The dirty little secret of American liberal politics is that we are much more tolerant of losing elections than conservatives are. Some of the reasons, of course, are obvious; for example, our historic agenda is already in place, so we can afford to spend some years in the wilderness while the GOP chips away at the margin. But it's also been true historically. Liberal epochs in American history are few and far between, confined to the Age of Jackson (1829-37), Lincoln and Reconstruction (1861-76), the Progressive Era (1901-18) and the New Deal/Fair Deal/Great Society period (1931-66). The original Constitution, which was drafted in large measure to protect the power and interests of slaveholders, is a conservative, anti-democratic document, and American politics has pretty much reflected that.

If you're a liberal in the U.S., or for that matter, any western democracy, you therefore accept, and respect, the fact that you are going to play on the losing team in most elections. It is in anticipation of those few occasions when we win nationally that makes progressive politics so much fun, because we realize that when it's our turn, we will change things more dramatically in the short time given us, and in a more permanent manner, than our adversaries could ever dream of doing. When one realizes that the most conservative Presidency since Coolidge must now settle for confirming Supreme Court justices who will not overturn Roe v. Wade, regardless of how they feel about that decision, as its only significant domestic accomplishment, is a testament to the power of an ideology that is usually on the losing end of elections.

Not surprisingly, there are people, including one of my dinner companions last night, who state that they are "tired of playing for the loser." This usually manifests itself in strident attacks on the Democratic Party, how the party is too liberal (or not liberal enough) which I believe misses the point entirely. What we believe in, as liberals, can never be defined by the fortunes of a political party, and should not be altered one iota by its electoral prospects. The Democratic Party is a useful vehicle, indeed, the only real vehicle at the moment, for electing like-minded politicians within our Constitutional system. But its fortunes are not tied to our own, we have no right to expect any ideological conformity from the it, and any problems it has at the moment should not be our paramount concern. If a better vehicle comes along, we should buy it instead.

For it has not always been true that the interest of liberals was served by the Democratic Party; in its first hundred years of existence, the Democrats were the party of slavery and limited, straitjacketed government at the federal level. Ironically, the period of the greatest prolonged dominance in the history of the Democratic Party came between 1800 and 1860, when the party's core tenet was the expansion of slavery. It didn't really become the nations's liberal party until Bryan and the Populists emerged at the end of the Nineteenth Century (or rather, until the party coopted the Populists, who were threatening its political base) , while the Republicans continued their shift to being the party of Main Street and Big Business.

What this means is that we have more important things to worry about than whether the party is winning elections: namely, whether we are winning elections (or, if not winning elections, whether we are having enough influence to make those who are winning elections take notice and respect our numbers). Let's face it, other than a few of the bozos and hacks who pal around with the "Reverend" Al Sharpton, is there any liberal in New York City who is brokenhearted over the landslide win by Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican, over Mr. Ferrer last Tuesday? Probably not. By the same token, when Joementum wins reelection next year, as a Democrat, for his Senate seat, will any liberals rejoice? Only if it gets us to 51.

But whether the party wins or loses in 2006 or 2008 has nothing to do with what I believe, or the values I profess. I'm not going to compromise or trim my sails just to make things easier for a Democratic politico in Oklahoma or South Carolina. They're on their own. Nor do I expect them to become Southern California liberals. American political parties are not designed to impose ideological conformity, and thank god for that. The Democratic Party, like the Republican Party, is what it is, an institutional structure designed to build coalitions and win elections. It has not had a great deal of success at that lately in flyover country, but there you have it. Tomorrow is a new day.