals can sit back on their hineys and let the country drift toward them. This is dangerous and could lead to disaster.
For any here who wish to call this a "strawman argument", that nobody is saying this, that is simply not true (and I am speaking of the intelligentia here, not the larger population of progressives).
In the early 1970's, Democrats pushed for a Constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18. Why did they do this? Yes, it was the morally right thing to do, considering the existence of the military draft, and that is why it passed. Still, gleeful Dems thought that it would give them an advantage. Yep, all those liberal, anti-war Baby Boomers, the youth vote, would usher in a new era of Democratic dominance. We all know what has happened next.
Demographics will not save us. We need to run on something.
Please.