Honestly, the "problem" we have now is that there is clearly no support for single "big tent" parties. The still exist for a number of reasons, some of which are ballot acces and some of which are the "brand name", but they do not in any way function as they used to.
A big tent party will always have factions. What has happened, however, is that these factions are hardened by both time and the development of their own fundraising/organizing base. There is nothing fluid about them -- they are their own parties in and of themselves, and have names like AFSCME and MrEdCo (or whatever they call themselves now). Their existance is outside of any party structure.
They should logically become separate parties, but they cannot usually stand on their own. Many are single-issue parties, or narrow interest parties. One that can stand on its own is Progressive Minnesota, and they almost qualify as a party on their own. However, in their case, they have chosen to do what is effectively cross-endorsement, meaning a person can be DFL and PM or not PM, separating out the flavors.
The result is that the real struggles occur in strange ways, half in the public eye and half not. The party endorsement is one of many possible endorsements one can use. Thus the DFL of the ballot is a different animal than the DFL of the convention.
The Big Tent has actually died, but it still exists in the way we run elections. It is the way people organize, as they want, that shows they have no interest in Big Tent politics. While it's reasonable to be slow to change the election laws, I do think that it's time to start reconsidering how things are organized versus how people actually think.
Erik Hare [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.comcast.net/~wabbitoid/ Irvine Park, West End, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, North America, Earth
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