2016 Postmortem

Of course, so many people see the party as a zero sum game. Bernie supporters want to overthrow the neoliberals, and purge the leadership of Clinton supporters, who they regard as out of touch. Hillary supporters want to freeze out the odd assortment of radicals, socialists, populists and other Bernie Bros who show too little respect for party structure and established leadership. This "battle for the soul of our party" rates on, threatening to eclipse the 2018 campaign season.

There is another "wing" of our party, one made up of people who think it's time for an infusion of new energy, but not time to cast aside who and what got us to where we are now. We remember when our party accommodated Dixiecrats, looking the other way while southern Democrats supported segregation. We tolerated sleeping with the devil because we were pursuing a progressive agenda, or at least tangible programs and policies that made America better. This is what we can't seem to recapture, the sense that we can move forward and do big things. I thought we had reclaimed some of that under Obama, but we couldn't seem to generate much enthusiasm or public support, perhaps because we didn't have direction or unifying philosophy.

So here we are, forming our circular firing squad, more suspicious of each other than we are of the Republicans, examining ever word or phrase and attributing the worst possible meaning and motivation. This points to a bad future, one in which we lose bigly because we are our own worst enemy. I hope it's emotionally satisfying because that's about all we'll gain from it.