Left moves to boost its intellectual bulwark

Slides depicting a powerful political nemesis are a fine fundraising technique. But are claims that the right possesses a vastly superior message machine true?

"Conservative think tanks outnumber liberal ones by about 2-to-1, and they out-resource liberal ones by about 3-to-1," says Andrew Rich, a political science professor at City College of New York and author of "Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise."

But this superiority comes in the context of liberal media dominance, some say.

"Big-government liberals control the major networks, the major newspapers, the universities, and it strikes me as amusing that they are jumping in the air shouting 'eek' when they see a number of think tanks," says David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute. "There's not a huge imbalance."

Even as each side lays claim to being a David facing Goliath, liberals should take heart because the challenge is less bleak than it seems, some say.

"When conservatives began in the 1950s, they had been ideologically discredited," Mr. Rosenberg says. "Conservatives rebuilt from nothing."Progressives, by contrast, are beginning from a much stronger foundation, he says.

The challenge is to turn that good will into a political majority, progressive leaders say. Even as liberals continue to see electoral promise in the power of "net- roots" activism, building support through websites such as ActBlue, more are arguing that think tanks are the way to go.

At the top of the current Democracy Alliance agenda: promoting greater maturity for progressive think tanks that exist, helping small ones grow, and developing new ones. Its aim is neither new nor remarkable, but the scope is. Having wedded itself to the richest liberal donors in America, and divorced itself from the deadlines of a political calendar, the Democracy Alliance, along with other like-minded groups, has the resources to build a pyramid of progressive power.

Still, some warn against group think.

"We don't want to reinforce a level consensus," says Will Marshall, head of the Progressive Policy Institute. "We must "think strategically about why people are not voting for progressives."

A key task will be to develop multi-issue think tanks, instead of single-issue groups, like NARAL Pro-Choice America, that now dominate Democratic circles, Rich says. A key question is whether the network will follow the right's model of operating apart from electing candidates.

"These proposed new groups are designed to enhance the prospect of a political party," says Mr. Boaz. "That's the wrong approach."

But Rich says more liberal think tanks will enrich the marketplace of ideas. And even Boaz welcomes that. "We do understand the benefits of competition," he says.

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