The New Think Tank Infuriating Progressives

Elaine Godfrey: “The age of the conventional Democrat is over. The time of the Democratic contrarian has come.”

“So says Adam Jentleson, anyway. The veteran political operative and former adviser to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently launched a think tank that asks Democratic candidates to ignore pressure from the far left, take positions outside the ‘liberal box,’ and be a lot more ‘heterodox’ in general. If this seems to you like Beltway speak for asking Democrats to sound more like Republicans, well, you would be at least partly correct. The Democratic Party used to have supermajorities in Congress because it allowed its members to hold a wide range of positions, Jentleson told me. To start winning again, the party needs to bring that back, he said. His new think tank, Searchlight Institute, plans to help.”

“With its seven-person team, a polling arm, and a $10 million budget, Searchlight promises to offer a ‘menu’ of orthodoxy-challenging ideas for Democrats to run on.”