Ronald Brownstein writes in "Why Democrats Are So Confident":
It was a revealing convergence Monday when the five-member conservative Supreme Court majority delivered the Hobby Lobby contraception decision even as President Obama announced that House Republicans had officially shelved immigration reform.
Both disputes reaffirmed the GOP's identity as the champion of the forces most resistant to the profound demographic and cultural dynamics reshaping American life—and Democrats as the voice of those who most welcome these changes.
And both clashes captured a parallel shift: While Republicans took the offense on most cultural arguments through the late 20th century, now Democrats from Obama on down are mostly pressing these issues, confident that they represent an expanding majority of public opinion.Beyond the Hobby Lobby decision and Republicans' scuttling of immigration reform, Democrats must do a better job of engaging public opinion on other issues where the majority is in agreement with them, such as gun control, marriage equality, equal pay, and climate change. The "rear guard" right-wing victories being won in the Supreme Court and in some benighted red states are just that - victories by a philosophy in denial and in retreat. As we've said many, many times before, Democrats need to be confident and forceful in their appeal to voters, because not only is adopting a defensive crouch self-defeating, but more importantly because a growing majority of voters agree with them on the issues.
We're not as sure as Brownstein is that Democrats "are so confident." We'd like to see them going on the offensive and staying there for a change; that would show us "confidence."
