AFTER THE FALL: WHY AMERICA NEEDS A SPIRITUAL LEFT by Rabbi Michael Lerner For years the Democrats have been telling themselves 'it's the economy, stupid.' Yet millions of middle-income Americans have voted against their economic interests to support Republicans who have tapped a deeper set of needs. Democrats differ on the fix. The center/right activists of the Democratic Leadership Council warn that the Party needs to distance itself more from its economic populism, its anti-war discourse (what they call the George McGovern or Howard Dean wing of the party), and its identification with gays, feminists, and other cultural legacies of the 1960s. On the other hand, center/left activists like Robert Borosage of the mainstream progressive Campaign for America's Future and Katrina van den Heuvel, editor of the Nation, call for big ideas from progressives but actually have little more to offer than the recycled ideas that failed to catch primary voters when they were offered...