Democratic Party: Strategy vs. Vision

From the strangely named Echidne of the Snakes I came across this quote from Laksmi Chaudhry from her new book, Making Sense. Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 Into Winning Progressive Politics. It is from the section on culture wars.

The Democratic Party's strategy of moving to the right on the economy has clearly worked against its own interests. Yet it's not surprising that many of the party leaders have responded to the latest electoral debacle with calls to do the same on social issues. Within weeks of the election, the Senate Democrats had selected pro-life Harry Reid as their leader, even as California Senator Dianne Feinstein blamed San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to legalize gay marriages for the party's defeat. No policy is indispensable in a party that substitutes strategy for vision.

It was the last line that struck me. The attempt to substitute strategy for vision is a major problem in the Party.