As I read DemFromCT's front page entry Musings Over Morning Coffee discussing the dire straits the GOP finds itself in I'm left (after a few minutes of unencumbered gloating) wondering who the right-wing think tanks will be targeting over the next two to four years and what can, or rather must, be done to counter their efforts to infuse public policy with their effluence.
I know there have been way too many times of late when I flip to C-Span or C-Span2 and see a Heritage or Cato or American Enterprise Institute backdrop (and immediately flip back to MSNBC) and far too infrequently do I see a logo for the Center for American Progress or the Economic Policy Institute or other progressive organizations. (Note I didn't mention the Brookings Institution or other "centrist" think tanks as they are sometimes just as bad as the avowed "conservative" tanks.)
With the GOP in disarray for at least the next couple of years, now is the time to take advantage of the strategic opportunity. Given President-elect (oh how I love the sound of that!) Barack Obama's response to Rachel Maddow's query about why he hasn't taken the opportunity to of hammer home the abject failure of conservative principals of governance - basically that he just isn't going to do that, someone else is going to have to fight this important part of the progressive battle.
So my question to you, the DailyKos community is what can and should be done to present and sell progressive values, idears and policies to the public and the incoming Democratic administration?
Kos in his first book, Crashing the Gate, relayed the glaring failures of single issue advocacy groups to impact public policy. Are progressive think tanks positioned to form the vanguard? Are progressive blogs ready to supplant think-tanks as the fastest/best avenue for the infusion of progressive thought into the daily lexicon of our elected officials?
What do you think?