Mike Tomasky has a must-read article in this month's American Prospect, (http://www.prospect.org), about the need for the Democrats to have a broad vision of where they want to lead the country, preferably one that links to the notion of creation of a common good."For a republic to thrive," he writes, "leaders must create and nourish a civic sphere in which citizens are encouraged to think broadly about what will sustain that republic and to work together to achieve common goals." For Tomasky and others of us who define ourselves as believers in an agenda that unifies liberals or democratic leftists in a shared project, there is a momentum in the air that bodes well for an agenda of commonality. Tomasky's article was cited this week by E.J. Dionne in his Washington Post column: and by David Brooks in today's New York Times. As E.J. points out, the ideas that Tomasky puts forward means that the Dems have to postulate for something that moves beyond individual rights. Brooks says it differently, and more bluntly: the age of multiculturalism is over.

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