Earlier today I quoted Markos Zuniga Moulitsas (mistakenly referring to him as Markos Zuniga) dissing think tanks even as a new one called the New Politics Institute was trumpeting his important contribution to its launch. Moulitsas, known as the king of the Daily Kos website, sought to dig himself out of a hole today by attacking the Hill newspaper for misrepresenting his remarks: “I was not ‘dismissive’ of existing progressive think tanks. They have their role and are key components….However, what I said is that all the policy papers in the world won’t do us any good unless we can figure out ways to actually win elections. Republicans have a machinery in place focusing on using technology and other tools to win elections in addition to their policy think tanks, we don’t.”

The Hill misrepresented nothing. Actually, “all the policy papers in the world” is exactly what a party in the wilderness needs. If Democrats want to change the country’s direction, they better know where they want to go and why their answers are superior. Kos’s enthusiasm for mechanistic solutions to the Democratic party’s soul-sickness iis yet another example of present-day leftist philistinism and provincialism.