Less than seven months removed from the 2004 elections that gave Republicans their greatest control of Washington D.C. since the 1920's, it is not particularly surprising that even when Republicans in Washington are unpopular, Democrats are almost equally unpopular. From the latest Democracy Corps polling memo:With President Bush's re-election and significant majorities in both chambers of Congress, Republicans won unprecedented control in Washington after the 2004 election, but this control comes with a higher level of public accountability. The sharp decline in public attitudes toward President Bush and Republicans in Congress is not surprising given the increasingly cynical views Americans hold of the country's current direction, with clear majorities saying the country is moving in the wrong direction and consumer confidence continuing to fall, led by growing pessimism about the future of the economy. The only good news for Republicans is that Democrats have thus far failed to capitalize on Republican weakness by building support for their own ideas and values, although Democrats' united opposition to Republican plans that met with widespread disapproval certainly set the stage for such gains. We have seen this over and over again. Even as approval for Republicans in Congress declines, approval for Democrats tends to decline at an equal rate. As badly as Republicans are screwing up, the electorate still doesn't like us any better. That is pretty much to be expected, since as I already mentioned 2004 was the best election for Republicans in several generations. Right now, the country clearly is not enamoured with Democrats. Personally, I do not think it is such a big deal, since it is growing obvious that the nation does not like what Republicans are doing, and it is growing equally obvious to the nation that Democrats are united in opposition to Republicans. That is a start, and we should not expect to start deign Democrats rise as Republicans fall until we have actually offered a different vision for government. We are still a long way from doing that.

Even so, there are some early signs that Democrats might be positioned to make real gains in the not too distant future:

While President Bush's standing has clearly deteriorated over the last few months, his decline has been small relative to the Congress. In January, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll gave Congress a small but positive net approval rating (41 percent approve, 40 percent disapprove); in this week's poll, Congress' approval has plummeted to 33 percent approve, with 51 percent now disapproving - a 19-point net shift in just four months. The Gallup poll earlier this month showed similarly dire numbers for the Congress - 35 percent approve, 57 percent disapprove. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll also finds that 65 percent of Americans feel Congress has different priorities than they do for the country.

And while Republicans in Congress may blame Democratic obstructionism, American voters aren't buying it. In March, the Pew survey showed Democrats in Congress (37 percent approve, 44 percent disapprove) and Republicans in Congress (39 percent approve, 44 percent disapprove) on equal footing. Less than two months later, Democrats in Congress have seen slight improvement (39 percent approve, 41 percent disapprove) while Republicans in Congress have seen their numbers fall precipitously to 35 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval.

The electoral consequences of these shifting attitudes are emerging. A plurality of Americans now say their representative does not deserve to be re-elected (42 percent re-elect, 45 percent someone new), and Democrats hold a 7-point advantage as the party Americans would prefer to see controlling Congress after the 2006 elections (47 to 40 percent). It is important to state again that this margin is built not on Democratic gains - the Democratic number in the generic congressional contest has remained between 46 and 48 percent in monthly Democracy Corps polling this year - but on Republican losses.

OK, so there is a silver of hope. However, I vehemently disagree with the way that Democracy Corps suggest that we walk into that light: But united Democratic opposition has undoubtedly played a critical role in these Republican losses and has set the stage for Democrats to make gains - potentially significant gains that could alter the fundamental political landscape and put to rest any thoughts of a Republican realignment - if they can translate Democratic values into a positive agenda that tackles fundamental challenges such as retirement security, the cost and quality of modern health care, education, the federal deficit, national security, and the role of the United States in the world. Oh no. Did I really just read that wonky laundry list? I think Democracy Corps is a great firm, but reading the last passage saddens me somewhat. It seems that whenever Democrats are struggling with a given demographic, our only response is to try and develop some sort of policy proposal that will appeal to that group or demographic.

For seven decades, Democrats held the majority of power in Washington D.C. We used government to promote our agenda, since the governing party receives tremendous amounts of free media. We used government to unite our coalition, which is possible when you are the ruling party since you can indeed pass a series of laws designed to appeal to targeted communities and demographics. We used single issue groups to define our beliefs, which turned into a series of laundry lists rather than broadly defined principles. By contrast, Republicans and conservatives were forced to develop an enormous Noise Machine that could broadcast their message to tens of millions of people even when they were in the minority. They created a huge infrastructure that allowed the different groups in their coalition to unite much better than ours do. They succeed in broadly defining what they stand for to the nation at large. Many Democrats seem to have a difficult time either remembering or realizing that we are no longer the governing party in Washington. Because of this, we can no longer pass policy in Washington. Now, Republicans simultaneously wield their traditional electoral weapon of massive, independent political infrastructure as well as our traditional weapon of being the ruling party. Proposing policy is always the electoral weapon of the governing party, and we need to realize that we no longer wield that weapon. Telling people we have a plan for everything isn't going to get us anywhere.

As Democrats, we need to accept that not all, or even most, of our biggest and best ideas right now related to policy. We need a real message infrastructure independent of government. We need vastly improved organization within our national ideological conversion machines. We need to break out of the single-issue group ghettos we have created for ourselves. None of this has anything to do with policy.

Republicans are indeed screwing up, and as we all know we are yet to reap the benefits. I can only believe that one of the reasons for this is our persistent urge to offer alternative legislation, rather than an alternative vision for government coupled with the infrastructure development necessary to spread that vision across the country. People are not going to vote for Democrats when they believe that we have a plan to reduce the cost of health care. They are going to vote for Democrats when they believe we truly care, in the depths of our souls, about reducing the cost of health care. No policy proposal on earth will ever cause that to take place.