THE DEMOCRATS: A Turn for the Worse.

Democrats spent the first weeks after the election telling themselves pleasing stories about why they got an unexpected drubbing. It was because they hadn't been themselves. If Democrats had only opposed war in Iraq and come out for the cancellation of scheduled tax cuts -- and done both these things loudly -- they would have been able to motivate their base to vote, and might even have convinced swing voters that their policies were better than the Republicans'. This theory is now the consensus of the Democratic party, reflected in the House Democrats' decision to make San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi their leader. The left wing of the party was emboldened by success in 2000, when several liberal senators were elected and a "populist" Al Gore and Ralph Nader won a combined 51 percent of the vote. Now it is emboldened by defeat. The Democrats' leftward tilt may become more pronounced as presidential candidates compete for primary voters.

Sometimes a party needs to sharpen its ideological edge to give people a reason to vote for it. That is what Republicans did between 1976 and 1980, and again between 1992 and 1994. But it is also true that political movements can become more radical as they decline, and that appears to be what is happening here. There is no evidence that vocal opposition to war in Iraq would have helped Democrats. Walter Mondale was admirably candid about his opposition, and he lost. The public knew the Democrats were less gung-ho than the Republicans. They punished them for it. After the election, Gallup asked voters whether the parties were "tough enough" on terrorism. Sixty-four percent thought the Republicans were, and 57 percent thought the Democrats were not. Those numbers ought to give Democratic strategists heartburn. Yet the party seems intent on making itself more anti-Bush when it comes to the war on terror.

Actually, the Democrats' worst problem wasn't that they weren't tough enough; it's that they weren't serious enough about security. They demanded a debate on Iraq, then complained when they got one. They criticized the president without offering a credible alternative. Democrats lost at least one Senate seat over homeland security, where they put the interests of public-sector unions ahead of ...