2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Those Who Say They Won't Support the Eventual Nominee -- Consider This... [View all]BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)There are a lot of Democrats who are conservative on differing issues. Most of them don't see themselves as conservative, which is a problem. The left of the party has become more isolated as the rest of the party has drifted rightward.
The DLC and its successor the Third Way were set up to move the Democratic party to the right. Their approach was to remain liberal on social issues, but to turn rightward on everything else. Sort of soft core libertarianism--not progressivism. Today, a mainstream Democrat is to the right of an Eisenhower republican. To those of us on the left, this is intolerable. But, there are far more of them than there are of us.
If you want to be a Democrat and you want to participate with the majority of the party you have to accept that reality. There is a philosophical chasm between what the Third Way wants and what the left wants and the Third Way isn't about sharing anything.
This primary, more than any I can remember, is about the soul of the party. It is the Third Way versus progressivism. I fear a breach is quite possible and maybe it needs to happen.