The first part of your letter was interesting though the "liberals are conservative and the conservatives are liberal" spin is sort of played by now, but, the latter part was out and out funny. It was a straight ripoff of the Wall Street Journal's infamously bad op-ed, and subsequent ad in the NY Times, that sought to blame all of today's problems on the evil 60s. I think they even mentioned campus protests, supposed loss of moral authority and pinpointed the exact year them damn liberals sent everything to hell in a handbasket - 1968! Anyway, you can't be serious about the "brilliant substantiation" and "generally percieved success" of supply side economics? Nah....

"Some critics have pointed out that while many progressives see themselves as helping the poor and disenfranchised, they don't actually belong to those classes or want to have much to do with them, which in turn alienates the very people whose interests are supposedly being served."

....is classic propaganda. It's amazing that the Repubs are still getting mileage out of variations on the "limo liberal" stuff. "Many" progressives? They don't "actually" belong to those classes or want to have much to do with them....blah, blah? Says who? Also, of course there are no poor or working class liberals or progressives. Uh huh.

Just because you're long winded doesn't mean you have substance. You aren't offering up any new or even particularly interesting ideas. You are merely repeating and recasting standard conservative mantra and urban legends (e.g. The Laughable Curve).

Anyway, all of this is noise. What liberals "need to do" is realize they are not in a "war of ideas". That's another bogus construction that allows Repubs to do what they have become expert at and what liberals always seem to fall for - frame the premise/terms of the discussion to their advantage. They are in a propaganda and marketing war. The only real question is as Sean Connery said in the "Untouchables" - What are you prepared to do? The answer to that question will determine how well liberals/progressives do in elections going forward.

"The issue, which your letters typify, is the lack of substance shown by the Democratic party over the past 30 years - an issue Lakoff underscores and you ignore,...blah, blah...(insert rest of standard Repub dialogue)...blah...blah...blah"

...of the propaganda tactic I was talking about - define the opposition as you please and get them to fight your definition. The "past 30 years.." stuff again? Still stuck on the late 60s meme, huh? You're doing a great job of illustrating my point. Repubs - rinse, lather and repeat variations of the same propaganda over and over again. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have bought into it. They need to stop.

I see you're now at PNAC. Now that's a great and successful idea that Democrats should emulate. Btw, I never said ideas don't matter (nice try), what I said was that Liberals aren't in a "war of ideas" with Republicans. Yeah, the famously deep thinking idea man (lol) George Bush is President because Repubs are winning the "war of ideas". Tell me another one. Again, no matter how many times or different ways you spin it, that's just a Republican propaganda theme. Nothing more and nothing less but judging from your letters it has worked perfectly on you.

"Dems don't have substance", "liberals don't have ideas", "liberals only believe in rights", "liberals don't have moral authority" and on and on and on are almost word for word parrotting of basic Repub talking points. That some folks adopt them and then regurgitate them with, in your case, the proper grandiose embellishments, as their own "substance" speaks to their gullibility and the incredible effectiveness of the Repub marketing machine. Actually, my adive is similar to Lakoff's, don't let the Repubs define you or dictate the premise of the debate and don't let them claim ownership of common terms like freedom. IOW, stop playing their game and get on with it. If they can do that, though nonsense like running away from liberal by calling yourself progressive gives me pause, they should do fine.