If Democrats were good at thinking like Republicans, they would see the light and stop being Democrats.
Today, grass-roots Republicans want to drink a bottle of 2010 small-government wine, but our candidates were bottled in another era, before the tea party's ideas took root.
The 2000s were marked by terrorism and a bipartisan desire to fight it.
After two years of fighting, government shutdowns and little to no agreement on anything except welfare reform in 1996, President Clinton was re-elected and decided it was time for compromise.
My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.
A safety net for the poor indeed requires some level of income redistribution.
Make no mistake, if the payroll-tax cut is extended, it will become permanent. Social Security will become another welfare program as the tie between what someone pays and what they receive gets broken.
When President George W. Bush cut taxes, he cut them for everyone.
