Wonkery to the Rescue of the Unhinged?

David Broder, a WaPo columnist, recognizes the inefficacy of the Democratic blogosphere's approach to politics:

But the blogs I have scanned are heavier on vituperation of President Bush and other targets than on creative thought. The candidates who have been adopted as heroes by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the convention's leader, and his fellow bloggers have mainly imploded in the heat of battle -- as was the ca se with Howard Dean in 2004 -- or come up short, as happened to the Democratic challengers in special House elections in Ohio and California.

He doesn't offer much respect to the Dems' Congressional leadership, either:

I do not include the Democratic congressional leadership in the hopeful camp. The new legislative "agenda" that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Co. trotted out last week was as meager as it was unimaginative.

No, his lonely eyes turn to sundry think tanks, where policy wonks trained in "social science" churn out new ideas.

Referring to two new publications, he pretty much dismisses The Democratic Strategist , at least the first issue, although it's a "welcome addition," but is a bit more sanguine about something called Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

In the latter, he mentions two ideas, one being the inequity of employer tax deductions for health insurance premiums, and the other a piece by Jedidiah Purdy, as follows:

The lead article, by Jedediah Purdy of Duke Law School, explores the demographic trends around the world. It discusses the implications of population decline in Europe and Japan and how the abortion-influenced gender imbalances in China, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan result in a "surplus" of millions of single men in those fragile democracies or authoritarian states.

Purdy ends by suggesting a long-term bargain between Europe and Asia, or maybe between the United States and India, in which the advanced nations pump development money in now, in return for future help in financing their retirees' pensions.

Cash now for more cash later? It's called "investment."

Setting aside the fact that Pat Buchanan was writing about the demographic crisis in Europe and Japan years ago, Broder's antidote for the folly of the deranged left is pure bathos.

Some time soon, I'll comment on the logs, nay the whole sawmill, in the eye of the GOP.