Those who want to save the U.S. from

[mmonk]

continued drift into right wing orthodoxy have the possibility of both a Sanders run and a Reich run. Don't blow it all on a candidate from the Republican wing of the party. The time is short and critical now in determining if we go back to representative government.

[Maedhros]

1. The 2016 primary could shape up as a monumental struggle

between the Party's neglected core of Liberal voters and the reigning cadre of Reagan Democrats.

I welcome that struggle. The Party, as currently constituted and led, has abandoned Liberal voters. This coming Presidential election may very well prove either that the Party wants to welcome Liberals back into the fold, or that Liberals are no longer welcome in the Party.

[Louisiana1976]

2. Well said. The Party ought to provide a true liberal alternative, not be Republican Lite.

[Maedhros]

3. The only way the Democratic Party is "lite" in that respect

is on social issues, about which the ruling oligarchs care nothing - which is why social issues are allowed to be hotly contested on our political theater stage.

Issues about which the ruling oligarchs care deeply, however, enjoy blanket support from both parties: austerity, the surveillance state, war, indefinite detention, militarization of police, criminalizing investigative journalism, weakening social security, etc.

The Democratic rank-and-file appear to be playing right along, since it appears we care only about the social issues and are willing to accept nearly any regressive policy in exchange for success in the social arena. This is the root of the "lesser of two evils" strategy: "Sure, Democrats are warmongering laissez-faire capitalist police-state supporters, but they care about my social issue."

We should expect Democratic politicians to support decent policies in more than one corner of the political landscape.