As politicians sharpen their message for the stretch run, but also as we think about creating political support around progressive issues in whatever circumstances result from these elections, and looking forward to 08, I'd like to suggest the beginning of a different way to approach those issues, and the electorate.

I suggest we look behind "issues" and particularly turn away from focusing on "values," which we can only talk about as ambiguous abstractions. I suggest we look to what motivates people to vote on values issues, and on other issues as well.

I believe that people vote on the basis of what makes them feel virtuous. And the candidates that convince voters that voting for them is the expression of virtue will win. The "virtue" over "values" also explains why many people who voted Republican in recent elections are turning against the party this year. But it also could be a way to reorient and reposition progressive efforts in the future.

Each election season, as Republicans start to waver at the polls, out pops some new theme, meme, or extraordinary timed event, designed to take the spotlight from the Republicans' unblemished record of failure.  It's become such a tradition that somewhere around the end of June, Democratic strategists start to chew on their fingernails.  Sweat beads on foreheads.  Eyes stare into the unfocused distance.  

Sure, they think, we may be ahead now, but somewhere in a cave Karl Rove is tossing eye of Newt Gingrich into a steaming caldron.  Any moment now, the vapors will condense into some horror that drives Democratic voters back -- back, I say! -- from the polls.  

Maybe that will still happen, but this year there's a different breeze blowing in the autumn air, and if this breeze continues through October, it threatens to become a gale that sweeps congress clean.  Democrats are stirring up their own pot o' Republican remover, and it has only one secret ingredient.