Not that the old big-government liberalism is dead. The federal government and its bureaucracies are still intrusive. President Clinton, at his Renaissance Weekend, said that he has increased his belief in the power of government to improve people's lives. Emboldened by their recent political success and a budget surplus, liberals are likely to come up with new blueprints for social engineering. But these will be hard sells.
Sex is the one issue liberals have that resonates with the whole culture.
Michael Medved, in an article in USA Today, has shown that the key predictor of politics is marriage. But Democrats overwhelmingly won the singles vote. Unmarried men voted Democratic by a margin of 55 percent. Blacks, for example, have often become dependent on old-liberal largesse, which in turn has led to wholesale breakdown in their families. But black Americans tend to be conservative when it comes to homosexuality, abortion, and related issues.