What next for the Democrats?

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article on why Democrats won in Colorado:

Colorado Democrats say their success carries a lesson for the national party. "We campaigned on pragmatism," state Democratic Chairman Christopher Gates said. "We set ourselves up as the problem solvers, while the Republicans were hung up on a bunch of fringe social issues like gay marriage and the Pledge of Allegiance.

"The notion that moral issues won the 2004 election was disproven in Colorado," Gates continued. "We offered solutions, not ideology, and won almost everything."

Colorado, in Schools Now's view, also has lessons for Wisconsin Democrats. Despite Kerry's close win in Wisconsin, Republicans increased their domination of the legislature. The danger is that Democrats will look to their base in Milwaukee or Madison for a solution rather than finding ways to convince voters that they can solve problems better than Republicans can.

With the concern over high taxes, Governor Doyle and the Democrats will lose if they are viewed as the party representing the interests of public employees rather than those of the public (especially the public as taxpayers). With the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Republicans are cleverly defining the contest as one between government and taxes.

Doyle and the Democrats have apparently decided that taking the WEAC position on school choice and charter schools incurs little political risk, since the parents who benefit have not thus far become an effective political force. But the political danger to Democrats may come from a different direction: that by toeing the WEAC line they position themselves as the friends of those who benefit from the status quo in government programs rather than as problem solvers. In doing so, the play the Republican game,