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When in Doubt, Lean Left

WASHINGTON -- Political habits sometimes repeat themselves. Twenty years ago, Democrats confronted a conservative Republican president in Congress -- and in preliminary sparring before the 1984 presidential campaign -- by moving to the left on war, taxes, social issues, and race. Today, facing another conservative Republican in the White House, they're doing the same.

The shift didn't work in the 1980s and isn't likely to help Democrats now. In 1983 President Reagan wasn't the political powerhouse he became the next year when...