On Nov. 5, 1980, a generation of Democratic leaders awoke to a startling fact. Their party, the fountain of New Deal and Great Society liberalism, the coalition that had run this country virtually uninterrupted … [awakened to find] the reins of power were gone, and the party officialdom were reeling. Months later nothing has changed. … [O]bserved … party theoretician Ben Wattenberg, “What has been happening in this party for the last six months is people saying, ‘We have to come up with new ideas.’ We have a lot of people phrasing that idea, in several very novel ways, but...