The Democratic Party is a coalition. Democrats and anti-Republican non-Democrats have various ideas about how to best beat the GOP.
Below the fold I've listed ten strategic camps. There is some overlap and some are probably subsets of the other camp.
On MyDD.com there's a poll for which camp you support.
Are there other major strategic philosophies? What are they?
Blur-and-focus. This camp favors blurring the distinction with GOP on issues that are liabilities and focusing on issues where the Democrats have an advantage.
Pro-Iraq War. In some ways this is a subset of the Blur-and-focus camp, but it also has members from some of the other camps. Since this is a vocal group within the party and a numerous group in Congress, it seems like they should have a seat at the table of crafting a Dem agenda for 2006.
Contrast Clearly. This camp says the GOP is gonna attack no matter what, the Dems should not hide from GOP criticisms, but instead make clear contrasts to the GOP on a wide variety of issues. Instead of equivocating Dems should say, "I support equal rights for homosexuals, but the GOP is raising this issue to distract from their failures on the big issues, like...."
The Anti-theocrat camp sees priority as neutralizing the Right's ability to use Christianity as a political weapon. They differ from the Blur-and-focus because the Anti-theocrats feel it is necessary to explicitly challenge how the Right has politicized Christianity. They are probably a subset of the Contrast camp.
Neither Left Nor Right. This camp seeks new policy initiatives to address politics and policy. They see the Left-Right linear spectrum as being limiting. They are willing to advocate big changes.
The Anti-Neo Liberal Elite camp is hostile to the post-Clinton Democratic Party. People in this camp see the Dems and the GOP both accepting Neo Liberal ideology without question; both parties are led by affluent people who benefit from the Neo Liberal agenda. Anti-Neo Liberal Elites see the divisions between Democrats and Republicans as largely symbolic, but are moving cautiously toward the Dems out of fear that the Neo Con foreign policy is Neo Liberal, Neo Imperialism. This camp is probably a subset of NLNR.
Limit Executive Branch Power. This camp sees the priority as making the case that the GOP-led Congress has given too much power to the Bush administration. The priority needs to be making the case that Bush and co. have abused power and that the Democrats will restore the Constitutional checks-and-balances. The LEBP is probably a subset of the NLNR.
Technocrats. This camps seeks to avoid ideological discussions entirely and focus on the merits of policy proposals. They share the disdain of Left-Right politics of the NLNR camp, but limits itself to narrow-bore policy proposals.
Congressional reform. This camp favors drawing contrasts on ethics and the arrogance of Republicans Congressional leadership. It's the sibling of the Limit Executive Branch Power camp, but under the Technocrat camp because most Congressional reform is tinkering with the rules and not proposing big changes.
Triangulate. This camp seeks to identity specific constituencies and peel them away from the GOP for the election contested.