Reply #33: You are spot on, this attitude is prevalent not only here at DU,

[MadHound]

But it is prevalent throughout the party as a whole. And it is this fear that has led the party to flee from anything even vaguely leftist in nature. The words "liberal" and "progressive" have been manipulated into being negative attack statements rather than what they once were, the proud bedrock upon which the party stood.

And thus, as the party drifts ever rightward, it shuns and demonizes the left, hemoraging disgusted voters who once were the base of the party. Now they are looked upon as pariahs, shunned and run out of town except when election time comes around, when the party demands their lockstep vote. It is this trend that will doom the party if it continues. The party won't pick up enough rightist votes to make up for the leftists and progressives it is losing, thus the party will go the way of the Whigs. Hopefully then, we can once more have a true left party, one that isn't afraid of its progressive root and liberal base.