That Scheer thinks Gore was "Republican Lite" shows you how broad the spectrum of views in the Democratic Party. They range from liberalism to outright fascism/communism, and I don't see how the party can reconcile everyone without the rewards of power to dish out. Each one of them has a view of the world like the joke US maps that have Manhattan taking up 80% of the space, California a little dot.

Al Qaida is doing its best to help the liberal end of the spectrum make up its mind.

Not altogether successfully, mind you, but, they're trying.

(Keeping in mind, as we were reminded in an earlier post, that once the soccer moms have been persuaded, the battle is for all intents and purposes over.)

The Democratic party got where it is (or got
where it once was) by distributed spoils broadly
and thus after the "democratization" of America
that took place late 19th early 20th century it
had electoral dominance.

The fact that it could distribute spoils so
broadly meant that its coalition could therefore
be "eclectic". On the other hands the Republicans
spent much of this time in the wilderness because

a) their spoils system was not affective from a
"democratic" standpoint (couldn't mobilize the
mob [only the elites]).

b) when they appealed to (r)epublican principles
it fell on deaf ears because everybody had come
to see the government as a way to "get theirs".

Recently the Republican party has fairly successfully espoused the notion that the free market (despite
its volatility) is where one "gets theirs" and
that government is a parasite.

This is not a trivial shift in electoral attitudes and it seems likely that no democrat
to the left of Bill Clinton could get elected
in this climate.

Dean is the last best hope for the "feel good/do good/we know what's best" wing of the Dem party.
If he is crushed like Mondale, that wing will be
put to bed for at least another 20 years.

Dreamers like Scheer will never understand that Clinton is the reason their party has declined - just look at the numbers since November 1992. And the Clinton's absolute lack of absolutes has brought the party to the place where Howard Dean is now the putative nominee. Just as McGovern emerged from the wreckage of 1968, Dean is emerging from the wreckage that is Clinton and Al Gore (and don't forget George Mitchell).

Can anyone imagine a Senator like John Kerry turning into such a twisted wacko 20 or 25 years ago?

Perhaps all the Democrats are so full of Clinton envy that each will find an intern to boff, just to prove that they can follow the man. At least they know Hillary would defend them.