David Broder’s column today focuses on the two new Democratic publications launched this week, Democratic Strategist and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Not surprisingly, Broder thinks the first Strategist articles are short on data points to back up their assertions. Broder loves to allude to studies that often lead him to write op-eds that are basically, “on one hand, but on the other hand” thumbsuckers.
There’s a disconnect between the guidelines the Strategist posts for contributing writers and the series of articles in its first issue. But I lean toward less poll driven articles and more creative thinking.
Sometimes I wonder how Thomas Jefferson could have written the Declaration of Independence and James Madison the Constitution without testing their ideas through polling.