Happy days are here again--or are they?

The Economist on the prospects and problems of the Democratic Party.

Some Democratic politicians simply say no [to single-issue groups]. Brian Schweitzer won the governorship of Montana in part because he binned all the questionnaires that single-issue groups sent him to complete. All but one—the form from the National Rifle Association. “You've got to fill that one out,” he told Mr Armstrong and Mr Moulitsas. "In order to get an 'A-plus', you've got to shoot somebody."

Mr Schweitzer is an exception, however. Many more Democratic politicians have, over the past 30 years, tried to duck controversial moral issues by leaving them to the courts. Judges have stepped into the legislative vacuum, often infuriating conservatives and making Democrats sound ridiculous. In January, for example, during the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, Mr Bush's latest choice for the Supreme Court, some Democratic senators upbraided the judge for wanting to apply the law, not make it. Surely it would be better, "to ensure social progress", if judges took "a more expansive, imaginative view of the constitution?" wheedled Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin. In other words, Mr Kohl, a legislator, wants judges to do his job for him. This is how abortion was legalised in America, how prayer was barred in schools and how gay marriage came to Massachusetts.