> From the article in Vox: > > Just yesterday I keep thinking about how the DP has become the party of > Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford and George Romney while the Republicans > have become a mixture of George Wallace and Pat Buchanan. When Sanders > ran as a Democrat, he did not understand that the sands were shifting > beneath his feet. > > As I've argued already, I believe we are at the beginning of a coming > party realignment that will end with Democrats becoming the party of > urban, cosmopolitan business liberalism and Republicans the party of > suburban and rural nationalist populism. (For more on the political > science underlying this likely realignment scenario, Jennifer Victor has > a great explanation at Mischiefs of Faction.) > > full: > http://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2016/3/16/11246498/merrick-garland-realignment
Actually, this became clear shortly after Obama was elected in 2008 in a sweeping victory which also saw the Democrats win control of both houses. Since the Republicans were now dominated by the neocons, the Democratic leadership was confident its base wouldn’t defect in any circumstances. So it began reaching out to the “moderate” wing of the Republican party, especially to those with a military background like Powell, Gates, and Hagel, and to Wall Street, which the appointments of Emanuel, Summers, and Geithner represented. While liberal Democrats were quickly dismayed by this unexpected turn to the right and cautious approach to the economic crisis, it conformed to the DLC strategy to fill the political space occupied by the divided Republicans. It’s only result, however, was to lose control of the House to the resurgent tea party Republicans two years later. Trump’s accession is seen as another opportunity to further the realignment process. The Democratic leadership is calculating that even the most disaffected Sanders supporters will so desperately want to stop Trump or another right-wing Republican from winning the presidency that they won’t stay home or vote for Jill Stein while it woos Republicans and independents. It seems like a reasonable calculation, as it seemed in 2008, but the net effect of the strategy since then has been mainly to demoralize and alienate Democratic activists while emboldening the Republican base. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
