Liberals

For decades now, liberals have been agonizing because conservatives seem to win even when polls show that the public generally disagrees with them. In their postmortems, liberals have placed blame on the way they frame their message, or on the right-wing media drumbeat that drowns out everything else, or on the right's co-opting of the flag, Mom and apple pie, which is designed to make liberals seem like effete, hostile foreign agents. It's understandable that liberals prefer to think of their subordination as a matter of their own inadequacies or of conservative wiles.

In 2004, Republicans managed to put measures on the ballot in 11 states to ban same-sex marriage, a red-hot family values issue that boosted conservative turnout and played a role in President Bush's reelection. The strategy seemed certain to have a prominent place in the GOP political playbook. But four years later, few key battleground states will vote on propositions likely to excite conservatives. Republicans have been tripped up by mishaps and errors that have kept measures off the ballot.

Heading into the home stretch of the presidential campaign, John McCain has been sharpening his closing argument against his Democratic opponent, saying that Barack Obama's tax policies would produce a redistribution of wealth that borders on socialism.

For years, progressive groups and their causes have been in the political wilderness. Now, with Barack Obama preparing to take the White House and Democrats tightening their hold on Congress, the party's liberal constituencies can see their way to a promised land. Their vision includes federal laws banning job discrimination against gays; expanded hate-crime laws; public land protections from logging and oil drilling; and easier union organizing of workers.

"OBAMA doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell," said Stanley West, among the crowd of left-leaning Angelenos recently assembled over pints of Guinness to debate presidential politics and generally broadside Republicans. The occasion was Drinking Liberally, a loosely knit group offering progressives a casual forum to talk politics while sharing a pitcher. Relaxing with a beer and a loosened tie at Molly Malone's, West, an African American himself, said he likes Sen.

Two powerful blocs among Democrats -- organized labor and liberal activists -- heard several of the party's presidential contenders pledge allegiance Thursday to a progressive agenda more sweeping than would have seemed politically palatable not long ago. The candidates' liberal chorus about the war in Iraq, gay rights, healthcare and labor issues was a testament to the Democratic left wing's growing strength since the Republican rout in the 2006 midterm election.

Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network. MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work. In a simple experiment reported todayin the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

As Russell Beecher, a lifelong Republican, wandered through the political picnic at the Sauk County Fairgrounds this weekend, he was reeling from the celebration of all things liberal. Inside the fair's pole barn, hawkers sold hundreds of neon-orange "Impeach Bush!" T-shirts and "Say No to War!" buttons. Grandmothers in floppy flower-print hats gabbed about universal healthcare coverage.

Liberal groups pledged Thursday to expand their uphill campaign against Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., saying this week's hearings provided fuel for a sustained lobbying effort against his confirmation. Although opposition to John G. Roberts Jr., President Bush's choice as chief justice, had largely fizzled by the end of his testimony in September, the reverse appears to have happened with Alito, who completed his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.