Mitchell gets it (quoted his piece in full, below, from Democracy Project). Our bold font:
Today's Democratic leadership came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, in the era of anti-Vietnam War protest. Moreover, the party activists have a left wing view of the world whereby conflict between labor and capital, oppressed and oppressor, first world and third world, black and white or left and racist right play a central role. Much as Marx omitted a careful discussion of how communism would work, with the result that his philosphy was the ugliest, most violent and vicious of all philosophical ideas, today's leftists conceptualize themselves as protestors rather than leaders.
This includes the leadership of the Democratic Party. The Democrats have not been able to articulate a coherent strategy for the Middle East because they see themselves as protestors who right wrong rather than leaders who obtain and use power effectively. The focus on demonizing Bush and the left's inability to articulate a strategy for Iraq illustrate my claim.
Should the protest Democrats win the White House and Congress, America will be set on a self-destructive course. It would be nice to see competent Democrats running agains competent Republicans, but there are few competent Democrats too be found, and the few that can be found such as Senator Lieberman, are demonized by the rest.
